Delivering excellence: the role of fulfilment in building brand reputation

One of the core elements of building and maintaining brand reputation is the customer experience. Specifically, making sure that every element of the customer experience is polished and seamless, so much so that your customers not only remain loyal with repeat purchases, but that they also become advocates for your brand. Customers are more informed, more empowered and more vocal than ever before. 

This is no different in the pet care sector with UK consumers spending about £8bn on their pets in 2023. With hundreds of brands competing for a share of this revenue, customer experience has never been more important. 

More than customer service alone

However, the customer experience isn’t just about customer service – although consider that the statistics say 49% of customers will move to a competitor if they’re unhappy with your service but are also 2.4 more likely to stick around if you resolve their issues quickly. 

The customer experience includes everything from the way you communicate with your customers (even before they make that first purchase) to the channels they can buy through, and the ease of buying journey. 

Once an order has been placed, the customer journey continues. Whether your customers are buying through a social media platform such as Instagram, or your ecommerce website, the ease of purchase (and subsequent delivery) and experience should be consistent. Increasingly, brands are recognising the role that fulfilment plays in keeping customers happy.

Consistency of experience

From completing an order online to receiving their physical parcel, this part of the journey is out of your control. And it is here that the right fulfilment partner supports your brand, handling everything from order processing, logistics, delivery and returns.

For pet care brands where quality is the most important factor for customers, you need to know that your products, are delivered in time and in the condition they’re expected. This is especially true for petfood – on time, and in date, whether they are being delivered to your end customer and their pets, or to a retailer for reselling.

Fulfilment companies should have the technology in place (and expertise) to ensure your products are properly managed within their warehouse; stored in the correct environment and rotated correctly so that products are dispatched according to expiry dates, ensuring customers get quality items and you don’t suffer any waste. 

The importance of returns

The returns process also forms part of the customer experience. Like the buying process, customers expect returns to be as easy and hassle-free. Fulfilment partners have a role to play here as well, ensuring customers receive that seamless service and beyond that making sure the returned products can be quickly placed back into inventory, or returned to you, as needed. 

An eye on sustainability

Some fulfilment companies – like Fullers Fulfilment – are more in tune with sustainability and are working to limit their impact on the environment. This includes within their own operations, working with ‘greener’ couriers, and offering eco-friendly packing options, as well as working with customers with a similar mindset, such as organic pet care brands or B Corporation certified companies. If your brand is focused on sustainability, then working with a such fulfilment partner is another way to build brand reputation and appeal to customers who share those values.

Conclusion

There is little doubt that a seamless customer experience is crucial for a brand’s success. And with fulfilment playing such a key role in delivering a quality customer experience choosing the right fulfilment partner – one with the right experience, reputation and infrastructure – is as important to help you make good on your brand promise.

Lilla Horvath is a fulfilment services analyst at Fullers Fulfilment, an end-to-end fulfilment specialist that has been in business for more than 60 years, and works with a host of pet care brands.