If you ship products straight to the homes of your customers, many of them might be thankful for the service that you offer. However, you might find that you get a lot of complaints about shipping, too, which can be bad for business. If you'd like to cut down on customer complaints, follow these important shipping tips.

1. Package Your Products Properly

First and foremost, you should make sure that you package your products as well as possible. A lot of customer complaints come from items arriving beat-up or completely damaged, which is obviously a cause for concern. Ordering custom boxes that are the right fit for your products and using ample packing peanuts, shipping tape and other supplies is important because it can help protect your items and allow them to arrive at their destination, safe and sound. Not only can this help prevent disappointed and angry customers, but it can save you a ton of money on returns and replacements.

2. Look for Faster Shipping Options

Even though people love the convenience of shopping online, many do still want relatively fast gratification. When people shop online, they still want their products to arrive as soon as possible. Some customers are even spoiled because of some of the large internet retailers and how fast they are able to ship their products. Depending on your location and the size of your packages, a different shipping option than what you are using right now could be a faster and better choice. It's smart to compare your options so that you can offer the fastest shipping possible without raising costs too much.

3. Keep Customers Informed

It's a lot easier to keep your customers from getting upset about a shipping issue when you are able to keep them informed about their items and how long it will be before they receive them. Make sure that you keep customers informed about when you fulfill their orders, when their orders are sent out and when they are expected to arrive. Give them tracking numbers whenever possible, and respond to their inquiries. A lot of people get nervous when they feel there isn't much communication, particularly online. Keeping them informed can help reduce complaints and can keep everyone in the know.

As you can see, there are things that you can do to reduce customer complaints about shipping. Follow these tips, and you're sure to notice and increase in the satisfaction of your customers. Contact a business, such as Associated Paper & Supply, for more information.