Complete Guide to Order Accuracy: Definition, Metrics & 10 Proven Ways to Improve 2024

One of the major problems for modern delivery businesses is declining order accuracy. Such a critical concern affects operational efficiency and business profitability. If there is a low order accuracy and it does not improve, then you may lose out on many potential clients.

Now, as a business owner, you must find ways to improve order accuracy. Or else you may not be able to scale your business and also limit the profitability. These order accuracy errors may result in poor customer satisfaction. If wrong orders are costing your business, then you must overcome accuracy issues immediately.  

This is because a single wrong order can lead to business failure, and you may not be able to achieve your business goals anytime soon. But fret not! Here we have a blog to tackle this challenge so that you can continue to scale your business. We will not only discuss why order accuracy is important but also break down what it means. So, buckle up as we explain simple yet efficient ways to improve order accuracy.

What is Order Accuracy? (Complete Definition)

Order accuracy refers to the levels of accuracy achieved by fulfilling the orders without a single error. An issue that causes a drop in your order accuracy can be anything like a damaged product, wrong order quantity, wrong product, or delivery delay. While there are ways in which you can mitigate such issues, it is still best to have greater knowledge about order accuracy. 

Why Order Accuracy Matters for Your Business?

Having great accuracy in your fulfillment operations can be highly rewarding, especially if you are in the initial stages of your business journey. This is because good order accuracy builds trust in the minds of new customers that may be weary of buying your product. 

Calculating OA can also be beneficial if you wish to refine the picking and packing process to save costs and boost profits. Below are some benefits that help you understand the importance of order accuracy.

1. Impact on Customer satisfaction

When you stay true to your guarantees of an accurate delivery date, your chances of improving customer retention spike by a hefty margin. Aside from the quality of your product, the thing that customers expect the most is a satisfactory fulfillment experience. 

You must make customer service your top priority to achieve your fulfillment goals. Once given the best service possible, customers are likely to recommend your product or services to their circle, which can grant your new business opportunities. 

2. Cost implications

Apart from curbing the inherent cost to the company that is caused by incorrect orders, the procedures to fix order accuracy generally lower other costs as well. The best example of this is using a route planner, as it saves you up to 40% on fuel costs. 

Solutions that increase operational efficiency enable you to conduct the same number of deliveries at drastically lower costs. You can also heavily cut down the costs spent on human labor with these methods of improving order accuracy. 

3. Operational efficiency benefits

When you implement methods of increasing delivery accuracy, your efficiency level is likely to increase as well. This enhanced speed gives you a range of perks, such as greater customer satisfaction and order capacity.

Because you can fit more deliveries in the same time frame with enhanced speed, you can basically level up your order capacity, saving you both time and money. This is one of the more underrated benefits that is usually overlooked by businesses, both large and small. 

Calculating and Measuring Order Accuracy

The formula to calculate order accuracy is easier than many other formulae that are used by delivery businesses, such as the EOQ formula or MOQ formula. What you have to do is measure the order accuracy rate by simply deriving the percentage of successful orders. Here’s the formula to measure order accuracy:

Here is how to do it: 

• Firstly, finalize for which period you want to measure the order accuracy i.e for a day, week or month. 
• Then, collect the necessary data like the number of orders between the chosen period of time and the number of successful deliveries.
• Next, use the above formula and insert the collected data. Divide the successful deliveries by the total number of orders before multiplying by 100. 
• The order accuracy rate for the chosen time period is your resulting percentage. For example, you get an order accuracy rate of 95%, which means that 95 out of every 100 orders were successful.

The higher your order accuracy, the better your customer satisfaction usually is, as there are relatively fewer issues that they have to deal with when it comes to delivery. Ideally, your order accuracy should be in the high 90s. However, if it is dropping below 95%, then you have a reason for concern.

10 Proven Strategies to Improve Order Accuracy

There are several ways to improve order accuracy that are usually tightly guarded sectors for most companies. All of these methods are just various ways for your staff to be more diligent through the entire fulfillment process. 

1. Identify the problems 

Understand the causes

The first step when solving any given problem is to understand the causes behind the problem. This is done to fully comprehend the scope of what you will be doing and how exactly you will go about it. It will also help you see if you have a competitive disadvantage.

Evaluate the criticality of the situation

Starting with the process of evaluation gives you an idea of the urgency of the situation, allowing you to estimate how critical the situation is. This helps you understand the magnitude of operations that you will have to conduct to increase the number of accurate orders.

2. Accounting for road conditions

Don’t overlook road conditions

One of the biggest mistakes made by dispatchers or fleet managers is not accounting for road conditions that may affect delivery times. Overlooking these conditions can cause unexpected delays, which put more stress on the driver and annoy the customer simultaneously.

Understand the factors that influence road conditions

Road conditions do not specifically have to be weather conditions. There are other factors, such as the peak holiday season, that can affect how much time the drivers spend on the road. Taking into account these factors will give you a highly accurate estimate of when deliveries will be made. Thus, dispatchers must keep an eye on road conditions that will be used by your drivers. It plays a vital role in improving order accuracy.

3. Better labeling of goods

Label your goods properly

To prevent the unintentional swapping of products from the warehouse, it is best to implement ways to label the goods better. There are many ways in which you could do this; however, one way that has gained traction in the world of shipping is the use of barcodes to label goods.

