Last Mile Delivery Archives | Lateshipment.com

WISMO: What it means and how to reduce it?

Ajith Srinivasan — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 09:42:58 +0000

This post-purchase phase, where customers are awaiting their parcels, holds more importance than you think.

While most e-commerce businesses assume to just “hope no things go wrong until the customer gets their hands at their order“, the truth is far.

From the moment the order gets shipped, till it gets delivered, there is a window of opportunity to boost customer loyalty by ensuring hassle-free order delivery experiences that reward your brand with repeat sales in the future.

The catch? Customers love to stay in the know and receive updates on their delivery status and expect you to proactively do so. And when you fail to do so, your support teams are flooded with tickets from anxious customers, all with the same question – WISMO?

What Are WISMO Inquiries?

Customers tend to get anxious during the post-purchase phase, especially when they have limited visibility into the exact whereabouts of their order and often have to depend on opaque carrier tracking pages for clarity about their order’s ETA.

That’s where they typically come in the form of emails, phone calls, or chat messages asking, “Where IS My Order?” WISMO roughly translates to the customer wanting to track their shipment or at least know the status of their order.

The problem here is that carrier tracking pages don’t really disclose the depth of the situation when it comes to delayed packages. This lack of communication for a customer’s simple need for reassurance not only adds to customer service workloads but also signals a potential gap in the post-purchase experience.

Why WISMO Inquiries Are a Major Concern for E-Commerce Businesses

When anxious customers are unable to determine the status of their package, they tend to get frustrated. Of course, there’s the option of them reaching out to you and you can send them to the carrier’s tracking page. However, by that time, the damage was already done. To add fuel to the fire, when they don’t get what they want (even after reaching out), the post-purchase experience takes a huge hit, leading to negative reviews and ultimately loss of repeat business, both of which can harm your growth.

Cutting straight to the point, WISMO calls take up about 40% of your customer support queries, and according to a study by Gorgias – a customer service agent spends an average of 10-minutes per ‘where is my order?’ request. Do the math, if your business receives 1000 WISMO queries a week – at 10-minutes per ticket, that’s about 160 hours of your customer support’s time. Now that’s an alarming number!

That’s not all. High volumes of WISMO inquiries stretch your support team thin, leading to longer response times and higher operational costs. Also, addressing repeated WISMO issues can be costly, as it pulls resources away from other essential business functions.

So, what is it you can do as a business to reduce the number of WISMO calls to optimize the customer experience and save those big bucks in operating costs?

How to Reduce WISMO Inquiries

By now you would’ve already figured out the crux. Dealing with WISMO requires you taking a proactive approach to cut them down, even before your customers get the thought about asking the question.

Here are the different ways through which you can get proactive with your efforts to curb WISMO.

1) Be transparent about your delivery dates :

Unrealistic expectations are one of the foremost reasons for WISMO inquiries. This can be an even more serious issue during times like the peak season when unexpected delays are higher than usual.

As a start, you can include an estimated order delivery date on your product page to give the customer a realistic delivery timeline. For instance, you can categorize these dates based on the customer’s location and chosen shipping method.

There’s still a concern in the form of consistent delays that happen seasonally or due to uncommon reasons such as weather or road closures. In such cases, you can explicitly let your customer know that there might be delays with their order – on your website and checkout page.

2) Over-communicate delivery information :

Despite estimated delivery dates and warnings, WISMO inquiries can still be frequent at the hands of customers whose packages are particularly facing issues. These stem from the lack of communication regarding order status information.

In this case, you can make use of a delivery experience management software that takes all possible delays and discrepancies. You can proactively share this information to keep your customers informed at all times and avoid giving them unpleasant surprises.

Here’s how you can make this work. Send email or SMS notifications as the order progressively updates — from “shipped” to “out for delivery” and “delivered” or delivery exceptions. Remember, it’s always better if any kind of updates (be it good or bad) come from your end rather than customers reaching out to them.

This way, there’s a possibility that the customer’s anxiety and resulting frustration will be mitigated by your efforts to resolve their issues.

Apart from shipping notifications, you can also share order information with customers via self-serve, ‘branded’ tracking pages.

3) Provide self-serve, real-time order tracking :

Offering a branded tracking page that allows customers to track their orders whenever they want from your website rather than the carrier’s tracking page (that is dull and off-brand).

By redirecting your customers to tracking pages that are hosted in your domain, you have an opportunity to reinforce your brand identity and stay on the top of customers’ minds while keeping them engaged with order tracking information.

Additionally, they provide opportunities to offer additional promotions or product recommendations, thereby serving both as a convenience for your customers and a marketing opportunity for your brand.

Also, these branded tracking experiences can be extended to shipping notifications as a way to capitalize their high open rates to double your chances at driving repeat sales.

4) Optimize Your FAQ section and chatbots to deal with WISMO inquiries

Alongside estimated delivery dates and alerts on website/app floaters, many WISMO inquiries can be preemptively resolved by offering a comprehensive FAQ section and help center.

The section can include questions related to order tracking, delivery times, and what to do if a package is delayed. This way, customers can find the answers themselves and are less likely to reach out to your support team. You just have to ensure that this content is easy to find on your website.

You can also extend your efforts at offering proactive customer support by offering multiple support channels like chatbots. This AI-powered chatbot can instantly answer common questions like WISMO and provide tracking information. This reduces the workload on your customer service team without the need for human intervention.

If the inquiry is more complex or if the customer requires additional information, you can also include the provision to easily escalate the conversation to a live agent.

5) WISMO done, WISMR next

Returns often lead to a second wave of inquiries under WISMR or Where is my return, with customers asking about the status of their return, exchange, or refund.

You don’t have to do anything particular here, simply replicate the order tracking initiatives with a seamless returns process.

For instance, include easy-to-follow return instructions with the shipment and on your website. Provide real-time updates on the return status just as you would for the initial shipment. Then, follow up with proactive return notifications to notify customers once their return has been initiated, processed, or their refund issued.

Handling WISMO questions proactively makes things easy. To make things even easier, you can make use of a post-purchase tool like LateShipment.com.

How top brands leverage LateShipment.com to reduce/avoid WISMO calls and cut down on operational costs

In the context of WISMO, LateShipment.com provides your customers with a self-serve order tracking system and sends out regular delivery notifications apart from giving them a real-time delivery estimate but they still choose to reach out to your customer support regarding the whereabouts of their order.

With LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform, you can effortlessly :

Receive Predictive Delay Alerts – Pay attention to daily deliveries with predictive delay alerts and more on a purpose-built dashboard for support reps.
Resolve Issues Proactively – Proactively communicate with customers to prevent them from having bad experiences due to delivery failures.
Send out Delivery Status Notifications – Send custom or automated delivery status notifications to your customers for traditional events such as “shipped”, “attempted”, “delivered” and exceptions such as “in transit with delays”, “failed deliveries”, etc.
Provide Branded Order Tracking – Build fully-customizable order tracking pages for your customers to improve brand recall and sales.

And so much more…

With DEM, you can resolve WISMO as a pain point for both customers yourself. By implementing proactive communication, offering branded tracking, and optimizing customer support, merchants can significantly reduce these inquiries, enhance the customer experience, and improve operational efficiency (and profits).

In short, resolving WISMO is not only a smart operational move but a marketing strategy that builds trust, increases customer retention, and acts as a competitive differentiator for your brand.

The post WISMO: What it means and how to reduce it? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

What Does “In Transit” Really Mean?

Sashank Ravindranath — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 12:30:14 +0000

Most of us who are unaware of a package’s delivery journey, assume that a package gets shipped out from the warehouse and then gets delivered to the customer, right?

Having this assumption is not wrong. After all, this is what we’ve seen happening on that front. But on the back end, there are a lot of things that happen between “shipped” and “delivered”.

As an e-commerce merchant, understanding these different delivery lifecycles of the package journey helps you communicate better with the customer and use these touchpoints to improve repeat sales.

One such touchpoint is the “In transit” order, which we must’ve witnessed on multiple occasions. But what does In transit really mean?

What Does In Transit Mean?

In transit is usually the stage when the order makes its way after being picked up by the carrier to the first stage of the delivery lifecycle, i.e. the warehouse.

Now, the order marked as in transit doesn’t mean that the order is in movement. There are cases when the order is idly sitting in the warehouse before being out for delivery and yet the order is marked as in transit (with a description, of course).

For international or long-distance packages, multiple warehouses or checkpoints can be between the place of origin and the destination. In this case, both the stops before the order is out for delivery are marked as in transit.

In short, any package that is on its way or in a carrier sorting facility waiting to be dispatched for delivery is marked as in transit.

FedEx, in their definition of in transit, mentions that unless there’s an in transit or customs delay, the package would be delivered on the scheduled delivery date. Now, you might be wondering what causes a package that is in transit to get delayed. We’ll take a look at them in the upcoming section.

How Long Does In Transit Take?

As customers, we can’t wait to hold our joy when the order is shipped or marked out for delivery. But in transit? That’s boring. Trust me, this is not because of the stages left in the delivery cycle or the issues the package is prone to face (an order in transit faces fewer issues than an order that is out for delivery). So, what is the reason?

Without taking factors like shipping method, delivery option, and carrier choices from your end, a package in transit can take anywhere between 1-5 business days. It is understandable that from your customer’s PoV, In transit is one of the longest stages of a regular package (the one where all things go smoothly and conveniently).

Let’s decode them further.

What are the factors that affect transit times?

Here are several factors that can influence how long your package stays “in transit”:

Shipping method: Unless there are rare instances where replacements are sent, the preferred shipping method is selected by the customer placing the order. If they’ve selected a faster shipping option than standard shipping, then there is a low in transit time on their orders
Distance: It’s a no-brainer. Longer distances naturally take more time. Picture this: you’ve ordered from your favorite brand, which is based out of San Francisco and you’re living in Atlanta. The package, shipped out by the e-commerce brand, would reach the carrier’s facility in Frisco first, make its way to their facility in Atlanta, and only then be ready for delivery
Carrier efficiency: Different carriers have varying levels of speed and reliability. For instance, a carrier who is known for their speed advertises their in transit times between the standard 1-5 days. While some carriers would focus on realistic timelines and highlight their in transit times of 3-7 days
Unexpected delays: Bad weather, the package being held at customs, or unforeseen circumstances like labels found to be damaged in the sorting facility or the package getting lost in transit, can all lead to an increase in transit times

What You Can Do When A Package Gets Stuck In Transit

The longer a package is stuck in transit and the longer you’re doing nothing about it, it’s going to frustrate your customers. All those reasons don’t matter to them. What matters to them is their package getting to their hands on time and if not, at least some proper communication on it.

But again, you can’t wait for your customers to bring up a query or an issue about their package in transit as the damage has already been done. This is where you get proactive and follow a series of steps that mitigate the impact on them.

1. Share the estimated delivery date with your customers

When customers place their orders and select their preferred shipping method, you can share an estimated delivery date on the product and checkout pages to let them know when their order will be arriving and thereby how long it will take in transit. You can also get information from carriers and display the latest service alerts and weather disruptions at the top of your website/app and information pages.

2. Share proactive updates about the status of the package

Don’t let the customer wait for 2 days and then contact you with a WISMO request. Instead, reach out proactively with the order’s current status (held up at customs, etc). Keeping them in the loop of their orders, even before they feel the need ensures that their anticipation is kept in check and thereby, they are less prone to get frustrated with the delivery experience. Aside from providing information on why the package is delayed in transit, you can also offer solutions on what the customer can do in the meantime.

3. File a claim for packages confirmed lost

Real-time tracking of your packages will give you insights and predictive alerts on packages that are suspected to be lost. For such packages, you can make use of a parcel audit system that files a claim on your behalf and ensures that the carrier refunds you for the lost shipping cost. In the same line, you can also make use of shipping insurance options to recover the product costs as well. A complete post-purchase solution like LateShipment.com can help you out on all the necessary fronts.

Bottom Line

While “in transit” is not the most specific status update, it’s a sign that your package is out for delivery next and is set for a lot of challenges and actions from your end to offer a seamless delivery experience to your customers. Also, in transit itself is a stage that can be capitalized to keep your customers informed and manage delivery expectations.

The post What Does “In Transit” Really Mean? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

What Does “Out for Delivery” Really Mean?

Sashank Ravindranath — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 06:31:54 +0000

“Get ready to jump with joy as your order is out for delivery”.

A message that all online shoppers can’t wait to see on their device, as this is a sign that their package is nearing them and is about to be delivered soon.

From your (the merchant’s) perspective, while the emotions might differ, seeing the message on the carrier’s page and sharing these notifications with your customers holds the same importance because,

The package has successfully evaded almost 80% of all delivery issues (barring cases of delivery exceptions, order returns, or package theft) and
This is the only thing between your customers and their most exciting orders, the time when you are rewarded for your product and service via customer satisfaction and loyalty

This makes the out for delivery notification special compared to other transactional shipping notifications sent during the post-purchase, order delivery phase of e-commerce.

