Shipping is already a stressful business with all the timelines and customer sentiments involved. On top of that, if your items are fragile, it doesn’t help you a tiny bit. A business that plans to ship fragile items needs to know how to pack these items properly.

Fragile items are those that can break during the journey. To prevent this from happening, you’ll have to make an extra effort to pack them. Otherwise, be prepared to face:

• Returns:If a customer receives a broken item, he’ll want to return it. If your shipping policy includes returns, you’ll need to pay the extra cost. Returns due to breakages mean wasted money and time just because you weren’t careful while packing the item in the first place.
• Negative Reviews:Broken items won’t make customers happy. They will write negative reviews on your website and spread negative word of mouth that can be detrimental to your business and its reputation.
• Lost customers:Not all customers will return the broken item and wait for a new one to arrive. Some will simply ask you for a refund and purchase the item from somewhere else, leading to lost customers and increased cost.

Broken goods can easily cost you around 0.5% of your gross sales. This cannot be taken lightly. Here are 5 tips to consider while packing fragile items for shipping:

1. Perfect Box Size

The box that you use to ship such an item must be of perfect size. It cannot be too large that the product can freely move inside, nor too small that there is no space for cushioning material. The best way is first to measure your product and then your box. The box must be around 3 inches larger than your product. Furthermore, you should never pack multiple items in the same box.

2. Cushioning material

Once you have the required space between your item and the box walls, it is crucial to fill it up with cushioning material. There are many types of materials available. Here is a list of the most popular ones:

• Foam
• Bubble Wrap
• Air Pillows
• Packing Peanuts
• Rubber Padding
• Corrugated Inserts
• Foam-in-bag
  

  3. Packaging Tape

Once your box is ready with the product and its cushioning inside, make sure you use the best quality packaging tape you can lay your hands on. A high-quality and sturdy packing tape will firmly hold the box lid in place and minimize the risk of any breakages. Moreover, it needs to be durable and waterproof as the journey can be rough.

Check out this article about shipping tapes for more information. Seal the box tightly with the tape and you’re almost done.

4. Fragile Label

Your packing is not complete until you put a fragile label on your box. Make sure that you put the label on the top surface of the box so that it is kept the right way up during the whole journey. Also, consider packing fragile items in boxes that have a broad base and a low center of gravity, minimizing the risk of it from toppling over. If you use such a box, place the label on the largest surface.

Fragile labels can be extremely useful as workers can take extra caution while loading and off-loading packages when they see such labels.

5. Advanced Protection

If you can afford it, you can use advanced technology to protect valuable products while shipping. Examples of such technology are installing tilt sensors and impact sensors inside the box. Whenever the package is tilted beyond a certain level, or handled clumsily resulting in strong impacts, an alarm will go off. The shipper will be notified of such events, and he can take action accordingly.

Choose a Reputable Courier Service

Smart Delivery Service Inc. is the leading courier service in Dallas. Not only do we ensure proper packaging of your fragile items, but we also offer reliable and affordable delivery solutions.

It doesn’t stop here. We provide warehousing logistics and distribution services as well. Moreover, we’re the best medical courier in Dallas. Contact us now for quotes and then sit back and relax while we ship your goods for you.

Electronic devices are a staple for any business or organization in today’s world. They play an essential role in performing the key functions that practically run the business – processing payments, communication, and keeping records just to name a few. What many organizations often fail to realize is that the proper protection of these electronic equipment is as significant as the functions they fulfill.

The Threat of Power Surges

Power surges are quick bursts of electricity that occur for a short duration but vary in magnitude. The stronger the surge, the more damage it can cause. This is not to undermine the threat of smaller, unnoticeable surges as their frequent impact can cause a damaging effect that slowly accumulates over time. These weaker but more common surges can result in decreased reliability and shortened lifespans of electronic devices.

Typical causes of Power surges:

• Faulty wiring
• Electrical overload (drawing too much power from a single circuit)
• Downed power lines
• Power Outage
• Lightning strikes

The damage caused by power surges, regardless of their magnitude, are detrimental to any organization. If a business relies on its electronic equipment to provide services, damage to those devices can result in downtime and loss of business and profits. Hardware failures are said to be the most common cause of business downtime.

The severity of the consequences of electronic system failures increases substantially when it comes to security and life safety systems. In such scenarios, there is not only a great risk to an individual’s safety but to assets of an organization as well. Additionally, there is also an increased risk of potential financial consequences as a result of paying fines or legal liabilities.

How do Surge Protection Devices help?

Surge protection devices (SPDs) protect electronic equipment by eliminating the majority of the excess voltage and current in the event of a power surge. SPDs are an effective measure for guarding electrical devices from damage and as a result extending their lifespan. Some other benefits of SPDs include:

• Cost-efficient. SPDs are affordable and easy to install.
• Less frequent maintenance.By effectively protecting systems like electronic hardware and HVAC, SPDs reduce the need for their constant maintenance.
• Easy to Repair.SPDs are easily repaired, or replaced when needed.

Smart SPDs

As part of fulfilling their function, the typical surge protection devices will eventually wear out or sacrifice themselves to protect against very large surges. Once this happens, your electronic system will be completely exposed to power surges. As such, most SPDs need to be replaced over time. It’s imperative to have a proper system of sensors and notification devices so that timely replacement of SPDs can take place.

