…. and knowing when they need to be fired.

YES, you heard that right – you will likely find a time when a supplier has let you and your customer down one too many times, and you need to give them them boot. For my biggest site, Moments of Elegance, we have over 70 suppliers ranging from work at home moms who sell super cute handmade gifts to large wholesale operations. It took me a long time to learn the delicate practice of keeping your suppliers in your back pocket (you want them to LIKE you, so when emergecies come up they may be willing to go the extra mile for you), BUT you do not want to be taken advantage of or work with a supplier who is unwilling admit fault or unwilling to correct a mistake.

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I’ve had 2 vendors that were just nightmares to deal with. Anytime something went wrong, a package got lost or arrived damaged, they were unwilling to do anything to make it right. For a long time I found against this, taking on those losses for the good of the customer and swearing I had to keep working with the supplier because no one else offered what they offered. Its an easy trap to fall into, but trust me – it will eat away at everything in your business. It will eat away your profits as you are constantly paying for your mistakes, it will eat away at your relationship with them (which at this point is likely nil), and it will eat away at you as you struggle over wanting to fire them as a supplier but feeling like their stuff just sells too well.

JUST FIRE THEM. Your life and your business will be so much better for it. And more than likely they are not the ONLY supplier in the entire world selling those cool blue widgets after all.

Here are a few tips for establishing relationships with suppliers and setting clear expectations so that misunderstandings down the road can be avoided as much as possible. Most of these apply to drop ship providers since they are effectively representing your company in the fulfillment process (and by extension are representing you, so you want to make sure they will be the kind of representatives you want your customers to see):

1. Ship from location and timeline: Make sure you know where your supplier is shipping from so you can quote appropriate shipping timelines to your customer based upon their location.
2. Production time: You need to find out exactly how long the lead time (time from receipt of order until it leaves the warehouse) is for standard products, and for custom products – and communicate it clearly to your customers. Get it in writing from your supplier so if you send them and order that usually ships in 2-3 days and they don’t send it for 10 and then the customer gets it too late, you can go back to them and show them their agreed upon lead time when you ask them to refund you both the order and the shipping costs.
3. Returns: Make sure you find out what their return policy is. Both how long someone has to request a return, and under what circumstances they can request one. Also find out if there is any restocking fee that they charge, so you can decide if you want to then pass that charge onto your customers as well.
4. Policy & process on damaged/lost packages: this can be a tough one so you need to establish your expectations up front. Your supplier should always be insuring packages when they ship them (some will claim they don’t want to because it costs more, you need to demand it even if it costs more – it will cost you more in the long run if you don’t). Since the packages are insured, if something arrives damaged or is lost in transit, the supplier can file a claim with the shipper to be reimbursed for the value of the package and as such, should be able to either reship or reimburse you in return. This is the spot where we usually run into issues with vendors, where they are unwilling to reimburse a package that was lost because they don’t want to file a claim. Don’t get hung up on this – make sure you set the expectations up front for what will happen in these cases so you are clear who will handle the issue when it does come up.

In most cases the policies and procedures are set by the supplier, not the drop shipper. I usually ask them to send me their policies on all of the above areas and as long as I make those clear with MY customers, then we should limit any misunderstandings or future issues. Unless a supplier has outrageous expectations or requirements I am usually ok with whatever their terms and conditions are. The most critical point is for you to communicate those expectations with your customers clearly, and for you to be able to rely upon your supplier to meet their stated timelines and terms.

If you have a supplier who continuously, time after time fails to meet their promises and refuses to take responsibility or “make things right” – it is perfectly ok for you to tell them you will no longer need their services (or if you are the non-confrontational type, just take down their items from your site). Your business is too important to waste time trying to turn someone with poor customer service practices into someone who “may someday” come through for you.

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