But what makes this delivery stage so special? To know that we’ll start with what being out for delivery means and where it sits in the e-commerce last-mile order delivery process.

What Does Out for Delivery Mean?

Let’s split ‘out for delivery’ into two perspectives where you stand between. From the shipping carrier’s perspective, this indicates that the package has left the shipping facility and is in transit to the customer’s address. From the customer’s perspective, on the other hand, this implies that the package’s arrival on the specified delivery date is almost confirmed.

Packages that are marked “out for delivery”, will reach their destination on the same day or the next day, given the distance and situation between the carrier’s transportation hub or fulfillment center and the customer’s doorstep.

To get a better context, let’s look at where it sits in the e-commerce order delivery process

a) Where out for delivery sits in the e-commerce delivery process

The traditional last-mile delivery process usually consists of 4 simple events or transactional notifications that are sent to the customer whenever there is an update on their orders.

Shipped – When the order is “shipped”, it implies that the carrier has picked up the package.
In transit – The order is in transit when it leaves the first hub and is on its way to reaching the carrier’s hub at the delivery city.
Out of delivery – Out for delivery indicates the order is now in its final stretch. The package has left the carrier facility and is on its way to the customer.
Delivered – The order is marked “delivered” when the order sits on the customer’s doorstep

Apart from these frequent transactional notifications front, there can also be several uncommon instances such as delivery attempts, in-transit with delays, loss/damage, etc. E-commerce brands such as yours can leverage these events to send shipping notifications that alleviate your customers’ worries and also come with a great deal of benefits for you.

Going back to the context, there can still be some questions like what to do when the package has been out for delivery for 3 or more days? or where is my package that is out for delivery but has not been delivered yet?

In your mind, you need clear answers before you can communicate the same with your customers. And that brings us to dissect out for delivery as an event further.

b) Why does an out for delivery event matter to an e-commerce merchant?

The “out for delivery” event is a critical touchpoint in the e-commerce customer journey. It holds significant importance for merchants due to several reasons.

Apart from minimizing customer support inquiries and improving customer satisfaction by reducing anxiety and uncertainty, this event also comes up with a great scope for marketing opportunities.

Instead of sending your customers to the carrier’s tracking page, you can create your own branded order tracking pages that can be used to promote complementary products or services.

You can also use real estate on your tracking pages to collect customer feedback on their post-purchase purchase experience, thereby gaining valuable insights into identifying areas for improvement.

c) What happens when a package out for delivery doesn’t get delivered

In most cases, a package marked as “out for delivery,” is expected to be delivered on the same day. However, there can be instances where it takes forever to arrive and there can be multiple reasons for such delivery exceptions.

Location – The distance between the distribution center and the delivery address (i.e. the delivery address’s proximity to the distribution center)
Delivery Schedule – Carriers have specific delivery routes and schedules that they target in a day. Multiple delivery locations (stops) and complex routes can impact the delivery timeline of the other packages
Traffic Conditions – Traffic congestion, accidents, or adverse weather conditions on a particular can delay the delivery process
Volume – High shipping volume is a rare instance but probable scenario where the package volume handled by the delivery person gets too much for a single day

Out for delivery vs delivered: The final hurdle

In most cases, when an out for delivery doesn’t get updated to delivered, it means your carrier, be it FedEx, UPS, USPS, or Amazon is attempting re-delivery, dropping off the package at a nearby pickup point, etc.

However, unlike you, customers who shop with you don’t have the patience to uncover all of this. What matters to them is their package reaching on time and when they get slightly anxious about that happening, their actions can go a long way, complicating the problem further.

1. Support reps are bombarded with a huge volume of WISMO inquiries

Even when there are no issues regarding customers’ parcels, their anxiety at the last mile stage leads them to bombard support reps with order status notifications (WISMO inquiries).

Such calls negatively impact your customer satisfaction metrics by consuming all of the support reps’ time and preventing them from dealing with other important queries.

Over 30% of customer support tickets created are SHIPPING and DELIVERY-related

2. Disgruntled customers negatively impact your brand’s online reputation

Delivery issues must be resolved proactively and addressed at the earliest because the first thing irate customers do is take such issues to social media and tarnish the brand’s reputation online.

During such events, every negative review from your customers causes irreversible damage to the brand image and far worse, demotivates their close ones from shopping with the said brand.

93% of the customers say that they read online reviews before buying a product.

3. Higher costs associated with returns and customer acquisition

E-commerce businesses run the risk of losing even their most loyal customer to a competitor after just one bad delivery experience.

Trying to replace these existing customers may not be the best idea because it is 5x more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

Over 55% of customers won’t return to a brand or retailer after one bad experience, indicating that today’s consumer has nearly zero thresholds for delivery failures.

Even if they choose to stick with you, they can simply refuse to collect their orders, leading to unwanted returns and related expenses.

The saying prevention is better than cure might sound cliche but it holds true in this context. While these issues, the reasons they happen, and how to approach them depend on the shipping carrier and the circumstances — there are actions that you can take to mitigate this from becoming a serious problem.

What to Do if Your Package is "Out for Delivery" for an Extended Period

When a package has been marked as “out for delivery” for three or more days without arriving, it’s understandable to be concerned.

First things first, customers are often anxious regarding the status of orders during the last mile. So, constantly stay in touch by keeping them in the loop of their orders

Integrate your existing email and SMS marketing tools with your delivery management system and send ‘out for delivery’ notifications in the last mile. This way, the customer can stay at the location to collect the delivery or request a change to avoid last-minute delivery exceptions.

Second, it’s better to be the bearer of bad news than to be confronted by the customer on hiding things

In case you see things going wrong, proactively reach out to the customer to inform them of the delay and assure them that you’re investigating the issue.

Tracking your customers’ parcels in real-time gives you complete visibility of your shipments in transit but foresight as well for shipments that are likely to face delays.

Once you gain control over your in-transit shipments facing issues, you can step in before they impact your customers and resolve them. In cases with uncommon issues such as weather delays and roadblocks, a simple preemptive acknowledgment can work in your favor as equal as resolving issues.

Keeping a close eye on the package’s tracking information for progress can help you see if the situation gets better. If not, be prepared to offer solutions like discounts or store credits to compensate for the inconvenience. P.S. Be empathetic and offer sincere apologies (even when the issue is not your fault).

Thirdly, there can be a worst-case scenario with the package getting lost or the customer simply refusing to accept the package owing to the delay

In such cases, you need to be prepared to offer solutions like reshipping or refunds. Don’t worry about these costs because you no longer have to bear the blame and shell out dollars for failures and billing errors by carriers. If the reason for the delayed delivery is due to a carrier error, then you can easily recover refunds from shipping carriers.

You don’t have to do it manually. Make use of an automated parcel audit system like LateShipment.com that identifies 50+ carrier failures including late deliveries and lost packages, thus helping you save up to 20% on shipping costs. Also, regularly claiming shipping refunds can in turn enable your shipping carriers to perform better and prevent such incidents from occurring in the first place.

Bottom Line

Implementing all these last mile best practices by yourself can be difficult. To make it easier, you can make use of a post-purchase solution such as LateShipment.com that does all the heavy lifting on your behalf.

LateShipment.com is specifically built for ecommerce retailers such as yourself to deliver phenomenal post-purchase CX and measurable results, all while effortlessly recovering refund claims from your shipping carriers.

Interested? We at LateShipment.com can’t wait to help you grow your fanbase, savings, and business.

Get in touch with our expert or write to us.

The post What Does “Out for Delivery” Really Mean? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

What is a Delivery Exception and How E-commerce Business Can Handle It?

Sashank Ravindranath — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 08:10:32 +0000

You don’t need major issues such as packages getting lost or damaged, even small incidents like a ‘delivery exception’ can create unexpected roadblocks that disrupt the smooth journey of a package to its destination and pose a challenge for your e-commerce businesses.

With the excitement of sales and fixation on issues like late deliveries and lost packages, delivery exceptions tend to be often overlooked. However, their impact on customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and overall business reputation is profound as they have the power to hurt your customer relationships and lead to increased costs.

To better handle the delivery exception, we’ve come up with this article that starts with the basics: what do they mean, why do they happen, and what can you do about it?

What Does a Delivery Exception Mean?

A delivery exception occurs when a package deviates from its planned delivery route due to unforeseen circumstances. These disruptions can range from minor delays to complete delivery failures.

A package in transit is exempted from delivery, i.e., marked as a ‘delivery exception’ at the hands of the shipping carrier when it faces any hindrance that makes it take longer than expected to reach your customers’ doorstep.

In simple terms, this indicates to the recipient that:

The package has crossed its intended delivery timeline
This is not a case of a delay at the hands of the carrier
The courier will deliver the package soon (based on the reason for the exception).

We’ll break down delivery exceptions further to get a better context.

Why do delivery exceptions occur?

We discussed how exceptions are predictable and happen due to external influence in most cases. But how exactly? Here’s how.

Failed delivery attempts – Also known as missed drop-off. Deliveries are marked incomplete due to the recipient’s or an adult’s (in case of special deliveries) unavailability at the drop-off location to sign and receive the package
Address-related issues – Incorrect, incomplete, or ambiguous addresses can also lead to failed delivery attempts and subsequent delays. For instance, when the address on the label is unrecognized or is at an undeliverable location, etc
Man-made causes – Packages are prone to be damaged at sorting facilities and at times, the carrier would abstain from making the delivery citing this
Customs delays – International shipments are subject to customs clearance procedures, which can be time-consuming and prone to unexpected delays
Natural disasters – Severe weather conditions such as earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, blizzards, or heavy rain can disrupt transportation networks and cause the package to be held back at the facility to safeguard
Carrier-related problems – Issues with the shipping carrier, including lost or misplaced packages, vehicle breakdowns, or labor shortages
Federal holidays – When carriers refrain from making deliveries on particular days due to federal holidays in the country of origin or destination.
Peak season challenges – Increased order volume during holiday periods or promotional events can strain shipping resources, leading to longer delivery times

These are some of the most frequent reasons behind the carriers getting an exemption from fulfilling the delivery. They are valid and in many cases, you can choose to ignore them with so much as a “It’s just one day, the delivery will be made tomorrow“.

However, can you afford to do that? is the question. And that question is what led e-commerce businesses to take the initiative to address delivery exceptions for more reasons than one.

Why is it Important For E-Commerce Businesses To Address A Delivery Exception?

The consequences of delivery exceptions extend beyond mere inconvenience for the customer. They can have a ripple effect on various aspects of an e-commerce business:

Increased WISMO inquiries – Even when the delivery exception is minor, the customer who isn’t aware of it constantly bombards your support reps with WISMO calls that consume all of their time
Customer dissatisfaction – Frequent delays or failed deliveries that come along with delivery exceptions also come with the potential to erode customer trust and loyalty, leading to negative reviews and social media backlash. In the long term, this can lead to a drop in customer satisfaction metrics such as retention rate and lifetime value
Return processing challenge – When delivery exceptions are due to damages or undeliverable packages necessitates a possibility for the customer to opt for a return that can complicate inventory management
Operational inefficiencies – Delivery exceptions result in frequent re-deliveries from warehouses or returns that can disrupt shipping schedules and operations
Financial losses – Ultimately, returns-related costs (processing costs and refunds), unwanted support tickets, increased labor costs, and acquisition costs due to delivery issues can significantly impact a business’s bottom line

The cost of delivery exceptions for your business is evident. Therefore, it is important to handle them effectively. To make things easier for you, we’ve also come up with some of the best ways for you to handle delivery exceptions.

How To Handle Delivery Exceptions?

Most e-commerce businesses take this myopic approach of resolving delivery exceptions only when your customers are impacted by them. However, given the high expectations of today’s customers, it doesn’t matter how quickly you solve it because the damage is already done. Therefore, all you have to do is comply with your customers’ expectations — solve delivery exceptions even before they become an issue.

Through integrated solutions and metrics, you can be proactive when it comes to handling delivery exceptions and thereby set them up for a great delivery experience.

Handling delivery exceptions: The aftermath

Let’s assume the delivery exception happens, what now?

First, promptly acknowledge the exception by informing your customer about it. You can then follow up with clear and transparent communication regarding the nature of the exception by rerouting or rescheduling deliveries based on convenience to manage customer expectations.
Have a strategy early in place for delivery exceptions, i.e., develop clear guidelines for customer support and operational teams to make adjustments and handle things as effectively as possible.
If the exception is major, possibly due to packages that are lost or damaged, then you need to consider implementing shipping insurance into your existing business practices.

Preventing delivery exceptions from occurring in the first place

Delivery exceptions can happen due to external causes and at times inevitable. But that doesn’t mean you do nothing about it. As an e-commerce merchant, you have the power to cut down exceptions in occurrence.

By implementing proactive issue resolution strategies, you can not only reduce delivery exceptions but also unlock new opportunities to reduce costs and improve customer experiences.