Use barcode scanning

Barcodes are excellent identifiers as they provide complete information about any given product and are quick to scan and read. Such identifiers are also important for delivery drivers to identify the various packages that they carry in their delivery vehicles. 

4. Proper packaging of goods

Understand the implications of damaged products

One of the leading complaints concerning order accuracy is receiving damaged goods. There is nothing universally worse than waiting for days for a product only to receive it in a damaged condition. This often leads to highly negative customer perceptions of your brand. 

Train your staff on package handling

While there are ways in which you could prevent shipping damage, they all involve taking high responsibility and care when moving products. This means that both warehouses and drivers have to be extensively trained to handle packages in the safest manner possible.

5. Put on product description clearly

Ensure accurate product descriptions

You may not know, but clear product descriptions can also contribute to better order accuracy in a simple way. Let’s understand this using an example, you are exploring different options for buying clothes. If you spot the wrong size or color in the description, you know how confusing it would be. So, a clear description can guide you in picking the right clothes by giving you important details. When you implement a similar process for picking and packing, your employees know exactly what they need to pack and deliver.

Double-check the product description

They can double-check the description with real products before shipping them. Eventually, there won’t be any wrong orders, and order accuracy will improve as there will be no mix-ups or confusion. 

6. Task automation

Automate your processes

The process of automating a fulfillment or distribution center is by no means easy or affordable. But it is undeniably the next step forward in the warehousing industry with the rising powers granted by automated processes that surpass the abilities of human operations. 

Automated processes are far less likely to process incorrect orders and cause delivery delays as they have very clear instructions and operation procedures. They also have no downtime like humans do, making them even better suited to meet customer expectations and offer a superior delivery experience.

So, you need to adopt automation in the picking and packing processes to minimize human error. The best thing you can do is to automate the process to ensure the right product is released from the warehouse.

7. Tracking inventory

Implement inventory management software

In the modern-day, keeping track of inventory is essential for any delivery business. If not done properly, then your order fulfillment process errors may occur more frequently. This especially holds true for eCommerce businesses as they have to cater to a greater number of orders at much faster speeds.

The best way to keep track of your inventory is by using inventory management software, as it gives you real-time information about your inventory. When you have live information about the entire inventory, you hold a position of greater judgment.

Integrate with appropriate order management order

Hence, you must integrate with the right order management system in order to ensure seamless and accurate order processing. This will help you improve order accuracy quickly. 

8. Train your employees

Ensure you train your employees on order handling guidelines

When your drivers, as well as dispatchers, are trained to perfection, you not only reduce the chances of shipment damage but also greatly speed up the supply chain. This is because drivers are the entities that take the most time in the fulfillment supply chain. Whereas dispatchers carefully release the product from the warehouse. So, you need them to do their best while performing delivery service. 

Supplement your drivers’ performance with technology

Once your delivery service is streamlined, you can also get greater customer loyalty as they keep revisiting you for your speedy service. However, it is also important to understand your role in supplementing the performance of your drivers using dedicated software solutions that are built for such applications.

9. Invest in route optimization software

Optimize routes using routing solutions

Route planning is unanimously considered one of the most strenuous and complicated tasks in supply chain management. Manual route planning leaves room for a swathe of logistical setbacks that can cost you hours of time and thousands of dollars of extra gas money. 

This is why it is best to invest in route optimization software that takes care of all the heavy lifting that comes with manual route planning. One such reliable route planning and optimization software is Upper, which helps you get rid of order processing errors. Providing efficient routes for drivers, Upper makes sure drivers reach on time. This ultimately helps in improving order accuracy. 

It offers live driver tracking so that your backend team stays connected with them and updates on the customer’s side as well. Delivery agents can mark the successful delivery by collecting the proof of delivery along with the additional notes. 

Couple these amazing features that prevent faulty orders with Upper’s highly optimized delivery routes, and you have a solution that can truly revolutionize the delivery process. What Upper brings to the table is sheer brilliance that is essential for any business to have on its side.

10. Do regular checkups

Inspect your fulfillment process

While productivity issues are very real, it is also crucial to inspect your fulfillment process to find areas of improvement. While promoting fast delivery times is good for building initial customer confidence, it leaves you vulnerable to poor order accuracy, which is likely to destroy any credibility that you have built. Therefore, you should do regular inspections to find loopholes, if any. 

Set reasonable targets 

Acknowledge unreasonable targets that are very hard to accomplish. The smoother supply chain process can take a lot of burden off of your employees and improve customer retention rate as well. It can also help you wrap up things early. As a result, you can actually boost speed holistically.

Conclusion

Well, it’s not less than walking through a maze as far as the order delivery process is concerned. One wrong move at any stage can really mess things up and lead to a poor order accuracy rate. 

That’s why it is important to maintain good order accuracy by nullifying the order accuracy issues. We discussed effective ways to get better order accuracy and avoid the mistakes that may hamper your order delivery. By following mentioned ways, businesses can improve their order accuracy and keep customers happy. 

In case you are facing order accuracy issues, remember that solutions are right at your fingertips. With the right route planning and optimization software, you can overcome accuracy errors and deliver an excellent customer experience. You can start a 7 days free trial and experience how it benefits your business.