For many businesses the “backend” of their organization is often overlooked and as a result, top-line sales have a tendency to be everyone’s focus; however, the key to your profitability is how well you execute those top-line sales and this is why your warehouse department is so important.
Below are a “baker’s dozen” of some of the fundamentals that we had to learn and re-learn, often times the hard way.
- Your Warehouse Manager should be someone you trust and they need to be an effective leader. This might seem obvious, but I have seen multi-million-dollar companies employ “family” types who only got the job because the family had to find them something to do.
Whoever you hire, they should have the following abilities:
- Leadership skills, they set the example, and their associates need to know they have this skill from day 1.
- Above average organizational skills.
- Training ability, from the most senior person to the newest student, having a “living” training program that is inclusive and focused on providing great service. Cross train your associates
- They help drive “sales”, they look for ways to “get more done”; they are not overly bureaucratic or so egotistical that they get in the way of the business.
- They are willing to do every job in the warehouse, especially on days that the warehouse is shorthanded.
2. Pay your people at least 10% better than anywhere else they could get a similar job.
3. Take the time to know your people, especially if you have an off-site warehouse. For whatever time you spend learning about them, you will be rewarded much more back in loyalty, reduced staff turnover, and more satisfied customers.
4. Doing rolling inventory counts is a daily job, not a once a year burden.
- Having what you think you have in inventory is important,
- Being able to find those “one of a kind items” when they are sold is important,
- Your associates knowing you count your inventory is important,
- Plus it is just good business.
5. Your warehouse should be as clean and well organized as your store. Build this as a competitive advantage, plus it makes your associates care and before long they start to take pride in its appearance.
6. Make sure your warehouse is “receiving friendly” and “customer friendly”. Some warehouse managers consider their incoming shipments to be a burden, instead, they should treat the drivers well, help them unload, don’t make them wait; you will be amazed at how much more helpful they are and how much better your products are treated. For customer’s; make sure everyone is greeted with a smile, that no one has to wait longer than necessary, that if it is break time, that you always have someone ready to help, even if it means staggering breaks, that no one swears even if the customer isn’t close; that any music is turned down, and that nothing inappropriate is posted anywhere.
7. Review your procedures constantly, especially your procedures covering the pickup of all of the products that are going out, not only do you want to make sure customers get the right thing every time, you want to make sure they are not missing hardware or that they are not receiving damaged products.
8. Train your people continuously, at least one day per week should be set aside for 60 minutes worth of interactive training. Write out all of your procedures, laminate them, and post them. Training is another competitive advantage that most businesses do not take advantage of.
9. Help your customers if they are picking up merchandise, I understand liability concerns and you should use waivers, but you can help without risking legal action, speak to your insurance people for suggestions on how to balance managing liability and good customer service practices.
10. Make sure that your warehouse organization focuses on:
- Keeping receiving separate from normal products until it is completely processed and tagged,
- That the fastest moving items are the most accessible to your staging areas,
- That items like electronics are securely stored and not accessible to visitors to the warehouse,
- That products are stored so the vendor numbers and your sku numbers are easily visible,
- You minimize the amount of extra handling to prevent damage,
- And, your associates constantly are looking for problems and damage.
- Have separate areas for staging, receiving, assembly, service issues, and layout paths for equipment and picking, even if it is just with tape initially.
11. If something is lost, don’t freak out, train your associates to look for the shape of the box that it should be in, if it is a pickup, communicate with the customer and keep everyone cool.
12. Keep garbage and debris constantly cleaned up, not only is garbage a tripping hazard but small pieces can get caught in wheels of carts and other equipment, plus it is a fire hazard.
13. Build the connection between your warehouse department and other departments such as sales, service, and office; this is especially important if you have an off-site warehouse. Making the warehouse part of your culture is vitally important.