Start by informing potential delivery exception-causing incidents such as carrier strikes, federal holidays, weather-related issues, etc. on your homepage and product page to let customers know that their orders might face issues and avoid disappointments.
Leverage data and evaluate the performance of different shipping carriers to select reliable partners with fewer cases of delivery exceptions and a strong track record of on-time deliveries.
The next step involves making use of real-time tracking to identify potential issues even before they happen and take proactive measures to rectify them.
Extend the capabilities of real-time tracking data by keeping customers informed about shipment status and potential exceptions.
In times like peak periods like the holiday season, you need to anticipate an increase in order volume and adjust staffing, inventory levels, and shipping capacity accordingly.

Bottom Line

While delivery exceptions are inevitable occurrences, addressing them promptly is not only possible but also essential for ensuring a positive delivery experience. By acknowledging and resolving issues quickly, you can effectively minimize customer frustration, maintain trust, and uphold their reputation for reliability and customer-centricity.

Also, don’t forget to prioritize proactive communication through shipping notifications and branded tracking pages to turn delivery exceptions into opportunities that strengthen customer relationships and foster long-term loyalty.

The post What is a Delivery Exception and How E-commerce Business Can Handle It? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

A Guide to FedEx and UPS Delivery Signature Options

Sashank Ravindranath — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 13:10:49 +0000

In the world of shipping and logistics, ensuring your packages reach their destination safely and securely is crucial and carriers ensure their full-on commitment to it.

One aspect of this process is the carrier getting a confirmation of receipt upon successfully delivering a package to its intended recipient or an authorized individual at the delivery address through a signature. This signature helps carriers ensure security and accountability throughout the delivery process.

Before diving into the specifics of FedEx and UPS signature options, let’s first understand what they entail:

Understanding Delivery Signature Options

Both FedEx and UPS offer various signature options to accommodate the diverse needs of businesses and customers. These delivery signature options allow senders to choose the level of security and verification required for their shipments, depending on the nature of the package and recipient preferences.

Why shippers need to choose delivery signature options

Shipping out packages comes with a lot of risk up until the delivery is made. Hence, shippers need to ensure secure and reliable delivery of packages while meeting regulatory requirements. This is where delivery signature options come in to help shippers maintain accountability and compliance.

Requiring delivery verification, especially for high-value shipments ensures that the package has arrived safely without falling into the wrong hands such as porch pirates among other reasons, and thereby offers you peace of mind.

As a shipper, it’s essential to consider factors such as the value of the shipment, recipient availability, and the level of security required when selecting a delivery signature option.

In this blog, we’ll explore the different delivery signature options provided by FedEx and UPS, helping you determine which one is best suited for your shipping requirements.

FedEx Delivery Signature Options

FedEx provides three options when shippers require a signature upon delivery. Each option accommodates different shipment requirements.

1. FedEx Adult Signature Required

Costs around $8.15 in 2024
Specifically designed for shipments containing age-restricted items, particularly at least 21 years old at the delivery address.
A government-issued photo identification is required
When there is no eligible recipient at the delivery location, FedEx may re-attempt the delivery
Firearms are one type of shipment where an adult signature is required

2. FedEx Direct Signature Required

Costs around $6.75 in 2024
Designed for shipments that are to be delivered at a location instead of a specific individual
Any person physically available at the location can sign for the delivery
When there is no eligible recipient at the delivery location, FedEx may re-attempt the delivery
Automatically applies to all packages equal to or greater than $500. However, the direct signature required fee will not apply to these packages

3. FedEx Indirect Signature Required

Costs around $6.75 in 2024
This allows FedEx to collect a signature even from some nearby the location such as neighbors, front office, or building managers
Even if there’s no eligible recipient at the delivery location, FedEx can still make the delivery without re-attempting, given that the recipient has authorized

Just like FedEx, UPS too has its own set of Delivery Signature Options or Confirmation Services that are served as a value-added service because they’re slightly more safer than just a regular ‘delivered’ parcel tracking notification.

UPS Delivery Signature Options

1. UPS Delivery Confirmation

Costs around $6.75 in 2024
Includes a delivery date, the name of the recipient, and if the package is being returned, the reason for the return is mentioned

2. UPS Signature Required

Costs around $6.75 in 2024
A physical recipient is not required at the location as UPS accepts any electronic acknowledgment of receipt from the individual to deliver the package

3. UPS Adult Signature Required

Costs around $8.15 in 2024
Specifically designed for shipments containing age-restricted items, particularly at least 21 years old at the delivery address.
A government-issued photo identification is required
An additional voice authorization or ‘Proof of Delivery’ option is available, where UPS may call the person physically available at the delivery location for an additional $5.00

Final Word

Be it FedEx or UPS, delivery signature options don’t come cheap. Also, these rates increase during peak season times and have a consistent YoY increase. Of course, paying an additional $7 will give you the peace of mind of your package reaching its destination safely and securely but you can also cut these costs in several ways:

Make full utilization of these options: For instance, let’s say you’ve ordered some wine for your boss’ retirement party and it requires an adult signature. In such cases, ensure that either you or an adult is at the delivery location to collect the package instead of re-delivery attempts.
Limit further re-delivery attempts: When you’re out of town but have a series of packages that require direct signatures, you can redirect your shipments to a FedEx location for 5-10 days.
Negotiate with your carrier: if you’re a high-volume shipper or have a long-standing relationship with the carrier, you can also negotiate a contract with your shipping carrier that includes favorable terms and pricing for delivery signature options.

Also, wrongly added delivery signature costs are a common sighting in your shipping invoices. In such cases, you can audit your invoices and file refund claims for such additional charges.

In conclusion, both carriers offer a range of delivery signature options to accommodate diverse shipment requirements. Make sure you select the right option for your needs and ensure the costs that come along with them aren’t straining your wallet.

The post A Guide to FedEx and UPS Delivery Signature Options appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

4 Emerging and Promising Ecommerce Logistics Trends for 2024

Ian — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 13:36:12 +0000

Based on Statista’s prediction, global retail e-commerce sales are expected to grow 9.5% from 2023, a slight decrease from last year’s increase (10%). A line that we’ve all been hearing since the end of the pandemic and the dawn of the new age of e-commerce shopping is expected to return this year as well — while the growth rate is slow, e-commerce is still growing.

There are two ways to look at this.

Customers are still open to shop online amidst the re-opening of brick-and-mortar stores
E-commerce merchants are going to adopt new initiatives to spur more customers to spend time with their business

While the growth of e-commerce means so many things, it directly translates to higher parcel volumes. As consumers increasingly turn to online shopping, there exists a surge that places significant pressure on shipping carriers and the supply chain’s infrastructure.

Research predicts global parcel volume to grow from 8.5% through 2027. This necessitates continuous adaptations within the e-commerce and logistics spaces to handle the increasing demand and ensure timely and efficient order deliveries.

That said, 6,913 billion dollars being spent on an industry worldwide in a single year is a huge deal. The question is “How much % of it are you spending on growing your business”?

Knowing what other businesses are cooking, what industry leaders are predicting, and what is going to happen in the e-commerce logistics landscape can help you put your best foot forward and enjoy the fruits of success.

E-Commerce Logistics (B2C and B2B Parcel Shipping) Trends For 2024

Enter 2024, a year poised to be a turning point in the e-commerce logistics saga.

Businesses and consumers alike are consistently raising the bar. Sustainability, efficiency, and hyper-personalization are the new buzzwords. There is a consistent demand for revolution in how goods journey from virtual carts to living rooms.

So, what’s new, what’s hot, and what matters most? Here’s a straightforward article that covers the key trends you need to know to optimize your shipping strategy and deliver a seamless experience for your customers this exciting year.

Here’s something that you can expect inside:

The newer role and impact of AI in logistics
The need for sustainability in packaging and shipping
The increasing demand for faster and efficient deliveries
The evolution of customer expectations and hyper-personalization
The changes in trade regulations and customs procedures

1. Integration of advanced technologies in the form of AI and machine learning

According to a recent report by McKinsey, 55% of business professionals confirmed that their organizations have already integrated AI technology into their operations. Also, with the e-commerce logistics industry expected to witness substantial growth in the adoption of AI in the upcoming years, businesses that haven’t tapped into using this technology will probably get left behind in the race toward redefining the game.

One of the primary roles of AI in e-commerce in 2024, is enabling predictive analytics and real-time data, helping businesses make data-driven decisions in areas like demand forecasting, route optimization, and inventory management. For example, with predictive analytics, retailers can better plan for seasonal fluctuations and avoid overstocking or stockouts. Also, with automated processes, there is a reduced workload on manual processes like paperwork, leading to lower errors, and delays and increased efficiency and cost-effective operations.

Ultimately, with access to AI technology, stakeholders who are dependent on the supply chain can make informed decisions quickly, adapt to changes, and respond to disruptions effectively, thereby making it a critical asset in today’s e-commerce environment.

What you can do to keep up: Make use of Inventory Management tools such as Zoho Inventory, Salesforce, etc, to forecast demand fluctuations, avoid stockouts, and ensure smoother deliveries.

2. A greater focus on sustainability

Amidst timely deliveries and growing technology, a trend that has witnessed a spike for the last couple of years is sustainability in logistics practices. This comes from the place of today’s shoppers’ growing awareness of environmental concerns and a desire for more eco-friendly practices and businesses catering to their needs.

Here are a few boxes that businesses are looking to tick in 2024 in the context of sustainability:

Reduced packaging waste: E-commerce businesses are increasingly adopting practices that minimize packaging waste. This includes using packaging materials that are recyclable, or easily biodegradable. Also, businesses are optimizing packaging sizes to reduce the amount of excess material used.
Green logistics: Major shipping carriers like DHL, FedEx, and UPS have always committed to reducing their massive carbon footprint from frequent order deliveries that they take up on a day-to-day basis. This involves taking up initiatives in the form of carbon–neutral shipping, EVs and other alternative fuels, efficient routing leading to lower fuel consumption, etc.

What you can do to keep up: Use eco-friendly materials for your packaging needs, prioritize shipping partners that use electric vehicles and other carbon-neutral delivery options, sustainable warehousing, etc, will all come together to minimize the environmental impact of e-commerce logistics. Don’t forget to promote yourself as an eco-conscious e-commerce brand and ensure that consumers favor you.

3. A shift towards customer-centric experiences

In today’s highly competitive e-commerce landscape, the CX that businesses provide acts as the competitive differentiator. This leads to brands increasingly adopting a customer-centric approach to cater to the evolving needs and expectations of online shoppers. This approach encompasses various strategies and initiatives aimed at enhancing the overall shopping experience and building customer loyalty.

2024, much like previous years, taking a customer-centric approach involves providing personalized product recommendations, having a user-friendly Interface to minimize friction in the buying journey, offering proactive responsive customer service channels, faster shipping and delivery options, flexible returns and exchanges, omnichannel experiences, etc.

Also, with the abundance of data available and customers willing to share their data for a more personalized experience, businesses are increasingly tailoring their logistics operations to individual customer preferences. This means not only personalized product recommendations but also customized delivery options including delivery preferences like time slots and delivery locations.

4. Increased focus on strengthening Cybersecurity

As we progress further into the digital age, the e-commerce industry has become a prime target for cyberattacks. The increasing digitalization of supply chains has made them vulnerable to various threats, ranging from data breaches to ransomware attacks. In 2024, cybersecurity will take center stage as companies strive to fortify their defenses and safeguard the integrity and trust of their operations.

This includes secure backups, network segmentation, employee training to recognize and prevent phishing attacks, and improved user identity verification methods.

Naturally, businesses can expect stricter regulations and cybersecurity measures to safeguard customer information and ensure the integrity of delivery systems. Additionally, the physical security of packages will be paramount, with advanced tracking and anti-theft solutions becoming commonplace.

What you can do: Cybersecurity tools like IBM and Kaseya to safeguard customer information and ensure the integrity of delivery systems. Additionally, physical security of packages is paramount, so make use of a post-purchase automation solution like LateShipment.com with real-time tracking to stay in the know of parcels at all times and communicate the same with your customers.

Over to You

2024 promises to be a turning point in e-commerce logistics. By embracing these trends, businesses can gain a competitive edge, build customer loyalty, and contribute to a more sustainable future of deliveries. Whether you’re a tech-savvy start-up or a seasoned retailer, buckle up and get ready for the thrilling ride ahead!

The post 4 Emerging and Promising Ecommerce Logistics Trends for 2024 appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

What to Do If a Package Arrives Damaged—or Not at All

Sashank Ravindranath — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 05:59:02 +0000

How many times have you sent out a customer’s package and stayed eager to know their feedback, only to learn from them that it was damaged or didn’t make it to them at all?

Truly a haunting experience, given that all your efforts to convert the customer have now taken heavy ‘damage’, thanks to no fault of yours.

