Your Stamp of Approval

So what’s the deal with those little green stamps of approval? That is a question that is bound to come up within the next few days as the first batch of order shipped with those stamped on the package begin to arrive. I recently was sent some prints by another company to see how they have been addressing certain packaging challenges. Even after shipping countless orders over the years, we are always looking at ways we can make improvements in the area of packaging and giving the recipients a sense of comfort in knowing their shipments are being sent with care. I was curious what they did after observing mention of this company’s packaging method numerous times on various blogs and websites. I thought it would be a good idea to see firsthand what they were doing, then see if we could adopt anything they use that would benefit our customers. 

After receiving the order I was a little disappointed by the packaging. Not that they were poorly packaging the prints. It was simply that my expectations were greater after everything I had read. Instead this company was packaging prints in a similar fashion to how we package some of the orders we ship. But what did impress me was they indicated on the order’s packing slip that it was inspected prior to the order going out. This interested me more than the packaging since it I could see how it would provide a recipient a sense that the sender actually cared what condition the prints arrived in. It also let me know that if there was any problems with the prints being damaged it was not the shippers fault but rather the shipping service. Fortunately the package arrived in great condition which I know is not always the case considering how packages are treated by the 3 major carriers.

Even though this carefully inspection statement was such a minor thing, I realized this could have the potential make some of these orders we process appear a little less assembly line and more personal, especially for those that do a lot of drop shipping of their orders. So with that we have adopted a new process when we are processing and packaging orders which we call “stamps of approval”.

We use an custom ink stamp we created and provide two stamps of approval during the order processing phase. First I should mention this stamp is generic so it does not mention FinerWorks since so many orders we ship tends to be drop shipped. In the first instance, one of our “Expediters” who is the staff member in charge of making sure all the prints are properly paired with an order will apply their seal to the upper half of each packing slip. It’s a way of certifying that the order contents which are shipping from our San Antonio production center are accurate and complete.

The second instance occurs when the person doing the actual packaging applies their stamp to the outside of the package. This is to indicate that the package when it left our facility was in good condition free of defects or damage. So again, how do you benefit from this? If you are simply ordering prints for yourself, these stamps of approval don’t serve much purpose other than to indicate what was mentioned above. But if you are a frequent drop shipper, having us ship your prints to your customer, it allows you to provide your customer some sort of assurance that their shipment was sent to them with care. I have mentioned in previous posts that one of the most frustrating things drop shippers have told us is when they have their customers blame them for damaging their order even when it was obviously damaged by UPS or the Post Office. Its rare that this happens but if it does, most of the time your customers are not going to be understanding. But if they are quick to point fingers at you (or us), hopefully the stamp with the words “carefully inspected” on the package, will make them think twice. Like you we want your customers to be surprised in a nice way when they receive their prints and at least understanding if things don't quite work out like they want. And if they still blame you for any mishaps, kindly ask them if there was a green stamp on the outside the the package with the words “carefully inspected”. You can tell them that stamp is a way to assure your customers the package was shipped to them in good condition. Again, in the majority of shipments this won’t happen or even be an issue. But it will help instill that sense of care your want your customer to receive with their prints. It’s little things like that which can help set you apart.

To see what this stamp looks like, checkout our YouTube video which is directed toward dropshippers.

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