Retail is about more than just selling products to eager customers. It’s about providing an experience that eventually yields a sale. Ideally, that experience is so good that new customers become loyal patrons, returning to buy from you and singing your praises to all their friends. One way to ensure a great experience is through value-added services.
But value-add can be difficult to achieve consistently, especially if you’re a small business or fighting against costs from market chaos, competition, and sticky inflation. Luckily, you don’t have to be a massive company to take advantage of value-added services, nor do you need to offer them directly to your customers. Indeed, your third-party logistics partner can help you out.
In this article, we’ll explore the definition of a value-added service as well as how these kinds of services can impact and improve your brand and customer experience.
What are Value-Added Services?
Value-added services (sometimes referred to as VAS or non-core services) are extra activities or processes that are performed in addition to a business’s main products or services. These services can refer to processes that exceed customer expectations to provide additional value to whatever they’re buying.
Value-added services can be used to increase revenue directly (that is, sold as add-ons to the product) or indirectly (bundled into the product or service when most competitors in a given space do not include it). Most value-added services are marketed as premium upgrades or options and are a part of cross-selling and upselling tactics. However, value-added services might also include free offerings such as a generous return and refund policy to your customers or complementary product insurance for a trial period.
How Value-Added Services Improve Your Brand
As the name suggests, VAS can add value to the main products and services your business offers. This is especially useful if you operate in a saturated market and are trying to differentiate your brand from the competition. After all, people will seek out better customer service and shopping experiences, even if the cost more. According to a recent consumer survey by SuperOffice, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
But what if you’re still in the startup phase or struggling to determine what value-added services to include in your sales process? Consider a few of the following benefits of how a 3PL partner can help you add value:
Provide Services You Couldn’t
If you decide to partner with a third-party logistics service, they may offer VAS options that you otherwise couldn’t handle yourself. For instance, a fulfillment warehouse can handle some technical repair tasks so that you can more effectively offer warranties to your customers if you lack the equipment to handle repairs yourself.
Add Flexibility to Customer Service
3PL value-added services can add more flexibility to your sales and customer experiences. For example, your fulfillment partner can kit, assemble, and bundle your products in ways you prefer to wow your customers. They can also provide product inspection and quality assurance services as well as reverse logistics to handle any returns on your behalf.
Improve Customer Satisfaction
All of this equates to better customer satisfaction through better order handling and troubleshooting any problems that arise. Whether or not you’re able to handle these processes on your own, having a team of experts to delegate these tasks to can save you money, time, and stress – and keep your customers happy and eager to come back and buy more.
Add Value to Your Customer Service and Sales with UCanTrade
As logistics specialists, UCanTrade’s team has plenty of value-added services to offer that you can, in turn, pass on the value to your customers. If you’re interested in learning more, check out some of the services we offer or reach out to us today.
