More and more people these days are looking to have their products delivered to them. Especially during this global crisis, it seems everything is being bought online. Amazon has shown that people are willing to have anything delivered. However, there are a couple of things that you need to consider before you optimize your delivery programs.
The proliferation of “porch pirates”
Everyone has heard of someone who had their Amazon package stolen from their front porch. In fact, there are thousands of these porch pirate thefts every day. Because of this, your company may see a loss of repeat customers if people feel that their packages are not secure. Therefore, you need to find a way to securely deliver a package to your customer.
The assurance of on-time delivery times
Your customer wants to make sure that the package will be delivered on time. If you are shipping to and from overseas, you could be at the mercy of unsure delivery times. It is a good idea to give your customer realistic shipping times.
The demand for “off home” delivery
More and more people are looking to have their packages delivered to a place other than their home. That’s why companies such as Amazon have invested in parcel lockers that customers can access with a code delivered via e-mail.
5 Ways to Improve Your Customer Delivery Experience
Not that you know the challenges and concerns with package delivery, here are some tips to improve your overall customer delivery experience.
1) Offer a timeline when the customer can expect delivery
The first thing you need to do is keep the customer on top of the order. That means you should follow up with a confirmation e-mail as soon as they make their order. Afterward, alert your customer when the product has shipped. Invest in a tracking service so the customer can know exactly where his package is located during delivery.
2) Provide an offsite delivery solution
Give your customer the option to have his package delivered to a locker or storage container. Amazon has shown that delivery lockers can rapidly grow your customer retention and repeat business. There are a number of companies that offer small and large locker solutions for any sized package.
3) Allow the customer to easily connect to you
It is important that the customer can contact you – day or night – with any questions or concerns. At the very least, you should have an e-mail that the customer can use to contact you. Ideally, you want to have a toll-free number, chat app and e-mail contact to ensure that someone can talk to your customers live 24/7. Also, consider having customers be able to talk to your customer service reps via social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
4) Have a quick solution to any shipping problem
You should have a plan B no matter what happens to your business. Let’s say there is a hurricane or wildfire in a certain part of the country. You should be able to quickly contact your customers and notify them that this situation may modify shipping times. You should write a list of “worst-case delivery and fulfillment scenarios” and have a solution for each of these situations.
5) Get feedback
It is very important that you get feedback from as many of your customers as possible. You want to know what you did right during your delivery and how you can improve the next time. You should send an initial follow-up e-mail about 24 hours after the delivery. If the customer does not respond, then send a second request for feedback a week later. You can also incentivize the customer to give you feedback with a coupon discount code. The more data that you have about your delivery performance, the better you will be able to fulfill orders in the future.
Summing things up
Having a good delivery system is more critical than ever. You will want to make sure that your customer service is as good as the best companies out there. Also, be sure to give your customers multiple delivery options in order to stay in competition with top companies. By staying on top of your deliveries, you will keep your customers happy and grow your business.
Samantha Higgins is a professional writer with a passion for research, observation, and innovation. She is nurturing a growing family of twin boys in Portland, Oregon with her husband. She loves kayaking and reading creative non-fiction.
