Tag Archives: customer service

Customer Care Outreach – Time to Ship

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As a company who ships from numerous warehouses, Instawares.com realizes that there are a wide range of lead times when it comes to product shipments. Level of sophistication and customization can affect the lead time from warehouse to customer.  Complexity isn’t the only factor influencing ship time; after processing the order, some warehouses take longer to ship items due to organizational policy. Modes of transit can influence the shipping time as well.

Lead Time to Ship

Most of the confusion amongst customers revolves around the lead time for items to ship. Lead time, depending on the context, is either the estimated time of departure for products to leave the warehouse or the estimated time of arrival at the customer’s location. On Instawares.com, the lead time shown is the estimated time of departure for products leaving their respective warehouse. Each warehouse varies on the time it takes for items to ship. This could be due to organizational policy or the time it takes to schedule the transport of the product.

Transit Times

Once orders are processed they’re transferred to shipping for delivery to the customer. Our primary mode of transportation for goods is UPS Ground. UPS offers the customer the option to have orders expedited. If an item is in stock, the customer can have the items shipped next day air to their business for an additional shipping charge. However, depending on the size of the product, quantity in some cases, a customer’s order may not be able to ship via UPS Ground. For most restaurant supplies, UPS Ground will suffice; while some restaurant equipment (large units) will need to be transported via freight. Con-Way Freight is the primary freight service used by Instawares.com. While, freight shipments will take longer to ship, a week compared to 3-5 business days with UPS Ground, a lift gate is always requested as to make it easier for the customer to get their equipment off the truck.

Special Order Items

Stock and Special Order are two classifications of items. Stock items, as indicated by their name, are in warehouse inventory and can usually ship between 24-48 hours. However, special order items may take up to 2-3 weeks for the items to ship. For an item to be labeled “special order” means one of two things: stock of the item is based upon orders received from customers or the item is custom built. Glassware, for example, could be special order, if the warehouse fulfills orders by supplying the adequate amount of the product to accommodate present orders. More complex items, like a pass thru refrigerator with 4 glass doors, would carry a longer lead time to ship, as it would need to be custom built to match the customer’s needs.

As always, I encourage your involvement! Please provide your feedback or experiences, as I would enjoy the opportunity to engage all of our customers for their thoughts. For order inquiries, please contact Instawares.com’s customer service at (800) 892-3622.

Customer Care Outreach – Where’s My Order?

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Where is my order? Instawares Restaurant Equipment and SuppliesThe majority of calls, inbound to customer service, are from customers asking about the status of their orders. These situations are resolved in only a few ways: the easy, the intermediate, and the ugly way. The easy way: the order just took longer to process or ship, but is now in transit to its destination with tracking available to the customer. The intermediate way: the manufacturer did not have any available stock for the item at the time of the order, thus delaying the shipment of the order; however, they’ve received stock and are shipping the order. Then, of course, there’s the ugly way: the item has been backordered in the supplier’s system, and is not shipping anytime soon.

What does the term backorder mean?

A “backorder” is when a supplier has no available stock for an item.  The term backorder comes from the act of a supplier scheduling a stock replenishment of the out-of-stock item. Some backorder periods are relatively brief (1-2 days), while others can take a month or more. A variety of factors influence the availability of products within a supplier’s product line. Beyond the access to materials through supply chain management, there are products that are more popular than others, and some are seasonal, as well.

As a customer faced with a backorder, what are my options?

Though the call from a customer service representative to notify of the backorder may be dreadful to a customer, it does not make their order hopeless. The customer still has options. Our company conducts business with many different suppliers; just because an item may be out of stock, doesn’t mean a competitor is also out of stock. The circumstance of parallel manufacturers is a possibility, where a supplier possesses a similar product line as another, offering an alternative brand to the customer. Alternatives are also present within a single supplier, depending on the variety of colors and sizes of a product offered. An alternative color or size could mean a difference in weeks for the customer to receive an item.

Backorder Monitoring

It is the goal of customer service to keep the customer as up to date as possible with their orders. This means making the customer aware of any delay in the shipment of their order, as soon as possible. Not only are there representatives monitoring orders that haven’t shipped, they also communicate daily with the respective suppliers to catch any backorder. However, being a proactive customer is always advisable. If a customer feels their order is taking too long, they should call customer service for an update on their order.

For any questions about past, present or future orders, please contact customer service at (800) 892-3622, for Instawares.com. A customer service representative is available to assist you with any of your order needs.