When shopping online, customers have countless retailers to choose from. For those of us in the logistics industry, this creates a serious challenge: little to no incentive for customers to remain loyal to just one company.
A surefire way to lose a customer’s loyalty is by creating a poor shipping experience. Whether it’s delivering a damaged product, causing delays, or losing their package altogether, the margin for maintaining a happy customer base is razor thin.
After reading through DC Velocity’s article, “Warehouses Make Push to Get the Most from Their Assets,” it’s clear that increasing customer satisfaction is a top priority—and the next great challenge—for warehousing managers in the coming years. But how do you achieve that effectively?
What is your business strategy? Source: DC VelocityAs Flexco’s logistics industry manager, I can confidently say there are straightforward solutions that can significantly improve your package handling process. This is especially true when addressing a key area of belt conveying systems: the transfer gap.
Current Warehousing Trends and What They Mean
In their annual study, warehousing professionals were tasked with providing their top priorities. Unsurprisingly, reducing costs (30.8%) led the way; this was followed by increasing customer satisfaction (29.7%), maximizing profitability (26.9%), and maximizing asset utilization (12.6%).
What is your company’s primary objective? Source: DC VelocityThese results highlight the balancing act faced by the warehousing industry: managing internal processes while addressing the external pressures of customer satisfaction. Every delay, damaged package, or operational inefficiency not only costs a facility in downtime but erodes customer trust—a resource that’s challenging to rebuild.
The study’s findings underscore the need for a proactive, well-executed plan to minimize these challenges. Warehouse managers must focus on three core areas:
- Optimize Workflows: Streamlining the belt conveyor process can reduce downtime and improve overall productivity, ensuring packages are processed effectively and efficiently.
- Enhance Asset Use: With tools that maximize the lifespan of conveyor belt systems, facilities can maximize budgets without sacrificing performance.
- Prioritize Customer Experience:Proactively addressing common pain points, such as delays and damaged goods, creates a seamless experience for customers that fosters lasting loyalty.
Together, these strategies point to one undeniable conclusion: investing in reliable, efficient belt conveyor solutions isn’t just a competitive advantage—it’s essential for success.
How Conveyor Transfer Gaps Impact Your Process and Your Customers
As mentioned previously, three critical issues during the belt conveying process—delivery delays, package damage, and product loss—can significantly impact customer satisfaction. These aren’t just operational hiccups; they are direct hits to your reputation and bottom line.
For example, a delayed delivery tarnishes your reliability and leaves customers questioning their loyalty. Damaged packages lead to returns and complaints, eroding trust with your base. Lost packages not only create inventory inaccuracies, but they also leave customers empty-handed, a surefire way to lose repeat business. Together, these transfer gap issues disrupt efficiency, diminish customer loyalty, and risk turning potential long-term partnerships into lost opportunities.
Beyond affecting your external customers, these issues also pose risks to your internal workforce. Each jammed or dropped package must be addressed, requiring technicians to intervene.
Proper procedures involve stopping the entire conveyor, locking and tagging it out, and manually removing the package—a process that creates costly downtime. However, in many facilities, these precautions aren’t always followed.
Some technicians, feeling pressed for time, may bypass safety protocols and reach between transfer gaps to remove packages. While they might successfully clear the jam, the risk of a misstep leading to serious injury is alarmingly high.
Though these pain points may seem distant from the end-user, they have a profound impact on customer satisfaction. Without the right systems in place, facilities not only jeopardize trust and loyalty, but also face rising costs from downtime, labor inefficiencies, and safety incidents.
Proven Warehousing Solutions to Increase Customer Satisfaction
As conveyor systems evolve to meet the demands of modern warehousing, so do the solutions designed to optimize their performance and address key challenges. Fortunately, with the right tools and strategies, these challenges can be transformed into opportunities for growth.
Conveyor Optimization Visit
Warehouse managers face one of the toughest jobs in the industry—balancing the constant influx of orders with the challenges that arise along the way. With so many moving parts, it can feel impossible to stay ahead of any potential issues.
That’s where Flexco can help. A Conveyor Optimization Visit provides an opportunity to proactively assess your systems alongside one of our solutions experts.
During a visit, our experts will collaborate with you and your team to walk through your conveyor systems, understand your daily challenges, and identify ways to enhance efficiency, reduce downtime, and solve problems you may not even realize are holding you back.
Flexco Territory Managers are available across the globe to conduct Conveyor Optimization Visits for warehousing facilities and distribution centers.
Take the first step toward smoother operations today by scheduling a visit.
Optimize Your Conveyor System Today
Conveyor Transfer Solutions
When it comes to conveyor transfer gaps—often the root cause of jams, damage, and downtime—Flexco offers tailored solutions to help warehouses overcome them.
- Segmented Transfer Plates (STPs)
STPs create a smooth, uninterrupted surface at belt-to-belt transfer points, ensuring packages flow seamlessly while minimizing jams and damage.
- Roller Conveyor Transfer Plates
RCTPs are designed for effortless installation—just measure, cut to fit, and snap into place. Instantly, your roller conveyors operate more effectively, reducing package drops and improving safety for workers below.
Discover how one major e-commerce fulfillment center drastically improved uptime with Flexco solutions:
Download RCTP Application Story
- Belt Edge Protector (BEP)
As packages move from transfer chute to belt, they can often generate so much force that they lodge themselves between the side of the belt and the wall that runs alongside it. BEPs run along this gap, limiting the likelihood that a package could become jammed, damaged, or lost altogether. They are also great for general protection of the belt edge, an area where packages are being hand loaded or robotically loaded onto the conveyor.
Training and Education
A key insight from DC Velocity’s article is the growing importance of operational capacity metrics like employee turnover and cross-training rates. This reflects a significant industry challenge: many conveyor technicians lack the specialized training needed to handle complex system issues safely and effectively.
Flexco addresses this challenge with our Segmented Transfer Plate Installation School , a hands-on, two-day training session designed to empower technicians with the skills they need to succeed. While in class, attendees learn to:
- Install STPs in both standard and complex conditions.
- Evaluate conveyor systems for transfer needs.
- Troubleshoot demo systems to identify and resolve issues.
Training not only equips technicians to perform better but also boosts their confidence, leading to improved job satisfaction and reduced turnover—a win for both employees and employers.
* Did you know? Flexco has long been a trusted partner in the logistics industry, and by acquiring Clipper Belt Lacer Co. in 1995, we furthered our mission to become the leading solutions resource for warehousing professionals. There’s a good chance you are already using our Clipper or Anker branded wire hook belt fasteners and just didn’t know it was Flexco! While on site (at your place or ours), our experts can also provide training for your technicians on the proper selection and installation of our belt fasteners.
By investing in the right solutions and training, warehouse managers can tackle the most pressing challenges head-on—ensuring smoother operations, safer workplaces, and, most importantly, satisfied customers.
The Path to Stronger Customer Relationships
In today’s competitive market, the success of your warehouse hinges on more than just moving packages—it’s about delivering an experience that builds trust and loyalty with your customers. Every investment you make in optimizing your conveyor systems, from addressing transfer gap issues to empowering your team through training, directly impacts your ability to meet customer expectations.
By implementing proven solutions and leveraging expert guidance, you can eliminate costly downtime, improve workplace safety, and strengthen your reputation as a reliable partner. Don’t let preventable issues hold your operation back—start making meaningful improvements today and turn customer satisfaction into your biggest business advantage.
Streamline Your Logistics Today
Authored by: Todd Stewart, Industry Manager