But if you think about the scale of these issues, you can clearly see that it is not something trivial. In fact, 7% to 11% of customers’ online orders arrive broken or damaged and close to 50% of Americans had claimed that at least one of their packages was lost.

Not just the scale. Even the intensity of lost and damaged packages is high for e-commerce merchants such as yourself. Let’s take a look at the consequences to better understand the issues at stake.

Problems a Retailer Faces Due to Damaged and Lost Packages

To understand the seriousness of packages getting lost and damaged, put yourself in the shoes of your customers. They’ve anticipated long enough to collect their order, only to discover that it’s arrived broken or is missing.

While this is frustrating enough, the situation can turn out to be worse if their purchase is a gift for their loved ones. Such instances can instantly escalate things and infuriate your customers, who might make hasty decisions that can prove to be costly for you.

The first action a frustrated customer would take in such situations is simply choosing to quit shopping with you, as a result of the bad experience they faced. This in turn can lead to unnecessary costs for your business in the form of:

Low customer retention rate (CRR) – Your retention rate is a metric that shows whether your customers are happy doing business with you, to the extent of staying as your customer for an extended period. A good retention rate means to profit from repeat shopping, while a low rate is a harsh truth of you losing money to customer churn.
Low customer lifetime value (CLV) – An extension of the retention rate is the customer lifetime value. It is the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend with you during the span of your relationship. When package delivery issues lead to customers dropping out, your CLV can become low or negative, implying that you are spending more on a customer than what you’re getting back from them.
Increased damage to brand reputation – A customer who has decided to end ties with you might not always go unannounced. In most cases, they take their frustrations to social media and tarnish your brand’s online reputation, leading their friends and followers (who can be your potential customers) to avoid your business. On a related note, there are definitive ways to deal with such customer rants, that you can follow to mitigate their angst as well as paint a positive picture for others.
Increased costs from order returns and cancellations – When a customer’s order is lost or damaged, it is absolutely fair that they expect you to refund them. But such returns and cancellations which happen due to no fault of yours can lead to severe costs that can lower your profit margin.
Increased acquisition costs (CAC) – The last nail in this coffin is your pining over your efforts to convert the customer after they’ve simply dropped off. While you may briefly consider simply replacing one customer with another, keep in mind that acquiring customers is more expensive than retaining a customer.

It is natural to think why do you have to stand to lose so much, especially when such issues happen outside your control and cannot be directly linked to you. Know that each purchase made by your customer is for your brand and not for your shipping partner, who works in the background. This makes the onus on taking care of their deliveries, which plays a vital part in the overall customer experience, on you. Thus, you are inclined to take actions that can avoid all of the aforementioned problems.

5 Things to Do If a Package Gets Damaged or Lost

You don’t have to panic the instant the customer comes forward with a complaint of their package being broken, missing, or lost in transit. There are several approaches that you can take to mitigate their frustrations and attempt to change their bad delivery experience into a positive one.

1. Have an empathetic approach

As we mentioned before, these customers who may sound angry have been robbed of the opportunity to get delighted while opening their package. So, it is understandable that they are frustrated and want you, the retailer, to handle the situation before it gets worse.

In such cases, the first step is to always deal with the situation empathetically. Acknowledge the incident and apologize for it (despite there being no fault of yours).

Trust me, they don’t enjoy seeing you pointing your hands at the shipping carrier for delivery issues of any kind. Take ownership of the incident and assure them that things will be resolved at the earliest.

Personalize your conversations in such a way that your customers know that they’re being treated as important and not just as a random, faceless customer.

2. Ask the customer how would they like to get the issue resolved

Assuming what the customer wants might not be the best plan of action at all times. Especially, when the customers expect you to actively listen to their concerns.

In such cases, it is best to resolve the issue based on your customers’ requirements. Don’t hesitate to ask your customer how they would like you to rectify things.

Some customers who have still not been able to come out of the bad experience might settle for a refund on their purchase while customers who badly want the product so much, would like to replace their order.

The best ploy is to provide multiple options and let your customers choose what’s best for them. This way, your customers feel in control of their decisions and gain increased confidence while shopping with you.

3. Send out replacement packages via expedited shipping

A customer who is initiating a replacement for their damaged or lost product is someone who is giving a second chance to set things right. Thus, If a customer wants a replacement instead of a return — make sure you put maximum effort to convert their angst into delight.

You can do the same by offering free return on the damaged product and sending out a replacement via an expedited shipping option out of your own pockets.

This way you have a great opportunity to reverse the bad delivery experience and set customers on the path toward satisfaction.

4. Recover costs via shipping insurance and refunds

Focus on improving your customers’ delivery experience and leaving out the costs associated with them. Don’t worry about these out-of-pocket costs each time when there’s a delivery issue, there are ways for you to start saving on them.

One way is to insure your packages, especially the high-value ones with your shipping carriers or a third-party service provider to recover any unfortunate losses on a parcel that you shipped. To get the best out of shipping insurance, you need to get your hands dirty with all the relevant information such as product qualification, documentation required, rate comparison, etc.

The other way is to start claiming shipping refunds from your carriers for each delivery failure on their behalf. If you’ve not waived your rights to claim refunds, know that not only delays, lost and damaged packages but there are over 50 carrier errors that might be entitled to refunds.

Also, manually filing claims can be a tiresome task. Instead, you can make use of an automated parcel audit solution that takes care of auditing your shipping invoices and filing claims while saving you time, effort, and most importantly money.

BONUS: The damage is done but is the package really lost?

Damages to the package are visible. Either on the cover or on the inside, making it clear of an incident. But the case isn’t the same with lost packages.

There are instances where packages that turn up after being rerouted somewhere or the issue at hand might be due to either a wrong address or a weather-related one. Quite simply, it is not unheard of for a package to turn up a day or two late.

With customer disappointment inevitable in either case, there is a remote chance that their frustrations can be mitigated when the delivery arrives a couple of days late rather than getting lost. In such cases, you need to take a different approach and treat the incident as a late delivery.

There can also be instances where the package goes missing after getting delivered. In such cases, the issue needs to be treated as a stolen package incident.

Following these steps can definitely help you take control of the situation and handle it all. However, all of these are effective only when the issues have occurred. By the time then, it becomes a bit late to work on your CX efforts, given that your customers are now frustrated.

But what if there was a way to resolve such issues even before they’ve impacted the customer?

This is where you start taking a proactive approach to things rather than being reactive to not just lost and damaged packages but all the delivery issues.

Employ Proactive Techniques in Your ‘damage Control’ Measures with Lateshipment.com

With a post-purchase automation platform like LateShipment.com, you can track parcels in real-time and gain the ability to proactively step in to resolve issues when things seem like going wrong.

For example, with a complete view of your parcels in transit, you can:

Stay aware of packages that are damaged at the loading or sorting facility (when it is about to be sent out for delivery).
Set up alerts for specific parcels that seem to be facing an issue like lagging behind schedule or getting misrouted from the intended destination.

Once you have gained these insights, you can instantly get in touch with the carrier to resolve the issue or send a quick replacement in case of a time-sensitive delivery.

Even if you’re unable to resolve the issue completely, communicating the issue to your customer (and not the other way around) via automated and personalized notifications, helps in mitigating their anxiety, gives them the confidence that you’d resolve the issue, and ultimately revives customers’ trust in your brand.

Not just providing a great delivery experience, LateShipment.com also helps you go all out with our post-purchase excellence cloud. Provide stellar delivery experiences with easy, seamless returns – all while significantly reducing your shipping spend by auditing your invoices and recovering eligible refunds for late deliveries, lost and damaged packages, and much more from your carriers.

That’s all from us for now. It is time to grow your fanbase, savings, and business with LateShipment.com.

We’re ready when you are.

The post What to Do If a Package Arrives Damaged—or Not at All appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Angry Customer Rants on Twitter for Common Post-purchase Issues

Sashank Ravindranath — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 07:49:28 +0000

Delivery issues are inevitable and particularly more frequent during the holiday season. But we can’t blame the shipping carriers for it. This is because the huge incoming volume of shipments really puts a strain on their capacity to deliver orders properly.

However, that doesn’t mean we let them get away with delivery issues because an angry customer doesn’t delve deep into the reasons behind the issue. They just want their orders intact and on time.

Being an e-commerce merchant, you may be accustomed to delays but for customers, they are always difficult to process, which may result in a burst of emotions. But we also can’t blame them for it.

As your customers’ shopping experience is completely virtual, they have gotten accustomed to getting relief only when a physical parcel shows up on their doorstep. Until then, they are constantly anxious. Even a minor inconvenience in their delivery waiting period will lead to your business paying a heavy price in terms of angry customer rants and poor online reviews.

Here’s the thing about these rants:

In most cases, they are directed towards you, the retailer, rather than the shipping carrier as customers hold the business they purchased from accountable rather than the carrier.
They have the power to demotivate potential customers who might be looking forward to shopping with the business by damaging the brand’s online reputation.

So, if you’re wondering what it is that you can do when facing such situations, this post is for you.

The reason for this post’s existence is: to let you know of the consequences of angry customer rants on social media, particularly the fan-favorite Twitter, and resolve them, to avoid them from becoming a headache.

Common Issues That an Angry Customer Takes to Social Media

While there are a long list errors that a package can face while making its way from the e-commerce store, there are just 5 major issues that an angry customer often takes to social media.

Where Is My Order? (WISMO)
My Order is Late
My Package is Lost
I have received a damaged package
I’m Not Satisfied with the Given Response

Let’s take a closer look at how angry customers expressed their ire over these issues on Twitter and what your business can do to prevent or handle such situations.

1. Where Is My Order? (WISMO)

Customers expect to be kept in the know of the whereabouts of their parcels as they eagerly await their delivery. When they are unable to see regular shipping event updates on the shipping carrier’s tracking page, they feel aggrieved and helpless. This in turn leads to repeated WISMO inquiries that consume all of your support reps’ time.

Now, imagine a scenario where there is a lack of response from support teams to such queries. In such cases, these anxious customers don’t hesitate to quickly take the issue to Twitter, where they simply call out the brand and get the attention of others, just like this.

@marksandspencer hi marks where is my order, as you have stolen my money and where is it???
— simon james (@simonja45479401) November 12, 2022

What You Can Do

To the modern consumer, it feels unnatural NOT to receive real-time updates on the status of their packages which in turn forces them to bombard your support teams with WISMO calls to alleviate their anxiety.

You can handle such situations by being proactive in engaging your customers with timely order updates even before they request one. You can also take this a notch further and make order tracking self-service so that your customers get their hands on all the details they are looking for and thus, don’t expect your support reps’ help.

2. My Order is Late

Let’s say your customers easily track their parcels and are aware of the status at all times. While their anxiety is eased a bit, it is still not yet fully resolved — thanks to the inevitable occurrence of order delays during times like the holiday season.

Delays are bad, sure. But what makes it worse is the situation when your angry customer informs you about them instead of the other way around.

Unattended delays lead to bad delivery experiences. And 78% of customers won’t shop with a brand after just one instance of a bad delivery experience.

What the hell is up with @amazon delivery? Package was supposed to be here today with the next day delivery. Now it says running late and it will be 15-17th for delivery. It’s not even the holiday season yet🤬
— 🔮ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕒 𝔸™🔮🌜✨ ♑ (@techsavvy68) November 15, 2022

What You Can Do

Gain complete visibility into your shipments in transit and send out a quick replacement via an expedited shipping option if you notice one of your customers’ parcels getting delayed. Additionally, you could provide affected customers with a coupon code offering a discount for their next purchase.

Not all delays are due to shipping carrier errors, there can be uncommon cases such as

The package facing a standstill because of bad weather, customs delays, roadblocks, etc
The package getting delivered late simply because there was no one at the location to collect it

In such cases, keep your customers informed if their parcels might be delayed. This way, your customers will be impressed with your commitment to provide them with a great delivery experience, and thus will give you another chance despite facing a delay.

3. My Package is Lost

Lost packages are worse than late deliveries and for obvious reasons, make your customers more infuriated. This is because, unlike delayed packages, the odds of lost packages finding their way back to the customer are very slim and statistically unlikely.

Sure, the customer gets refunded in such cases. But think about the frustrations they faced. It’s going to leave a scar on their delivery experience and makes things next to impossible to retain them.

Pet circle love to not deliver your stuff then when you email them they’re like “we are so sowwy 😿 what is your kitties name? 🥺 we lost ur package again ~does ur kitty love a snuggle?” And I’m like “I will never shop here again! Yes pixie loves snuggles”
— kelsie (@randyshart) November 15, 2022

What You Can Do

A lost package can come in as a shock for a customer. Thus, the process to handle it must be done step by step.

Like all post-purchase issues, initiate the communication instead of expecting them to find out eventually or waiting for them to come up with a WISMO inquiry
Start by sending a “suspected lost package” notification as soon as you find a package going haywire while live tracking all your shipments
Have a support rep stay in touch with and periodically update the angry customer to placate them. Additionally, make sure to send a free replacement for the lost product by expedited shipping.

