A true measure of a business's success? We might argue that it’s customer delight. Exceeding expectations and turning customers into brand evangelists who come back again and again - even recommending your business to friends, family, and strangers over the internet. This is important for any business, but especially in the very competitive eCommerce world.
An effective order fulfillment process is critical for keeping customers happy. Great fulfillment is efficient, on-time, accurate, and friendly. And staying on top of key performance indicators (KPIs) can help ensure you’re not just delivering for your customers but delighting them.
5 KPI Metrics You Should Be Tracking
- Delivery Times
It’s frustrating when you’re expecting your product by a certain day, and it doesn’t arrive on time. According to some surveys, up to 70% of customers will stop buying from brands that aren’t on time.
Knowing exactly how long it will take to get your product from your fulfillment warehouse to your customer’s doorstep is vital to your long-term business. But things do happen, and products get delayed. Make sure you have a plan in place to communicate clearly and positively with customers to help ease their pain and create long-term value.
- Order Accuracy
Another frustration is receiving a faulty, damaged, or incorrect product. While order fulfillment companies have processes in place to avoid mistakes, they can still happen. Staying on top of order accuracy can help you continue to improve and get in front of issues before they become a problem. Your 3PL provider should provide you with complete transparency of their accuracy rate.
Order accuracy rates are calculated by dividing the number of error-free orders by your total orders and multiplying by 100 to arrive at a percentage. That’s the number you want to continuously improve upon through better process control, inventory management, automation, and improved efficiencies.
- Order Tracking
Order volume is a primary indicator of revenue. But tracking orders in real-time will also help you better manage inventory, ensuring you have product available when customers are ordering. It will also help to ensure your products are being shipped and received on time.
- Return Rate
Let’s face it, some returns will always occur with eCommerce orders—on average 30% of customers have returned products they bought online. Reducing returns, especially if you offer free or nearly free shipping, can go right to your bottom line. But no matter how great your product is, some returns are inevitable. It’s how your company deals with returns that’s important—ensuring the process is smooth, easy, and timely for your customers, and not too costly for your business. Your fulfillment center should have an efficient process in place for handling returns.
- Cycle Time
One KPI some people miss is the time from when an order is placed to when it’s delivered to your end customer. It’s easy to think the clock starts ticking once the order leaves your warehouse, but if it takes too much time to move through the pick and pack process, you may fall short of your customers’ expectations.
Measuring the complete order processing cycle time from order placement to delivery will help you meet and even exceed your customers’ expectations.
The right fulfillment partner can help you improve on these, and other KPIs. New tools are making it easier than ever to measure and track the performance of your order fulfillment process, such as QuickBox’s iQ technology. The iQ Client Portal provides complete transparency and real-time data, so you can make better decisions faster that will help you to delight your customers and grow your brand.