Typically, SPDs have LEDs that display red when it’s no longer functioning. This requires you to routinely check each device to ensure they are still working properly. A convenient solution to this are smart SPDs. Smart SPDs offer an alarm system that generates a loud alert and directly notifies the management when it’s time for a replacement – saving you the trouble of constant manual checks.

To Conclude

Surge protection devices help your organization by reducing the risk of business downtime, guarding electronic systems, and protecting lives. In addition to keeping your electronic devices secure, smart SPDs also notify you immediately when their functioning is compromised – a complete system of reliable security.

The importance of SPDs is why Energy Control Systems offer a wide range of high quality devices from experienced manufacturers, designed to fit any organizational framework. They offer reliable solutions for surge suppression as well as specific protection against lightning strikes.

The vast majority of executives today are presented with unique challenges in creating and implementing franchise reputation management as a vital component of their respective companies’ marketing strategies. Due to this type of business model’s nature, not only do leaders have to handle the management of a brand’s image and standing on a corporate level. They must also support their franchisees’ needs, from their addressing concerns regarding their stature to aiding them in reaching their goals.

In this article, we will go through a few strategies and techniques on the management of franchise reputation that all businesses can adopt to and apply to their locations on both a franchise and corporate level. In turn, allow a company to enhance its visibility in the World Wide Web, attract more organic traffic to its website, increase its sales, and develop brand recognition. Continue reading on to find out more.

Businesses must claim and update their listings to achieve better franchise reputation management

The first step that all companies must take to ensure proper franchise reputation management and protect their brands is to claim their listings. Doing so is like planting digital flags on properties that consumers may be communicating or taking in information on. These include websites for online reviews, the social media platform, and mobile services and applications that make use of features to discover businesses.

It may require time, patience, and effort, but by claiming its listings across multiple channels and making sure that all the available information is up-to-date, a business will have a much easier time achieving its franchise reputation management goals, especially when it comes to allowing the marketing experts and franchisees alike to respond much quicker to negative feedback and reviews and keep the brand’s image intact.

A company regularly respond to customer reviews for effective franchise reputation management

There’s no denying that reviews – both positive and negative – can have a considerable impact on a business. And to leverage good testimonials for the improvement of the brand’s image and steer clear of the problems that bad feedback can cause, it’s critical to respond to reviews regularly. After all, this will allow a company to show its existing customers that it values and appreciates their opinions. But more importantly, it can also turn a negative experience into a good one instead. And as a result, ensure that the business’s franchise reputation management isn’t tarnished in the process.

Fostering customer loyalty is vital to the success of a business

Word-of-mouth marketing is stronger in the digital age of today than it ever was in the past. And it’s just one of the reasons why many businesses make use of their respective customers to generate the desired buzz for their brands. It’s an effective and efficient strategy in franchise reputation management, to be sure. But apart from maintaining a consistently high level of quality for products offered or services rendered, there are a few more things that a business needs to do to foster the kind of loyalty that will bring them positive exposure.

For example, loyalty programs – be it a point, cashback, or referral schemes – usually work quite well with the franchise brands’ present customers. Another strategy is offering money-saving discounts. Whichever route a business chooses to go, customer engagement and loyalty will greatly improve its visibility and reel in the intended audience as a result.

Companies must always be open to feedback

What a company’s consumer base says about its own business will ultimately shape its reputation. Even if customers aren’t happy, their feedback can still be beneficial since they can potentially serve as an excellent well of information. And their insight can shed light on areas of a business that may require attention and improvement that their owners would not have found otherwise. From complaints about the goods to issues regarding the service, the experiences that are shared online will allow companies to take advantage of growth opportunities in their respective franchises and ultimately lead to better businesses.

The importance of considering outliers in reviews cannot be understated

Evaluating the brand’s online image and reputation through reviews may be able to tell a lot about a business. However, for a company to take away useful insight, they must first know what to keep an eye out for. It is because of this that the outliers must be considered, especially if the feedback provided is negative. If a particular franchise continues to receive subpar reviews, for example, then there must be a problem with the location. And by being aware of the common outliers, a business can improve its overall performance significantly.

Conducting monthly audits for brand reputation is integral to success

Assessing a company’s online reputation on a continuous basis is as important as it is challenging. Compared to managing the reviews of a single location, doing so across multiple franchises while maintaining a consistent level of consumer satisfaction requires a commitment of hard work and attention to detail. But by successfully conducting monthly audits and evaluating reviews, companies can establish a standard not only for measurement but also for reporting.

Having an audit on competition sentiment is equally important

In order for any company to analyze its own reputation online, it needs to look into the image of its competitors’ respective brands. How businesses are perceived can be contextual, after all. And if the feedback of rival businesses is outperforming, then it shows that there’s still some work that needs to be done. And a franchise that conducts review ratios between its competition will know precisely what the popular consumer choices are and immediately devise a strategy to take back defecting customers.

Summary.

Customer reviews, in any shape and form, are vital elements to franchise reputation management. It doesn’t just give leaders an idea of what does or doesn’t work with their businesses. But it can also help a company and its franchises elevate their visibility through positive exposure. And by following this franchise reputation and review management guide, a company can utilize feedback to support their business and grow in their industry.