The only things that Back Office and Front Office have in common are that they are both e-commerce management activities and can be performed by in-house or outsourced teams.
Furthermore, there are many differences between the two. Such differences, however, complete each other as you can see in the definition of each of them below:
– Back Office: This refers to the internal management operations of an online store, which require little or no contact with customers.
– Front Office: This refers to the external management operations of an online store, which require direct contact with customers.
The Back Office activities are:
– Receiving orders from the virtual store
– Order analysis
– Analysis of consumer registration data
– The validation (or not) of requests
– Care for the security of financial operations
– Warehouse control
– Preparing products for shipment to customers
– Dispatch of products via carriers to customers
– Post-delivery analysis
- A reverse logistic
Front Office activities are:
– Using the phone, chat or other resource to help customers with purchases
- The use of telesales active and receptive integrated to e-commerce
– The intermediation of exchanges and returns with consumers
– The management of emails sent by customers and store visitors
– Sales recovery with customers who canceled orders
– Managing complaints on social networks
– The Ombudsman service aimed at solving more serious problems
– The operations of after sales in general
Despite being different activities, the Back Office and Front Office teams need to work together in several opportunities, with one complementing the other's services. It's worth creating a periodic training system to integrate the two teams and improve the buy-in of new employees when necessary.
