In the industry of order fulfilment services, response handling is the term for any reply or action taken when a customer responds to materials provided by your business. Fulfilment houses often provide this as an extra support service alongside standard fulfilment jobs such as pick and pack, storage and distribution.
What does response handling actually entail?
Response handling can fall under many categories, from taking customer calls and answering queries, to sending out emails, SMS messages and even brochures or promotional material.But response handling also includes several other aspects of fulfilment, whether it’s taking the initial customer orders online, inputting credit and debit card information over the phone or even picking and packing marketing materials and delivering it straight to the customer.
Dealing with all your business response handling in-house can take up a lot of time, particularly during busy holiday periods or during promotional giveaways and any competitions you might be hosting.
Fulfilment houses, such as Fairway Fulfilment & Logistics, that offer a dedicated response handling team can do many things to help with this particular side of your business. They can even set up and maintain a complete customer database using information obtained from coupons, competition entries and any other material returned by customers.
This information can be invaluable. It enables you to get to know your customer base better than ever before and enables you to send out advertising and promotional material directly to customers who have already expressed an interest in your brand. With the technology available to fulfilment companies today, it is easier than ever to deal with response handling in a fast, effective way. Response handling through the internet has enabled customers to receive specific product information and responses to their queries faster than ever.
This is important because it keeps the momentum of the sale going – if a customer sees something they like in your virtual store but they have a question about the product, delivery times or return policy, getting a response back to them in a week is no good.
Today’s consumers expect a fast turnaround, both with their queries and with their products, and are more likely to return to a retailer who can provide both.