This way, you can demonstrate your commitment to the customer and possibly impress them enough to retain them moving forward.

4. I have received a damaged package

Just like getting lost, packages are delivered to customers in a damaged state more often than you might expect. The numbers are particularly high during the holiday season as parcel handlers are confronted with huge volumes and must work fast to clear them.

When an expensive order is found to be damaged, it causes a dent in your profit margin. But far greater is the resulting negative impact it has on the customer’s perception of your brand.

Remember that the now angry customer is likely to voice their ire on social media and deter others from shopping with you.

Hey @amazon that package I ordered arrived almost a month late and was completely destroyed. It is soaked through. I left a note asking the delivery driver to leave it inside the screen door. This was ignored. I would have fit fine as per photo 4. You really messed up here. pic.twitter.com/1FVF86lqAK
— Joe (@WorthASandwich) November 13, 2022

What You Can Do

As a first step, make sure to package right. Your parcel will likely undergo significant stress during handling and your packaging should be sufficient to protect the parcel.

As the next step, provide labels for return shipping within your parcel so that your customer can return-ship it back to you if required. Make sure to absorb the cost of this return shipping. Provide a replacement or a refund to the customer at the earliest.

5. I’m Not Satisfied with the Given Response

As we mentioned, delivery issues are common and inevitable. However, lackluster customer support from your end while handling these issues can be more damaging to your reputation than the issue itself.

61% of the customers will stop doing business with you after one bad customer service experience.

Even the other four issues can be contained with proper customer support but the lack of an effective support team can cause even frequent customers to shun your brand.

Hi Simon, thanks for your tweet. Would you be able to confirm your order number, email address, and postcode in a PM? Once we have that information, we'd be happy to look into this for you. Take care, Tonayah. https://t.co/FqaAto1Kxs
— M&S (@marksandspencer) November 12, 2022

Keep in mind that a “Thanks for your tweet” might not be the response to an angry customer ranting about a delivery issue with their package. Such a response can really infuriate the customer further, who would immediately get the notion of shopping with an insensitive brand. This would further lead to angry customers continuing their rants and tarnishing your brand’s reputation online.

What You Can Do

Make sure your customer support team is thoroughly trained to handle a variety of post-purchase customer queries ranging from late deliveries to damaged parcels and is always available to deal with issues when required.

Negligence or not fulfilling a customer’s expectations will be seen as bad customer service.

Empower your support reps to easily spot shipments that may require attention and work proactively to address delivery issues before being asked to by customers.

Additionally, if a customer has taken their issue to social media, take an empathetic approach and provide redressal at the earliest.

You can take it up a notch and try to make the customer post a satisfied feedback in their social media profiles. This can help in creating a positive opinion of your brand among prospective customers. You might even get a testimonial this way.

How LateShipment.com’s DEM Platform Can Help You

Angry customer rants due to issues like these can heavily damage your online reputation and lead your potential customers into believing that the post-purchase experience you offer is indeed flawed and deters them from shopping with you.

On the other hand, getting your customer’s delivery experience right is crucial to building a loyal customer base. This is because repeat customers spend 67% more than new customers. And if you’re planning on simply replacing one lost customer with another, keep in mind that acquiring new customers is 5 times more expensive than retaining existing customers.

This is all the more reason to not overlook the post-purchase experience you offer and the need to take control of it to drive success.

These tweets are just the tip of the iceberg. You might face a gazillion more issues during the holiday season.

If you’re looking for a way to easily resolve all these issues, here it is.

The best way to handle post-purchase issues like these tweets is to put maximum effort to make sure that such a situation never arises.

A post-purchase automation platform like LateShipment.com can help you do just that by enabling you to provide superior CX throughout delivery & returns and make sure you drive customer delight. Also, LateShipment.com can help you effortlessly recover refunds for more than 50 shipping errors by carriers.

Thus, without further ado, get set up for post-purchase success this holiday season and beyond.

The post Angry Customer Rants on Twitter for Common Post-purchase Issues appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

How to Improve Brand Experience via Post-purchase Communication

Rohan Rinaldo Felix — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 13:40:56 +0000

E-commerce brands prioritize communicating with their customers frequently to influence their purchasing decisions and offer a decent experience associated with the brand.

However, the situation becomes radically different when the critical post-purchase phase of the customer journey begins. This is where the brand’s efforts towards a great customer experience (CX) suffer tremendously due to inadequate customer engagement leading to irreparable problems and lost opportunities.

If you’re an E-commerce or D2C store owner, customer support, or customer experience leader; this article is for you. Here are the things we’ll be covering in it.

Read through till the end if you’re looking at ways to start effectively engaging with customers in the post-purchase stage to improve the brand experience.

What Is Post-purchase Communication?

In simple terms, post-purchase communication is any sort of interaction between the brand and the customer after the latter has purchased with the former.

Any touchpoint that exists in the middle of the order getting confirmed to the order getting delivered or the returned order making its way back to the store qualifies as a post-purchase communication.

Post-purchase communication exists in many forms. Keep in mind that customers always expect brands to initiate communication hence, common forms of communication are order status notifications via emails and SMS, order tracking pages, customer support and social media interactions, delivery and returns feedback requests, etc. We’ll look at all of them in detail below.

Now that we’ve got a hang of what it means, let’s get into the underlying issues that exist in the post-purchase phase of the customer journey due to lack of communication.

Issues That Emanate from Lack of Proper Communication in the Post-purchase Phase

Today’s customers have almost unrealistic expectations when it comes to their experiences and this extends to the post-purchase phase too. Like this one for example.

Jokes apart. The post-purchase is notorious for service failures, billing errors, and everything that comes along with it. Such issues pose a real challenge for brands to meet customer expectations, let alone exceed them.

To make matters worse, brands often leave this valuable phase to third-party shipping carriers. This unfortunately results in a situation where communication suffers tremendously during this critical phase of the customer journey leading to irreparable problems and lost opportunities in the form of:

82% of online shoppers are worried about their orders not reaching them on time.
Up to 40% of support inquiries are WISMO (where is my order) or return status related.
30% of your customer support team’s time and effort is wasted handling repetitive delivery and return issues.
78% of online shoppers won’t purchase from a brand again after ONE negative delivery or returns experience.
12% of revenue is LOST by not selling more to customers during their ‘order’ and ‘return’ tracking moments.

On the other hand, effectively engaging with your customers comes with a host of benefits for your e-commerce brand, particularly related to improving the post-purchase CX among other things.

Why Communicating in the Post-purchase Phase Is Essential to the Brand Experience

Reduce customer anxiety when it comes to tracking their parcels – Pre-parcel anxiety is a real thing and more common than you think. Frequent communication from your end at this stage can mitigate their anticipation levels and reduce WISMO inquiries around parcel status by up to 70%. This can help you create a positive experience associated with your brand. Also, such proactive measures can free up your support team’s time and enable them to focus on other important stuff.
Improve brand recognition and recall – Customers track orders 6 to 8 times before delivery. By sending customers to track their parcels with the shipping carrier, you can stand to lose valuable opportunities to engage with them and build your brand. By taking control of your communicating order tracking information with your customers, you can witness a 30% increase in customer delight and brand recall.

That’s not all! There are also other benefits you stand to gain through the high open rates of shipping transactional emails (80-85%) and a possibility of up to 25% lift in repeat purchase rates with your remarketing efforts.

Now that we’ve seen the what and the why, let’s move on to the foremost question that is pondering in your mind. “So how do I start effectively engaging with customers in the post-purchase stage to improve the brand experience?”.

And the answer to the question is simply proactively communicating with your customers at various stages of the post-purchase phase. How exactly? Here’s how.

How Businesses Can Proactively Communicate Post-purchase

Let’s start with the most basic question, what does one mean by proactive communication in the first place?

Simply put, proactive communication in the post-purchase stands in interacting with the customers about their needs and issues preemptively (even before they become aware of it).

We’ve already talked about how close to 40% of customer support tickets created are shipping, delivery or returns related. These tickets are created out of primary needs such as order status information, inability to determine the parcel’s location, the requirement to return an order, frustrated rants over package issues not being informed, etc.

In all of the above cases, mitigating their frustration is a walk in the park with the help of proactive communication. So, without further ado, let’s start looking at ways e-commerce businesses such as yours can proactively communicate with customers in the post-purchase phase and improve the brand experience as a result of it.

Inform about potential order delays in advance

Your customers’ parcels facing delays are a common sight during the holiday season.

This is primarily due to shipping carriers straining capacity amidst the huge incoming volumes of parcels.

While delays are indeed frustrating for your customers, their impact can be largely reduced when customers are informed of them. And one such way to do it is to throw an announcement on your homepage and the order confirmation page about the possibility of delays.

This way, your customers who are shopping with you will be ready to accept that their holiday gift may arrive later than usual.

Inform shipping deadlines in advance

One such pre-purchase tactic to reduce your post-purchase burden is to inform your customers about the last days to ship for each holiday.

If you’re a frequent shipper, you might be aware that your shipping partner such as FedEx or UPS always comes up with a holiday shipping schedule that they adhere to. Last-minute shoppers who are unaware of these deadlines might receive parcels late, much to their disappointment.

Similar to the possibility of delays, you can also share your shipping deadlines as the customers are placing their orders and selecting delivery options. If you’re a business that doesn’t work on specific occasions such as holidays, you can share that information with customers as well.

Send out an early order confirmation

Unlike other transactional notifications, your order confirmation notifications are not an option but more of a necessity as customers are always expecting the brand to confirm their order ASAP.

This sets your customers towards a great post-purchase experience by giving them the satisfaction of the purchase being a success and the ability to re-check the details and make corrective actions.

As for your brand, order confirmation emails can be your ticket to increasing retention rates via special limited-time offers and product recommendations based on the customer’s recent purchase. Keep in mind that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.

Send delivery status notifications

Shoppers want to be up to speed about when their orders will arrive or what their return status is. Automate delivery and return notifications to inform customers at every event of the package journey.

Some of the common shipping transactional notifications can be sent for events such as order shipped, in transit, out for delivery, delivered, etc. In case everything doesn’t go according to your plan and your customer’s order hits a roadblock, you can send out customized notifications for common events such as delivery exceptions, suspected delays, failed delivery attempts, etc.

You can even up things further by embedding an order lookup widget on your shipping notifications and website to make tracking self-service.

Provide branded order-tracking experiences

Sending customers to a carrier’s website to track their order is old world. While you’re in complete control of your customer’s buying experience, why not their tracking experience?

How to do it, you ask?

Enable your customers to track their orders in a “branded” order tracking page hosted in your domain.

Apart from the generic order summary and tracking information, you can also extend the capabilities of your tracking page by including:

Brand elements such as font, logo, color schemes, etc, which can help brand recognition and recall.
Options to contact support and initiate returns from your tracking pages to offer convenience and improve the brand experience.
Sale announcements and personalized product recommendations to boost repeat purchases.

and so much more…

P.S. You can also enable your customers to track their ‘Order Delivery’ and ‘Return’ status by embedding a 24×7 order lookup widget on your website and chat tool. This helps you in making the brand experience smooth via self-service order tracking for your customers while considerably reducing the need for your support team’s help.

Collect customer feedback around post-purchase experiences and act on it

Allow customers to rate their overall delivery or returns experiences by including a rating/ feedback system on your ‘Delivery Notifications (Email & SMS)’ and ‘Branded Order Tracking Pages’ to gain customer feedback around post-purchase experiences and understand their satisfaction levels.

Getting feedback is one thing. But its true purpose lies in implementing required changes to your existing operations and making improvements that really matter.

Consistently directing efforts to improve CX post-purchase, and getting positive feedback from customers can help you promote brand credibility.

Simplify returns initiation

Customers return their purchases for various reasons ranging from size and fit related to quality issues.

And believe us, customers are not happy about returning the item(s) they purchased, as they’ve waited long enough to get their hands on it. Thus, let’s not make it any more stressful for them. Instead, simplify returns initiation by keeping the process limited to not more than 2 minutes.

Inform customers of the status of their returned orders

Communicate the return status information with your customers at regular intervals via:

Sending proactive updates on returns requests, via automated email and SMS status notifications to keep customers in the loop effortlessly.
Enabling live package tracking that provides complete transparency around return status to eliminate customer anxiety about the whereabouts of their package.

Such measures in turn can help you make the returns experience seamless for your customers and give them the confidence to keep shopping with you.

The start of the holiday season can be a great time to implement all these post-purchase communication tactics right. Here’s a little hack — you don’t have to do all this by yourself. Instead, you can try making use of a post-purchase solution like LateShipment.com, to get things done on your behalf.

How Lateshipment.com Can Help You Provide a Great Brand Experience

Want to deliver delight with every order you ship?

Want to drive more sales during order tracking?

And lastly, want to make returns profitable?

