Fulfilment is everything you do from the time a prospect or customer responds to you, to the time you fulfil the promise you made to them in a satisfactory way. It is a major contributor to building your brand values in the eyes of your customers. Fulfilment covers things like:
The ease with which people can respond to you
The forms they fill in or the telephone numbers they call
The security of your order system
The way you answer the phone
The time you take to fulfil their request or order
The tracking services you provide
They way you deal with problems or complaints
How you package what you send out
The way you invoice customers
Your after-sales service and much more
Many companies don't consider how they are going to fulfil orders or leads until after they have started to advertise. You must start thinking about your fulfilment process while you're planning your marketing activity. It is often better to start at the finish and assume you have generated successful orders, then work backwards to resolve how best to manage them.
