- Original Poster
- #1
Hi everyone,
We are an SME who ship large items regularly via a courier. However, we do send out around 5-25 smaller parcels per day via Royal Mail when customers need spare/ replacements parts. We do this because the cost is significantly less to ship the smaller items with Royal Mail compared to our main courier.
We use Click and Drop which we have integrated with our OBA, we also have a timed business collection set up with Royal Mail. At the moment, we are facing two main problems:
1. Our quantity of smaller parcels per day is rather unpredictable and can sometimes take 30 mins to print labels and manifest the orders, other days it will take close to 2 hrs. We do not currently have any staff members who have full responsibility of processing the smaller parcels due to restructuring within the business. We are struggling to find capacity to set aside the time to get this done, especially when the volumes are higher (which often comes at busier times, when resource is needed elsewhere more than usual!)
2. I don't believe we have a full understanding of how to use the C&D and OBA portals, especially how they integrate together. I have been looking into getting support/training from Royal Mail for this but have not gotten anywhere as it seems they don't have a suitable contact number/ email listed on their website anywhere.
Ideally, I would be looking to both significantly cut down the time it takes to get our smaller parcels labelled up and manifested, as well as understand out C&D and OBA accounts better to maximise their benefits.
It is important to note that we do not sell via online platforms, customer orders are processed in office through manual processes on our CRM system, which links to Dynamics BC and we can then ship easily from there via our main courier, but it does not currently link to Click and Drop. Therefore, when shipping smaller items, we must manually input the shipping address, reference numbers, etc. individually for each parcel (and then proceed to print a label and a delivery note and apply them to the parcel).
Apologise for the length of this post, but my question is is it possible to get software which will link our CRM system with Royal Mail's Click and Drop in order to cut down on admin time needed to process the smaller parcels? If so, what would that look like? I have had a little look at Royal Mail API but cant figure out if this would be suitable.
Any advice appreciated! Thank you
We are an SME who ship large items regularly via a courier. However, we do send out around 5-25 smaller parcels per day via Royal Mail when customers need spare/ replacements parts. We do this because the cost is significantly less to ship the smaller items with Royal Mail compared to our main courier.
We use Click and Drop which we have integrated with our OBA, we also have a timed business collection set up with Royal Mail. At the moment, we are facing two main problems:
1. Our quantity of smaller parcels per day is rather unpredictable and can sometimes take 30 mins to print labels and manifest the orders, other days it will take close to 2 hrs. We do not currently have any staff members who have full responsibility of processing the smaller parcels due to restructuring within the business. We are struggling to find capacity to set aside the time to get this done, especially when the volumes are higher (which often comes at busier times, when resource is needed elsewhere more than usual!)
2. I don't believe we have a full understanding of how to use the C&D and OBA portals, especially how they integrate together. I have been looking into getting support/training from Royal Mail for this but have not gotten anywhere as it seems they don't have a suitable contact number/ email listed on their website anywhere.
Ideally, I would be looking to both significantly cut down the time it takes to get our smaller parcels labelled up and manifested, as well as understand out C&D and OBA accounts better to maximise their benefits.
It is important to note that we do not sell via online platforms, customer orders are processed in office through manual processes on our CRM system, which links to Dynamics BC and we can then ship easily from there via our main courier, but it does not currently link to Click and Drop. Therefore, when shipping smaller items, we must manually input the shipping address, reference numbers, etc. individually for each parcel (and then proceed to print a label and a delivery note and apply them to the parcel).
Apologise for the length of this post, but my question is is it possible to get software which will link our CRM system with Royal Mail's Click and Drop in order to cut down on admin time needed to process the smaller parcels? If so, what would that look like? I have had a little look at Royal Mail API but cant figure out if this would be suitable.
Any advice appreciated! Thank you