Look no further. LateShipment.com is the world’s only all-in-one post-purchase success platform built for e-commerce retailers, D2C brands, and other businesses shipping parcels, no matter the volume of shipments.

Our Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is here to help you build memorable order delivery experiences and boost revenue during order tracking moments. And our Returns Experience Management (REM) is here to make returns hassle-free with flexible return options and smart automation to help retain revenue.

Also, LateShipment.com seamlessly integrates with 600+ shipping carriers and business tools that include E-commerce platforms, Helpdesks, and Marketing Automation tools to:

Build branded tracking experiences in your domain and increase repeat purchase revenue.
Initiate contextual communication with customers whose parcels may be facing issues.
Automate shipping-related notifications for more than 10 shipping events and keep customers informed of their parcel status at all times.

And drive delightful post-purchase experiences at scale.

The value we offer is most evident when experienced first-hand.

Try LateShipment.com now.

The post How to Improve Brand Experience via Post-purchase Communication appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

How to Respond to Customers After a Late Delivery

Ian — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 11:41:24 +0000

Late delivery incidents are frequent, almost inevitable, and happens primarily because of shipping carriers failing to keep up with their promises of on-time delivery despite their busy schedules during times like the holiday season and while facing supply chain disruptions.

As an e-commerce retailer, it makes sense to take a look at how late deliveries can be problematic to you.

Up to 10% of parcels are delivered late during the holiday season
Nearly half of consumers (45%) say they are unlikely to continue ordering from a company even after just one instance of late delivery
Frustrated customers with delayed holiday gifts will take their frustrations to social media and demotivate others from shopping with you.

On-time deliveries, though, aren’t always within a business’s control. And avoiding customer concerns and complaints when they question you about a late delivery only makes matters worse.

So, here are 4 tips for how you can respond to customers after a late delivery and focus on doing long-term business with them even after a poor delivery experience.

How to respond to customers after a late delivery in 2022

1. Be Honest about Your Capabilities

Don’t put your company in a situation where late deliveries are common because you’re stretching your shipping resources too thin.

Provide customers with realistic shipping times, even if that means your competitors can deliver quicker.

Quick shipping is an attractive benefit to consumers, but knowing when to expect their deliveries is far more important.

Be honest with your customers about how quickly you can deliver an item. You risk damaging your relationship with them if you can’t fulfill your deliveries on time.

2. Be Transparent about Delays

Even if the reason for the late delivery is not your fault (when it’s due to weather or other unforeseen events), acknowledge the delay and contact your customer immediately.

Your customers already hold you accountable for late deliveries and even go to the extent of stopping doing business with you, so why not take responsibility for it and try to ease their frustrations? Also, customers are more forgiving when you’re transparent about the reasons for the delay and the adjusted shipping dates.

For example, Boxycharm women’s subscription box sends out its products in the early part of each month. Its subscribers look forward to receiving their boxes and complain loudly on social media when boxes don’t arrive on time.

When Boxycharm learned there would be a 2-week shipping delay due to product shortages, it notified customers of the delay immediately and told them exactly when to expect their shipments.

While nobody’s happy about receiving a late delivery, consumers do understand that weather emergencies and product shortages can cause delays.

When you let them know about a late delivery in advance, they’re less disappointed and more likely to forgive the problem.

3. Be Generous with Your Time and Compensation

According to an online shopping study, 90% of consumers complain publicly or privately, online and offline, after a late delivery or other bad delivery experiences.

Negative comments on social media aren’t always bad for your brand, though. People view brands more positively when they respond to negative comments. This gives you the chance to win back your original customers and visitors who are reading through your comments and reviews.

Thank complaining customers for their input, and let them know that you value your business and are making every effort to ensure late deliveries don’t happen again in the future.

Many businesses ask unhappy customers to message them privately, and frequently this means they’ll offer some compensation for their inconvenience.

Offering a credit, shipping refund, or free gift to customers whose deliveries are late shows that you value their business. These types of small gestures can help you retain customers who otherwise may not return.

For example, when Grove Collaborative experienced a significant shipping delay with its products, it emailed customers with an explanation, sincere apology, and free gift offer.

By offering a free gift with the next order, Grove increased its chances of customers returning to place an order in the future.

4. Be Proactive and Try Your Best to Resolve the Impact of a Late Delivery

Late deliveries are common and inevitable, yes. But what if there was a way for you to step in before your customers have been impacted by them?

This is where a real-time parcel tracking solution can come in handy.

With the ability to track all your parcels across carriers, geographic locations in real-time, get predictive alerts and flag shipments that seem to be staying behind on schedule. You can then enable your customer support team to intervene and fix the issue before it impacts your customer.

When your customer’s order is facing weather-related exceptions, you can send automated and timely notifications that are customized to the specific situation to keep your customers informed of what’s been happening with their parcels and ease their anxiety.

Even if the issue goes unresolved, your commitment towards taking proactive action can help you strengthen customer relationships and build rewarding delivery experiences.

Communication Can Help Retain Customers Who Experience Late Deliveries

Approaching your shipping operations from a customer-centric perspective helps retain customers in the case of late deliveries or shipping malfunctions.

Your company risks losing customers when shipments are behind schedule.

By communicating in a way that’s honest, transparent, and generous, you can significantly increase the chances of keeping your customers despite a poor delivery experience.

This Artilcle is a contribtion by Riley Panko

Riley Panko is a Marketing Communications Manager for Clutch, a B2B research, ratings, and reviews platform. Clutch helps business buyers make informed decisions about partnering with a business services or technology solutions partner.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Around Late Deliveries

1. How do you respond to a customer complaint about late delivery?

Be honest with your customers about your capabilities on how quickly you can deliver an item
Notify customers of the delay immediately and tell them when to expect their shipments
When customers who have experienced a shipping delay, write a sincere apology and offer them coupons for discounted prices on their next purchase
Send regular, personalized notifications that are tailor-made to the specific situation to keep your customers informed of what’s been happening with their parcels and ease their anxiety.

2. How do you apologize for delayed customers?

Acknowledge the delay and explain what really went wrong to your customers, offer them a list of solutions and let them choose what’s best for them and provide discounts such as free shipping/ reduced prices on their next delivery.

3. What causes late delivery of products?

The most common reasons for late deliveries are transit confusions due to human error, delivery exceptions such as failed deliveries, poor warehouse management, lack of coordination among the people involved, customs issues (for international shipments), acts of gods such as weather changes or natural calamities, etc. Also delays are more common during the holiday season when shipping carriers are operating beyond threshold.

The post How to Respond to Customers After a Late Delivery appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

E-commerce Delivery Experience Management (DEM) to Drive Customer Delight

Rohan Rinaldo Felix — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 11:24:42 +0000

Customers are no longer just interested in low prices, fast shipping, and free returns have constantly been the three must-haves for an online business to make the cut in today’s market.

They want e-commerce brands to treat them with the proper experience that can lead them to shop again.

However, most brands unwillingly make the mistake of not giving the same level of attention to their post-purchase as they do to their pre-purchase. This is because brands feel the customer journey ends with the ‘buy’ button. Which is not the case.

This lack of attention and leaving out the post-purchase order delivery phase at the hands of the shipping carrier often leads to bad delivery experiences and ultimately a post-purchase CX gap that can cost you customers and money.

In order to close this existing gap and create the opportunity to delight customers in the post-purchase phase, brands must start crafting stellar delivery experiences. Here comes Delivery Experience Management (DEM) that can help you do just that.

To get better context, let’s start with what DEM stands for.

What is Delivery Experience Management (DEM)?

Delivery Experience Management (DEM) is the process of being proactive in ensuring that your customers receive their orders on time and how they expect. It also involves taking action as required to correct delivery issues and constantly engaging customers in the post-purchase phase to validate brand promises.

Organizationally Delivery Experience Management (DEM) sits at the very intersection of onsite customer experience, post-purchase customer experience, and order fulfillment.

DEM is all about offering each of your customers a memorable post-purchase experience that not merely satisfies but also delights and makes them advocates of your brand.

But why does your e-commerce business in particular need DEM?

Why Does Your Business Need Delivery Experience Management (DEM)

DEM, still largely untapped, is sure to provide you a competitive advantage and allow your hitherto unprecedented control over your post-purchase phase. Here are only a few reasons why your business needs DEM:

Resolve critical shipping incidents before they happen with real-time updates – leads to 70% reduction in delivery inquiries
Strengthen customer relationships by keeping your customers informed of their orders – open rates are around 80% for personalized email and SMS notifications
Leverage tracking moments to increase brand awareness – 30% increase in brand recall
Decode customer sentiment and engagement to provide a positive delivery experience – 25% lift in repeat purchases

DEM is chock-a-block filled with aspects, if I may, that can help you craft the perfect delivery experience and drive customer delight. Let’s take a deeper look at tools for a complete understanding on DEM.

How DEM Helps You Craft the Perfect Delivery Experience and Drive Customer Delight

Real-time visibility is an aspect of DEM that allows you to stay on the pulse of each of your parcels in transit (from the moment they’re picked up by a shipping carrier up until it is delivered to its designated destination) and identify issues they face, thereby giving you ample time to set things right.

A lack of visibility into your delivery often comes with a horde of challenges, in the form of:

You, the business becoming aware of a delivery issue only when an angry customer calls in and
Your customer support reps are forced to handle repeated WISMO (Where Is My Order?) inquiries as there is a lack of information to deal proactively with delivery issues.

However, DEM simply eliminates this case by affording a real-time view of all parcels in transit across different shipping carriers and also working predictively to flag delivery issues even before they arise. This arms businesses with all the actionable information required to thwart a possible negative delivery issue for the customer even before it arises, thus enabling customer loyalty over time.

Proactive customer service is enabling your customer support reps to address and mitigate delivery issues before customer impact. This shows your strong commitment to keeping up with the high standard of customer experience you offer.

Not just unresolved issues, even simply being reactive to delivery issues can also hurt your business in the following ways:

Even your most loyal customer can stop shopping with you, leading to lower lifetime value (CLV) and higher acquisition costs (CAC)
Your brand’s online reputation takes a massive hit as frustrated customers post a negative review on social media and demotivate their followers, friends, and family from shopping with you.

This is where a DEM solution can make a major difference.

By providing unbiased real-time insights on the status of each of your parcels in transit, it can prepare you to respond in time when a specific parcel is facing a delay. This is a surefire way for your business to demonstrate to each customer that they are valued, thereby preventing the possibility of them switching over to a competitor.

Also, it considerably reduces the number of calls about parcel whereabouts that a support agent has to face and frees up their time to tend to product-specific issues. Over time, this helps in improving the scores of every member of the support team for which they will be thankful to you!

Handing over the control of the package causes a broken customer experience in the order delivery phase and is also a lost opportunity to monetize tracking moments.

Delivery Experience Management corrects this imbalance by helping e-commerce businesses provide on-brand order tracking experiences that can make more of a mark on their customers and, indeed, delight them.

In terms of branded customer engagement, DEM helps you:

Keep customers informed of delivery status through automated & personalized email and SMS notifications that are triggered and sent to customers when their parcels reach specific events during the shipping process.
Provide customizable branded tracking pages that makes it possible for a customer to track their parcels within your website rather than being taken to the tracking page of a shipping carrier.

Leveraging order tracking moments can work as your e-commerce store’s next marketing advantage by ensuring brand recall and opening up upselling and cross-selling opportunities for your business. Also, adding relevant product information can help reduce unwanted returns.

There has always been a dearth of data when it comes to the error-prone stage of the logistics cycle, the post-purchase phase. This includes the gap in understanding customer satisfaction metrics as well.

While you have CSAT and NPS to know how satisfied your customers are and how likely they are to recommend your brand to others, you still don’t have clarity on when exactly customers feel let down by your business.

Worry not! DEM provides access to a wealth of unbiased data on the delivery performance of your shipping partner(s); data hitherto unavailable to e-commerce businesses like yours; data that shipping carriers have always been hesitant to share with businesses.

This unbiased view of customer sentiment about the quality of delivery experience you offer enables you to:

Take delivery-related decisions that are bound to delight your customers
Know how your shipping carriers’ performance impacts your customers and hold this data to account for their SLAs
Shine a light on the quality of your post-purchase phase
Helps protect your brand’s reputation from negative feedback.

How DEM Integrates with Your Existing Tech Stack

The beauty of a good DEM solution lies in the fact that it allows you to simplify workflows and boost organizational productivity without disrupting your pre-existing solutions.

For instance, a DEM platform like LateShipment.com gives you everything you need to create delightful delivery experiences for every shopper, every time. And the best part, it works with all the tools you work with.

LateShipment.com’s DEM suite is designed to seamlessly integrate with most shipping carriers, eCommerce platforms, order management platforms, CRMs, and helpdesk tools.

Additionally, LateShipment.com also can integrate with custom-built tools and platforms. Our API makes it easy to enable such integrations. This allows you to tap into all the great benefits that can take your business to the next level.

