Sashank RavindranathToday’s consumers have more choices than ever when it comes to their shopping needs.
With customer experience (CX) being a cornerstone of customers choosing brands to shop with, you need to go above and beyond to provide a positive delivery and returns experience in order to keep customers coming back.
Here’s what the stats have to say:
- 95% of customers share negative experiences online, compared to 47% who share positive experiences online
- 93% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase.
- 74% of consumers say they would stop doing business if they had a bad experience.
- 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.
Fierce competition and a low threshold for customer tolerance. There’s only one way to counter both. Raise the bar with your CX and spread the word out to attract other potential shoppers. The best way to do both — simply ask them.
Satisfaction Ratings: A Metric to Measure Delivery Experience Quality
At its heart, the Satisfaction rating (SAT score) is a surprisingly simple system that allows your customers to rate their delivery experiences on a scale of 1–5.
After each successful delivery or return, these ratings give you a clear and unbiased view of customer sentiment about the quality of the experience you offer. They act as a window into the world of customer experience, allowing businesses to gauge how well they’re meeting their customers’ expectations.
These unprecedented insights stand to benefit your e-commerce business by helping you:
- Measure Post-Purchase Customer Experience on Par with Pre-Checkout Customer Experience – While most businesses place a great deal of emphasis on the onsite experience they offer their customers, the post-purchase phase is inevitably neglected. While CSAT and NPS provide an idea of customer sentiment in the pre-checkout stage, DSAT and RSAT can help shine a light on the quality of your post-purchase phase
- Identify Which Areas of Your Logistics Operation Need Attention – The feedback mechanism that the DSAT or RSAT system provides allows you to unambiguously identify which areas of your logistics operation need attention in order to allay customer concerns. By identifying areas of improvement and taking appropriate action, you can now address issues, rectify mistakes, and streamline your delivery and returns processes. In the long run, this leads to operational efficiency, cost savings, and improved customer experiences.
Understanding customer satisfaction levels in the order delivery or returns phase is just one part of things, the important challenge remains in the form of amplifying customer satisfaction, as it translates to increased retention and profits.
The Importance of Positive Customer Feedback Around Delivery and Returns Satisfaction Ratings
Satisfaction Ratings: A Window into Customer Retention
DSAT (Delivery Satisfaction) ratings provide a detailed assessment of customers’ delivery experiences by measuring key factors such as delivery timeliness, tracking accuracy, and the quality of communication throughout the shipping process.
RSAT (Returns Satisfaction) ratings provide e-commerce businesses with a comprehensive measure of their customers’ returns experience. Customers can rate their experiences based on factors such as ease of returns processing, clarity of returns policies, returns status communication, and speed of refunds.
These ratings provide customers with a platform to voice their opinions and share their experiences. By giving regular feedback, customers now feel heard and will more likely continue their association with your brand.
That’s not all! Each time a negative review is taken seriously and improvements are made, customers will begin to trust the brand with their choices. As this becomes a routine, happy customers become loyal patrons and will return time and again.
On the other hand, for your business, these ratings offer valuable insights into how satisfied customers are with the delivery and return process, helps you identify areas for improvement.
The Domino Effect: Revenue Growth
Customer retention is closely linked to revenue growth.
Satisfied customers not only come back for more, but they also become brand advocates. They recommend the brand to friends, family, and even share their positive experiences on social media.
Moreover, satisfied customers are more likely to explore other offerings from the same brand. Cross-selling and upselling opportunities increase as customers gain confidence in your efforts to improve the delivery experience. This translates directly into higher average order values and increased revenue per customer.
How E-Commerce Businesses Can Improve Delivery Satisfaction Ratings
Here are some ways your retail business can boost customer satisfaction in the last mile:
- Improve on-time deliveries: One of the top-most expectations of customers when it comes to delivery satisfaction is their packages being delivered on time or even earlier. On the other hand, each time there’s an unannounced delay, there’s a possibility of a negative review that can affect your overall satisfaction scores.
- Improve returns processes: Offer a seamless, self-service returns experience to customers where they can easily initiate returns, print return labels, and track the status of their refunds.
- Ensure proactive communication: Delays are inevitable and almost all customers understand this. This is why, despite the underlying disappointment, they will appreciate your efforts to keep them informed about the status of their orders.
- Focus on proper packaging: Ensure that the contents of your customer’s purchase are well-protected from damage during the shipping process via proper packaging techniques such as using the right box, sufficient protective measures, and fragile stickers (if necessary). During times like the holiday season, customers also appreciate receiving their packages in themed and personalized packaging.
- Bring in efficiency to your customer support: The chances of all your customers’ parcels facing issues while it’s on its way to reaching their doorstep are low but never zero. In such cases, customers expect to be able to get the help they deserve from your customer support representative. By empowering your customer support team to step in before customer impact and proactively address issues, you can boost your customers’ confidence to keep shopping with you.
- Invest in technology: There are a number of technologies that can help businesses improve their delivery processes, such as real-time and self-serve tracking, predictive analytics, automated ticket creation, proactive notifications, etc. These technologies can help businesses to improve on-time deliveries and to provide customers with more information about the status of their orders (delivery and returns).
In the quest for constant enhancement of delivery and return satisfaction ratings, you can adopt these data-driven strategies to take a proactive approach that not only prevents future disappointments but also showcases the brand’s commitment to providing your customers with a great post-purchase experience.
Decode customer actions in the post-purchase order delivery phase with LateShipment.com
LateShipment.com doesn’t just help you deliver phenomenal experiences but also helps you understand whether all that money, time and effort spent is working in your favor or not.
By capturing customers’ delivery and returns experience ratings, you can now learn from your customers about the experience your brand delivered. All you have to do now is to consistently direct efforts and get those 5-star ratings that promote brand credibility.
That’s not all! LateShipment.com also helps you gain insights on:
- User engagement metrics – To measure how your customers are engaging with your brand post-purchase via your tracking page, emails, and SMS notifications and to know what your most effective channels are
- Carrier Performance Scores – To review your carrier choices based on a detailed assessment of how your carrier’s delivery performance fares against service-specific delivery standards.
Conclusion
In the ever-evolving landscape of e-commerce, package delivery and return satisfaction ratings emerge as a critical factor in driving customer retention and revenue growth. They offer customers a voice, allowing them to shape the way brands operate. By paying attention to these ratings, businesses can build trust, enhance customer experiences, and pave the way for long-term success. After all, a satisfied customer today is an ambassador for the brand tomorrow.
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