Orders arrive by phone, email and WhatsApp. How Irish wholesalers stop retyping them
No distributor decided to take orders on four channels. Customers decided. The chef texts. The shop owner rings at seven. The multiple sends a purchase order by email or EDI. The rep takes orders in the van on a notepad.
All of it ends up being typed into the system by someone in the office, usually between eight and eleven, usually under pressure to get picking started.
What the retyping costs
The visible cost is a person's morning. The invisible cost is everything that follows a keying error:
- The wrong product or wrong pack size picked, delivered, and then collected again.
- A credit note, a second invoice, and a customer who now checks every line.
- Stock that the system thinks it has, because the order was entered against the wrong code.
- Reps and office disagreeing about what the customer actually said.
None of it shows on a report. It shows up as a busy office and an unusually high number of credit notes.
You cannot make customers change
Distributors sometimes try to force everyone onto a portal. It rarely works, because the customer's habit is worth more to them than your efficiency. The chef will keep texting.
The better approach is to accept the channels and remove the retyping:
- WhatsApp and text can be read into the system, with the order confirmed back to the customer automatically. That is what we did for Ballypatrick Stallions, where orders came in from every direction and payment was chased afterwards.
- Email purchase orders from larger customers can be parsed, or received by EDI where the customer supports it.
- Rep orders go straight in from a phone rather than a notebook.
- Phone orders still need a person, but that person is entering into a screen that already knows the customer's usual products, prices and delivery day.
The one rule
The order should be entered once, by whoever first receives it, in the place it will be picked from. Everything else follows from that.
Where to go next
- Software for distributors and wholesalers
- Systems integration. Connecting orders, stock and accounts.
- Tell us how your orders arrive
FAQ
Can WhatsApp orders go straight into our system?
Yes. Using the WhatsApp Business platform, messages can be received, interpreted and turned into draft orders that a person confirms, with the confirmation sent back to the customer on WhatsApp. The customer changes nothing.
Should we make customers use an ordering portal?
Offer one, but do not depend on it. Larger customers often adopt portals or EDI. Smaller trade customers usually keep texting and ringing. Design the system to accept every channel and enter the order once.
What causes most order errors in wholesale?
Retyping. An order read from a text, an email or a notebook and keyed into a system by a second person. Removing the second keying removes most errors, regardless of the software involved.