Do Bigger Things with Your Post-purchase

Don’t stop with a great delivery experience. With LateShipment.com, go all out with your post-purchase excellence. It combines stellar delivery experiences with easy, seamless returns – all while significantly reducing your shipping spend by auditing your invoices and recovering eligible refunds from your carriers.

It takes less than 2 minutes to see LateShipment.com in action without any change to your existing workflow.

Try for free now.

The post E-commerce Delivery Experience Management (DEM) to Drive Customer Delight appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

How to Ensure Better Performance from Shipping Carriers

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 13:29:44 +0000

The Importance of On-time Delivery

On-time deliveries are a business’ best practice. Yet they do not captivate customers like same-day delivery or free shipping promises do. However, failing to make on-time deliveries gives you a bad reputation.

But..but…keeping deliveries on time is not so easy, given that on-time delivery is in the hands of your shipping partner.

In such situations, it is natural to ensure a better performance from the shipping carrier that you’re using.

To do that, we’ll have to first understand the role shipping carriers in ensuring on-time deliveries.

The Role of Shipping Carriers in Ensuring On-time Deliveries

Once the package has been handed over to the shipping carrier, they take control of your customers’ post-purchase experiences as well.

Despite carriers’ efforts to deliver your customers’ parcels on time, delays occur daily, largely because of carriers straining their capacity to meet on-time deliveries.

That’s not all! 7 out of 10 common causes of delays are because of the shipping carrier — ranging from poor warehouse management to failed delivery attempts.

And the worst part about these delays is the fact that the responsibility falls on you rather than the shipping carrier.

Customers who have faced a delay on packages that are most valuable to them will definitely not shop with you again. And if that’s not enough, frustrated former customers also end up posting negative reviews on social media and deter potential customers from choosing your business.

Thus, it is clear that your shipping carriers’ performance has a significant effect on your customer experience (and wallet!).

That said, you can make use of a solution such as LateShipment.com that helps you deliver phenomenal post-purchase CX and measurable results such as a better quality of service and an on-time delivery guarantee from your shipping partner.

How E-commerce Businessses Can Ensure On-time Deliveries and Better Performance from Shipping Carriers

1. Collect delivery feedback from customers to identify areas of improvement

Your customers are the ultimate end users when it comes to order deliveries.

If they are not satisfied with the delivery experience provided, they would not only show their frustration at the carrier but also at the business that is making use of the carrier as well. Therefore, it is wise to understand what they think of the delivery experiences they receive.

Collect your customers’ feedback on delivery experiences to know whether all that time, money, and effort you spent is working in your favor. You can then use this valuable data to make the right decisions when it comes to shipping and identify areas of improvement such as delivering on time.

With the help of LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform, you can:

Capture your customers’ Delivery Satisfaction (DSAT) rating after every order delivery and
Monitor the average DSAT scores of customers to optimize the shipping & delivery process

Consistently improving your customers’ post-purchase can help you promote your brand’s credibility.

2. Review carrier performance scores via comparison reports

Shipping takes a lot of effort, time, and most importantly money. It is only smart that you review and evaluate your choices and decisions with the help of good data

LateShipment.com provides you a detailed assessment of how your carrier’s delivery performance fares against service-specific delivery standards in the form of intuitive reports.

With this data at hand, you can get a single consolidated view of delivery performance metrics across carriers, services, and geographies. You can then dig deeper to uncover gaps in carrier performance and know where you’re seeing profits and review areas where you’re not.

That’s not all! You can now make informed decisions and efficient last-mile carrier choices that can inevitably increase the odds of on-time deliveries.

3. Hold your carriers accountable by regularly collecting refunds for their service failures

About one-third of customers won’t repurchase from a merchant after a late delivery.

So, why bear the brunt of delivery issues?

It’s only fair to hold your carriers accountable for their mistakes. And you can do that by regularly auditing your shipping invoices and claiming refunds.

Each package shipped through major carriers comes with a service guarantee. It’s an assurance that the package will be delivered within a committed time, failing which they offer a complete refund of the shipping cost.

There are more than 50 service failures, overcharges, and discrepancies that are eligible for refunds. When unclaimed, this money that you’re entitled to be just left on the table.

Keeping a close watch on delivery issues and claiming refunds where due, also ensures better service quality by your shipping carriers.

Bottom Line

Apart from helping you ensure a better performance from your shipping carriers, LateShipment.com also helps you do bigger things with your post-purchase by combining stellar delivery experiences with easy, seamless returns and not to forget, recovering eligible refunds from your carriers.

Try LateShipment.com for free now and grow your fanbase, savings, and business. We’re ready when you are. Ready to get started?

If you still have questions for us, we’re all ears.

The post How to Ensure Better Performance from Shipping Carriers appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

How Proactive Customer Service Benefits Your Post-purchase CX

Sashank Ravindranath — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 05:53:39 +0000

Today’s shoppers have high customer service expectations and zero tolerance for issues.

If an ecommerce business doesn’t meet their expectations in providing a decent and personalized CX, they will quickly move on to a competitor. This not just applies to the purchase phase but the post-purchase order delivery phase as well, which, unfortunately, you have no control over as the package has been handed off to the shipping carrier.

The lack of required data to step in and handle customer queries makes it difficult for your business to resolve issues and provide a great CX.

Issues/ questions that are unanswered/unresolved stand at the #2 frustration with an ecommerce business’ customer service with long wait and response times at #1.

Worry not though. By implementing proactive customer service, you can resolve these issues and provide memorable delivery experiences. But first, what actually is proactive customer service?

What is Proactive Customer Service?

Proactive customer service is all about monitoring your shipments in real-time and enabling your customer service representatives to preemptively fix issues that could lead to bad delivery experiences for your customers.

Proactive customer service or proactive support translates to providing your support reps with ample data required to resolve customer issues beforehand and giving you ample time to set things right. In short, it eliminates the need for your customers to reach out to you by simply helping you make the first move.

Displaying your ability to proactively address and resolve customer issues helps you show your strong commitment to the high standard of CX you offer.

Why Proactive Customer Service Matters?

We live in an experience economy, where the CX you provide drives how consumers perceive your brand.

Businesses must take a strong resolve to handle delivery issues and do it quickly. But being just reactive to issues is just not enough. Here’s why.

Problems of being just reactive to delivery issues

Unlike proactive customer service, being reactive means taking efforts to resolve issues only after they’ve happened. When you’re being reactive, the customer reaches out to you with an issue such as the delivery getting late or a query on their parcel status.

More often than not, this may not be the best ploy to resolve customer issues. Here’s why.

1. It is already too late

“Prevention is better than cure” might sound clichéd, but it holds true in this context. By the time your customer service representative reacts to a customer’s issue, it is too late as it has already had an impact on them.

2. Increased support queries

Customers are always anxious about their orders. This leads to a high Volume of WISMO calls and order status inquiries in the form of unwanted support tickets. These queries take up about 40% of your customer support queries i.e, a customer service agent spends an average of 10-minutes per ‘where is my order?’ request.

3. Increased customer frustration

Customers who are unhappy with their order delivery experience will soon take their frustrations to social media and influence their friends and followers’ decision of shopping with you. That’s not all! Negative customer reviews can also cause irreparable damage to your brand’s online reputation.

4. Increased customer disloyalty and acquisition costs

You might be familiar with the stat that 1-in-3 customers will stop shipping with you after just one instance of a bad delivery experience. However, know that if you plan to just replace one customer with another, keep in mind that it costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one.

On the other hand, here is the importance of proactive customer service for your ecommerce business to understand its needs better.

Mitigate the impact of delivery issues on your customers
Reduce the volume of WISMO calls and support tickets
Makes Customer Support Reps Efficient
Increased customer engagement
Builds Trust and Increases Customer Loyalty

Now that we’ve understood why proactive customer service matters for your ecommerce business, let’s move on to how you can implement a proactive approach to your post-purchase CX efforts.

How You Can Take a Proactive Customer Service Approach in the Post-purchase Phase

1. Fix Last-mile Issues Before Customer Impact

By tracking and staying in the know of all your customers’ parcels in real-time, you can be aware of your customers’ shipment status at all times and take proactive action like letting your customer service reps intervene and fix issues before impact.

When your customer’s in-transit order is likely to go haywire, you can preemptively inform the customer regarding the issue and also offer solutions based on their expectations such as re-shipping the order via an expedited shipping option, a discount, or a refund on their next purchase.

Keep in mind that more than 60% of customers will shop with a brand again if the company handles a customer service issue fairly, even if the outcome isn’t in their favor. This fact is more than enough to show that your commitment to proactive customer service can improve your customers’ loyalty towards your brand and improve retention rates.

Increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase your profits by more than 25%.

2. Keep customers in the loop of their orders

Engaged customers are loyal customers, and it should be your mission to engage them on every level. Instead of communicating only when there’s an issue, you can engage with them daily by notifying them of their orders.

By being in the know of how many of your parcels will be delivered during the day and how many are likely to be delayed, you can take proactive steps and can keep your customer engaged across the post-purchase phase.

By proactively informing them about their order status, you can notice a drastic reduction in the number of WISMO calls and an increase in your CSAT Score due to your frictionless post-purchase CX efforts.

87% of customers say that they become happy when contacted proactively by businesses regarding customer service issues, and 75% have a positive experience when surprised with an incoming call and have a change in their perception of the brand calling them.

How LateShipment.com Can Help You Implement Proactive Customer Service

1. Set up automated shipping notifications for common/uncommon delivery events

Keep your customers informed of important updates on packages by sending automated and timely email notifications about their orders for common delivery events such as “Shipped”, “Attempted”, “Delivered”, etc and uncommon events such as “suspected lost”, “delayed in transit”, etc.

2. Easily spot delivery issues with a dedicated support dashboard

Gain the ability to track all your parcels across carriers and geographic locations and predict delays in real-time. Make use of a dashboard exclusively designed to help your support agents easily spot shipments that may require attention, and initiate contextual email communication with customers.

3. Proactively engage with your customers during critical delivery events

When your customers’ orders are facing critical uncommon delivery events such as weather-related exceptions, you can enable your customer service teams to send customized notifications tailored to that specific customer or situation to build trust and keep them engaged post-purchase.

Bottom Line

Carrier errors and customer anxiety beyond the buy button are inevitable. However, with LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform, you can turn customer anxiety and frustration into fierce loyalty by implementing proactive customer service in the post-purchase phase.

With DEM, you can be awesome, even when your shipping carriers disappoint. Delivery issues are inevitable even with the most efficient carriers. While you do not have control over such events, you can step in before customer impact and proactively address them, thereby instilling confidence in your customers.

Also, reduce angry WISMO by 70% with proactive order status updates. Your customers’ anticipation is at its peak when they are waiting for their packages – we’re sure your support agents can’t agree more. So, keep your customers in the loop about the whereabouts of their order with proactive communication and free up your support reps’ time to focus on more pressing issues.

That’s not all! To make resolving customer issues even more straightforward, LateShipment.com integrates with every major eCommerce and CRM platform, Helpdesk tool, and Order Management system. Send notifications on order delivery lifecycle, proactively handle delivery issues, get predictive alerts, and send delivery-related tickets to strengthen customer relationships and build rewarding delivery experiences.

The best part is that it takes less than 2 minutes to see LateShipment.com in action without any change to your existing workflow.

The value we add to businesses is most evident when experienced first-hand.

Interested? We at LateShipment.com can’t wait to help you grow your fanbase, savings, and business.

Get in touch with our expert or write to us.

The post How Proactive Customer Service Benefits Your Post-purchase CX appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Last-mile Carrier Tracking: A Competitive Edge for Your Ecommerce Business

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 09:34:25 +0000

Last-mile carrier tracking can be the most expensive and time-consuming part of your ecommerce business’ shipping and delivery process.

Adding fuel to the fire is your customers’ growing demands of wanting complete visibility into the last-mile process. However, meeting these demands is not as easy as it looks. This is primarily because ecommerce businesses hand over the reins of the last-mile and post-purchase to the shipping carrier.

Your shipping carrier on the other hand is already overwhelmed by their delivery volumes and has no interest nor commitment to your customer experiences (CX).

But before we take a look at how to get the best out of last-mile carriers and grow your business, let’s start from the basics.

What is a Last-mile Carrier?

A last-mile carrier is a shipping service provider that caters to your needs, particularly in the final leg of the delivery cycle.

The last-mile carrier can also constitute the other parts of the post-purchase customer journey, based on your requirements and their capacity.

The primary expectation of the last-mile carrier is to provide quicker delivery options such as same-day delivery and be cost-efficient. As an ecommerce business owner, you need to choose a carrier that brings out both. Here are some different last-mile carrier options to give you an idea.

Last-mile carrier options

There are multiple last-mile carrier options each with its pros and cons. You can pick one that best suits your business’ needs.

