Tobar: Training staff for peak
Tobar: Training for peak
Tobar is an ever expanding wholesale business that sources and provides an eclectic collection of toys, gadgets, gifts and curiosities to trade customers ranging from traditional to the more modern. As well as supplying traders, Tobar has a number of divisions; Hawkins Bazaar, Letterbox and Stocking-Fillers who sell to the end consumer. These brands are constantly increasing their product offering, endorsing the overall claim of providing ‘something for everyone’.
The Challenge
Tobar’s peak season operates from October to December. Throughout this period they employ a large number of temporary staff to process the increase in orders. As with the nature of temporary staff the turnover is quite high, so training became a real issue. With a number of different carriers providing their own systems, staff needed to be proficient in the use of each one. The despatch systems also ran at a slow rate creating a bottleneck at the packing bench limiting order output. Unnecessary costs were also being incurred as each packer had the responsibility of allocating the deliveries to a carrier, and without the time to gain sufficient knowledge to make the correct judgements, Tobar found that large volumes of parcels were being sent out on the wrong service. Customer Services suffered as a result too, the additional workload of sorting out these issues with disappointed customers. Tobar had built their own in-house system to provide tracking information, which was proving unsuccessful: Customers were sent an email at the point of despatch, containing a link to the relevant carrier’s site, but the carriers were not providing consistent tracking information which meant that the staff had to contact them direct for further information. Owing to the size of their operation, Tobar knew that should the need arise it would be difficult to change or add carriers due to the level integration and resource involved. To ensure that they maximised efficiency, it was agreed they needed to implement a solution in time for the next peak.
The Solution
Tobar went live with MetaPack mid 2009 in anticipation for their forthcoming peak, and the benefits were seen immediately. The MetaPack delivery management software operates a multi carrier platform through one simplistic interface, meaning separate carrier systems became redundant as staff could use MetaPack for every delivery irrelevant of carrier. Working in conjunction with MetaPack is our partner Maginus, who offer the multi channel order management system which Tobar use. Operating on the same premise as MetaPack, Maginus manages all sales orders the same way immaterial of originating department. Information is seamlessly passed between the two systems using an API (Application Program Interface). The increased speed of the MetaPack system has allowed order output to increase, thus removing the earlier bottleneck. Training times have been reduced; it now takes approximately only one hour to teach someone to use the system competently. Increased accuracy has been achieved as all deliveries are now automatically allocated to the correct service and carrier based on pre-defined criteria, so Tobar are no longer incurring additional costs due to incorrect allocation. Customer Services has also improved as a result of introducing MetaPack’s email functionality. Again at the point of despatch, customers receive emails containing a verified link to the carriers tracking sites as well as further email notification at different stages of the delivery. MetaPack has been able to provide Tobar and their customers a consistent level of tracking information which has seen their inbound delivery queries reduce by 14% and as a result of feedback they know there is a greater level of customer satisfaction too. Taking delivery management a step further, Tobar has implemented MetaPack into each of its stores so that management personnel can log in daily and see what stock replenishment orders are coming in that day/week. This is a first for a MetaPack customer. As well as the immediate benefits, Tobar feel with MetaPack in place they have more control when negotiating with carriers as it’s now easier to move between carriers without integration costs.
"MetaPack has truly revolutionised our business, it’s saved us both time and money. It’s just so simple to use and it has increased productivity and efficiency throughout our warehouse operation. It’s hard to contemplate a peak season without it now. I’m excited about what we can expect from MetaPack in the future as it continues to develop its system, reports and user functions."
Neil Springall, Head of Warehouse Operations
