Poor customer service is a big issue for business. With 76% of consumers claiming customer experience is more important than product (https://econsultancy.com/reports/ digital-intelligence-briefing-2018-digitaltrends/) and 30% leaving or spending less with a company following a disappointing experience (www.ombudsman-services.org/ for-consumers/consumer-action-monitor), excellent warehouse management is crucial. With the right technology on your side, you can ramp up the customer experience and get ahead of your key competitors.
For many timber merchants, paper-based stock control may still be the norm, but relying on pen and paper or even an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of sales and stock is time inefficient. It also opens a business up to human error, lost or duplicated documents and an inability to see precisely what stock you have and where it is. Stock accuracy is crucial to forging long lasting, strong customer relationships. Without it, staff could promise a customer unavailable stock or worse, the customer could receive the wrong item. Even a short delay in delivery can cause frustration and the chance a valued customer will look elsewhere.
If your business has more than one site, problems multiply. For example, how do you track exactly where the products are at any one time if they’re transferred between warehouses? A paper-based system can turn finding your best sellers into a time consuming challenge – it’s difficult to know if your sales data is completely up to date, and it is impossible for multiple employees to have access to the same overview of what is happening on the shop floor. Some items may not be recognised or there may be a delay between a purchase and the follow up paperwork.
Factoring in seasonal issues such as ordering in extra levels of stock, rotating stock to reflect the seasons, or extending product availability, all present major challenges for the industry. Since having too much or too little stock hits branches’ profits, the ability to precisely identify seasonal patterns is critical for smooth operations.
These issues are the key drivers behind merchants moving towards stock management software solutions such as Epicor BisTrack Advanced Stock Management (ASM).
The ASM module in BisTrack gives merchants enhanced stock accuracy and improved customer service. It does this by combining real time picking and stock control functions with the accuracy of bar code scanning carried out in the warehouse or yard, so you know exactly what you have and where it is. This means the right stock can be delivered faster, raising customer service, and reducing credit notes – deliver the right stock and you won’t have to collect it and credit the invoice. As all tasks are carried out on a hand-held scanner that records both the user who performed the task and when the task took place, ASM also allows you to monitor the performance of the picking teams.
BisTrack suggests reorder quantities based on trends, rather than using predictive stock replenishment. You can also see how your business is performing by branch and product, and the system gives suggested reorder quantities based on that intelligence. Powerful “dashboard reporting” makes it easy to see all aspects of your business growth and figures on one screen, and helps you make better investment decisions going forward. It is ideal for businesses of every size, from large warehouses with vast volumes of stock to track, to small enterprises where tight control of sales and finance is imperative.
Rembrand Timber is Scotland’s largest independent timber merchant and has BisTrack working throughout its entire 17 branch group. Director Jeff Low said they started to realise the limits of their old stock management system after the downturn in 2008 when they began to analyse everything closer and notice inefficiencies.
“For example, there could no longer be any excuses for dead stock or overstocking products” he said. “I also realised that we were putting orders and data into the system but we weren’t getting any business intelligence out of it. It was clear that we were being held back. By moving to BisTrack we are starting again. We know it can handle stock the way we want to and we are committed to putting in the efforts to see some real benefits. We will save at least 25% on postage costs and 20% on stock holding by managing stock better. We also want to reduce stationery and printing costs by 50% by using BisTrack to e-mail and scan information where possible.”
