3 Helpful tips for better shipping
As an entrepreneur running an online business from your home, shipping is an essential part of your operation. Taking the time to optimize your shipping process to make it more efficient and cost effective can pay off.
Here are a few ways to improve the shipping experience for your customers and for your bottom line.
- Create a process and stick to it.
- Don’t treat shipping as an afterthought.
- Last mile customer experience
As with any component of your business, creating a standardized process can save you time and money. This is true for shipping as well. For the best shipping outcomes, you should be making your decisions on a per package basis. This means each package should be weighed to accurately calculate your shipping rate.
“You may qualify for a lower rate if your package is even a kg lower than what you anticipated it being, weighing your package saves you a lot of money,” says Venkat Rao, Country Director, India & SendTech Sales - ASEAN.
A shipping solution like Pitney Bowes + Shyplite can provide you with seamless shipping by selecting the most efficient shipping option at the best price, where you pay only for what you ship with flat shipping rates.
The biggest mistake companies make is not taking the time to do shipping right. Whether it’s not weighing every package or not considering all your carrier options, these are many little things that can add up to extra costs. Creating the best outcome for your customers requires you to be meticulous in getting products from point A to point B.
“I think a lot of companies view shipping as just something that needs to get done instead of being thoughtful around the process and the impact it could have on their overall customer experience,” Venkat says. He points out that the shipping process is a reflection on the brand, so it’s important to get it right.
Early delivery, ease of return/exchange and real-time package tracking, are the crucial inches that add up to the last mile of shipping which can be the service differentiator for your business. Exceptional customer service is to keep your clients updated on the status of their packages and make deliveries as convenient as possible. With a tool like Pitney Bowes + Shyplite, you can schedule package pickups and track shipments from departure to arrival. Keeping up to date on the status of your packages, in near real-time, gives you the opportunity to keep your customers in-the-know and provides you with peace of mind knowing your precious packages are exactly where they’re supposed to be, and when.