For many distributors taking orders by SMS and email is a daily habit. Before the rise of technology, taking orders manually was considered the norm. But in 2021 taking orders manually through SMS and email is actually more impactful for your business then you may realise.
The food distribution industry is constantly changing. Placing orders through SMS or email is such a manual process for your customers. Many customers are now turning there back on businesses who don't utilise online ordering.
We get it, making a change is always tough but at the end of the day if the customers are demanding it you need to make the change.
Here’s why vendors and distributors should not take orders by SMS and email.
It’s time-consuming for customers
It comes as no surprise that the biggest issue with taking orders via SMS or email is it's time-consuming. Put yourself in your customers shoes, you need to sit down everyday and manually type in the order. If your customer is ordering multiple products this could take them a fair amount of time to complete.
Not only does this effect your customers but it also effects your business efficiency. When someone places an order through SMS or email you need to manually print out the order, fulfil the order, adjust your stock levels, invoice the customer, receipt the order, and organise delivery. The process is so time consuming, you often find yourself wasting hours on simple tasks that could of been automated.
There’s a high risk of error
You would be quite surprised how many mistakes you make doing a tasks manually. It is human nature to make a mistake but in business failing to quickly fix mistakes could cost you thousands.
For customers the risk of making a mistake when placing orders manually is massive. If they mistype a quantity, product, or miss a product it could cause chaos for you and for them. The last thing you would want to do is get on the nerves of the customer.
For Vendors and Distributors when you go to prepare the order there is a massive chance you can make a mistake in the fulfilment process. If you are managing different parts of your business on multiple systems you can easily make mistakes when entering data. When one set of numbers don’t match another, you could find yourself in a sticky situation.
It increases debtors
The biggest issue facing food and beverage businesses in 2021 is debtors. When you take an order via email or SMS your customer has no way to pay instantly. With the industry experiencing payment wait times of 28 days it is not sustainable to miss payments and grow debtors.
To minimise the wait time of getting paid, you need to make your customers payment process simple. Options like pay now or a payment gateway makes it simple for customers to pay their invoices.
It doesn’t integrate with your accounting system
At the end of the day if you don’t manage your accounts efficiently you will find yourself closing up shop. When a customer places an order via SMS or email you will need to manually record that information in a system, create an invoice, generate a receipt and file this information away for your bookkeeper.
Not only is this a headache for you but it is a massive concern for your bookkeeper. Many bookkeepers charge on a per hour basis and the more time that your bookkeeper needs the more you will pay.
The food distribution industry is constantly evolving, if you are continuing to receive orders via SMS or email you could be seriously hurting your business. For food vendors and distributors there is several solutions available that automate your ordering and fulfilment process.
EasyVend by Jeal is a web-based food and beverage management system that automates all the tasks in the food distribution process. EasyVend provides businesses with a simplified solution that is designed to reduce overheads and increase profit.
EasyVend includes all your everyday tools like, order management, inventory control, pricing, invoicing, receipting, accounting, delivery management and so much more.
Want to see first-hand how EasyVend works? Call us today on 1300 473 744 or submit the form below to receive a free demo.