Single carrier method – Make use of major last-mile carrier providers such as FedEx, UPS, or DHL to fulfill your customers from end to end. Their experience and skill-sets can provide a guarantee for your packages to reach your customers’ doorsteps both quickly and safely. If your business is smaller, you can make use of smaller local or regional carriers.
Third-party logistics or 3PL – Make use of Third-party logistics (3PL) providers for complete solutions such as assembly, packaging, warehousing, and distribution. A reliable 3PL logistics process provider can maximize your profitability through their knowledge, expertise and resources.

Now that we’ve understood the basics of last-mile and carriers, it’s time to move on to how you can provide your customers with a great post-purchase experience, especially on the last mile.

For that, you’ll need to understand the challenges that arise due to the current state of last-mile delivery.

Challenges of last-mile deliveries

Increased costs – Last-mile deliveries aren’t always successful. 1-in-3 deliveries face issues such as shipping delays, delivery exceptions, failed deliveries, porch pirates, etc. This can lead to increased shipping costs in the form of unwanted returns, customer acquisition, and more.
Negative impact on your customer loyalty metrics – Over 55% of the customers won’t return to a brand after just one instance of a bad delivery experience. This can impact your customer loyalty metrics such as CRR (customer retention rate) and CLTV (customer lifetime value).

Don’t let these challenges worry you. There’s an easy way to handle them. All you have to do is to implement proper last-mile carrier tracking and gain a competitive edge for your business.

What is Last-mile Carrier Tracking and How Does it Provide a Competitive Edge?

Last-mile carrier tracking is nothing but gaining complete visibility into your last mile. It is the ability to track and trace the shipping carrier’s location and parcel status from the transportation hub to the designated destination.

93% of customers expect complete visibility while tracking their orders and viewing real-time shipping information and 47% of consumers will not shop again with a brand that does not provide order tracking visibility. Therefore, the importance of carrier tracking in the last mile is evident.

That’s not all! Last-mile carrier tracking also provides a multitude of benefits for your business and end-users.

Last-mile carrier tracking benefits for your customers

1. Complete transparency during order tracking

With the help of real-time visibility, make sure your customers can seamlessly track their orders via order tracking pages and know at a glance what’s happening with their orders in the last mile.

This gives them a sense of control of their orders and ergo, increases their CX during the order delivery phase.

2.Receive regular communication on order status updates and delivery events

Apart from enabling your customers to track their orders, you can as well send post-purchase transactional Emails and SMS notifications to keep your customers in the loop of their orders throughout the delivery lifecycle.

This can help in reducing your customers’ anticipations during the most anxious stage of their journey.

Last-mile carrier tracking benefits for your business

1. Resolve delivery issues proactively

Empower your support team to proactively resolve issues such as delivery delays, frequent WISMO calls, etc, and take preemptive action before such discrepancies impact your customers.

This can help in reviving customers’ trust in your brand.

2. Collect delivery feedback from customers

Get your customers’ feedback on their delivery experiences and understand customer satisfaction. You can then use this information to make better shipping decisions and optimize the experience as well.

This way, your customers will be impressed with your efforts and will prefer you to your competitors.

How Lateshipment.Com Can Help with Last-mile Carrier Tracking (and More!)

LateShipment.com is a unified cloud solution for everything post-purchase that helps you:

1. Identify shipments facing issues at a glance

View real-time shipping data across carriers, services, and delivery locations
Get predictive analytics of delivery delays identified for you

2. Resolve critical shipping incidents before they happen

Trigger automated tickets on your helpdesk
Easily spot shipments that may require attention in your dashboard
Send custom notifications tailored to specific situations

3. Reduce delivery inquiries by 70% with real-time updates

Send automated email and SMS shipping notifications
Seamlessly integrate with your email marketing tools

4. Leverage tracking moments to drive 25% repeat sales

Add an order tracking widget anywhere
Create custom branded tracking pages
Use tracking moments to drive sales via product recommendations, offers, marketing campaigns, etc

5. Decode customer sentiment and engagement

Measure how your customers are engaging with your brand post-purchase
Know from your customers the experience your brand delivered
Review carrier performance in the last mile and make better shipping choices

6. Audit shipping invoices and claim refunds

Effortlessly recover up to 20% of shipping costs through refund claims
Improve carrier performance by regularly collecting refunds

7. Manage returns effectively

Automate and make returns self-service to remove the hassle
Make returns profitable via exchanges and store credit options

Bottom Line

To make it easier for you to implement last-mile carrier tracking, you can make use of a post-purchase solution such as LateShipment.com that does all the heavy lifting on your behalf.

Interested? We at LateShipment.com can’t wait to help you grow your fanbase, savings, and business.

Get in touch with our expert or write to us.

Last-mile Carrier Tracking FAQs

What is a last-mile carrier?

A last-mile carrier is a shipping service provider that caters to your needs, particularly in the final leg of the delivery cycle. The last-mile carrier can also constitute the other parts of the post-purchase customer journey, based on your requirements and their capacity.

What is last mile tracking?

Last-mile carrier tracking is gaining complete visibility into your last mile by making use of your ability to track and trace the location and parcel status from the transportation hub to the designated destination.

What is last mile delivery management?

A last mile delivery platform or solution is a tool that helps in creating delightful delivery experiences for your ecommerce business in the last mile. With a last-mile delivery platform, you can not just meet but exceed your customers’ expectations. It helps you with a host of benefits such as real-time tracking, proactive communication, customer feedback recording, etc.

Why is carrier tracking in the last mile so important?

The last-mile is the most expensive and tedious part of the shipping and delivery process. Tracking your parcels in real-time and more can help you reduce costs and scale your business operations.

How to make the best use of last-mile carrier tracking

You can make the best use of last-mile carrier tracking by sharing real-time order updates with your customers via branded tracking pages and customer notifications. This can help you increase customer trust and make them repeat shoppers. Also, you can use last-mile tracking moments to collect customer feedback and know what they perceive of your brand.

The post Last-mile Carrier Tracking: A Competitive Edge for Your Ecommerce Business appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Transportation Trends Affecting the Commercial Vehicle Industry in the US

Sashank Ravindranath — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 05:55:04 +0000

Globe Newswire stats show that the demand for commercial vehicles, will be worth around $3.07 trillion by 2030 despite the technological advances in transportation over the last few years. This is probably enough to display that as long as there are goods that need transporting, commercial vehicles will always be necessary.

Road infrastructure networks have consistently improved not just in the United States, but also in countries like India and South Africa, meaning that the demand for commercial vehicles, all around the globe, has been increasing at a steady pace.

As the global economy starts to recover and industries can once again open up, here are some transportation trends and predictions in the commercial vehicle market to have a strong 2022 and beyond.

Electric Vehicles Are On The Rise

PR Newswire has highlighted the fact that electric and automated vehicles, in particular, are currently trending in the transportation and automotive industry, and this includes the market for commercial vehicles. It is expected that electric vehicles will expand the commercial vehicle market soon as the industry leans toward trends that contribute to a sustainable future.

Furthermore, due to the reliability and significant improvements that an electric engine has over an internal combustion engine, electric vehicle use is expected to grow steadily in the industry over the next few years.

Dually Trucks Are Growing In Popularity

Many truck-based commercial vehicles companies are starting to move towards dually trucks as a means to replace old or worn-out vehicles that can no longer complete the necessary duties.

Dually trucks are essentially dual-rear-wheel trucks as they have two rear wheels on each side. The wheel configuration contributes to more stability on the roads as well as stronger rear axles, which allow dually trucks to haul larger loads over longer distances. This makes them exceptional vehicles for the long-haul commercial transport industry.

Driving on a narrow urban road with a dually truck might be a difficult task, but these vehicles are perfectly optimized for wider, open roads, making them the perfect fit for the transportation and construction industry.

Commercial Transportation Will Thrive Again

Transportation in the commercial vehicle industry is coming back strong after a rough couple of years. Experts at PWC predict that the industry will be worth close to US$3 trillion by the year 2030, and electric vehicles and dually trucks are the latest trends to spur this growth. With so many technological advancements happening so quickly, it’s almost certain that the projected growth for commercial vehicles will come to fruition.

This is a guest post by Linda Carter

Linda Carter is a writer and a digital marketing manager who inspires and empowers you to create marketing that your customers will love, igniting real results for your business.

The post Transportation Trends Affecting the Commercial Vehicle Industry in the US appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

How to Deal With Shipping Delays

Rohan Rinaldo Felix — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 06:19:00 +0000

Shipping delays (also known as post-pickup delays) are inevitable even with the most efficient carriers (thanks to the growing consumer demand). And when they happen, they tend to drive your customers away.

That’s not all! The worst part about them is that you do not have control over such events and often feel helpless when they happen.

Worry not! Dealing with shipping delays is no rocket science but first, we’ll start with the basics.

What Are Shipping Delays?

A package picked up by the carrier is marked as ‘shipped’. There are instances where this package gets held up before getting into transit and when that happens, the shipment is considered delayed.

While looking trivial, they can be particularly frustrating because they create a sense of uncertainty and can disrupt plans (on-time deliveries and improving customer experiences).

When delays in shipping are left unattended, they lead to late deliveries or delivery delays and can have worse consequences on your business.

Shipping delays are not only inevitable but frequent. They occur daily and it is somewhat true that they largely happen because of shipping carriers failing to keep up with their promises of on-time delivery despite their busy schedules.

But that’s not the only reason why parcels take time to reach their destination. Here are some of the other reasons why these delays happen.

Why Do Shipping Delays Occur

There are many reasons why the package is prevented from leaving the sorting facility or held by the carrier.

Severe weather conditions
Transportation issues like congestion, accidents, or equipment breakdowns
Peak seasons like holidays, where huge volumes of shipments overwhelm carrier networks
Issues within the carrier’s system, such as sorting errors, poor warehouse management, lack of coordination among the people involved, or labor shortages
For international shipments, customs inspections and clearance processes can take a little extra time

While shipping delays might be inevitable, they sure aren’t unavoidable. With the right course of action, you can mitigate or even prevent their impact on customers and your business.

What You Can Do About Shipping Delays (You Have the Power)

There are a whole lot of things you can do to avoid shipping delays from becoming late deliveries. Assuming that a delay has already happened. Here’s what you can do:

Effective communication with customers in handling their complaints

While customers are prone to get frustrated seeing that there has been a delay with their shipment before getting into transit, that shouldn’t prevent you from hiding this detail from them. This can cause more damage as customers always expect you to keep them informed about the status of their orders and estimated delivery times.

Firstly, it’s incredibly important that you communicate with your customer. The last thing a customer would want to see is that there has been a delay in shipping, and there’s no communication from the shipper. Make the effort to get in touch with the customer and let them know of the status of the parcel.

Secondly, Apologize if you should. Don’t fall to the misconception that this is the carrier’s fault. Your customers do not feel that way and are more inclined to hold you accountable. Therefore, take ownership and explain the whole situation.

Take ownership of the situation

This is probably easier said than done, but make sure you own up and face the ire of the customer if it comes to that. There’s no way you can skirt the issue — understand the customer’s frustration

Aside from giving consistent updates such as order status information, and offering empathy along with alternative shipping options or solutions they prefer.

This will actually show you in a good light and ensure that the expectations of your brand have been exceeded (thanks to your efforts to address their concerns efficiently and follow up to ensure satisfaction).

Proactive Measures to Minimize Delays

Here’s another killer tip for you. Sign up for a service that will help you track your shipments in real-time. This will allow you to identify potential delays early on and respond to issues preemptively. Regularly tracking your shipments also allows you to identify areas for improvement, such as insights into carrier performance.

If shipping delays are a regular occurrence with your carrier, using multiple carriers for different delivery requirements may well be the way to go. Multiple carrier options while being armed with data can help you to make necessary adjustments such as better carrier choices to prevent recurrence.

Final Word

Shipping delays are an inevitable part of the logistics industry. While they can be frustrating, proactive measures, effective communication, and a customer-centric approach can significantly mitigate their impact.

By following the steps mentioned here, you can minimize the impact of shipping delays and maintain customer satisfaction. Remember, effective communication and proactive measures are key to handling these challenges successfully.

The post How to Deal With Shipping Delays appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

How to Avoid Delivery Delays During the Holiday Season

Ian — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 08:21:59 +0000

The world of eCommerce experienced a new phenomenon caused by COVID-19. The holiday season further adds more challenges to it in the form of sudden increase in online orders, shortage of in-stock items, and delivery delays.

Shipping carriers such as UPS and FedEx, have learned from experience and are preparing for the increased load. But they aren’t the only ones who should be taking measures to prevent delivery delays. It is the hands of eCommerce retailers as well.

Let’s delve in deeper and find out what causes delivery delays and how to avoid them when shipping overseas.

Impact of Delivery Delays

To some extent, delivery delays are inevitable when sending a package to a faraway destination. They are more likely to happen if you’re delivering gifts to a different continent as in the case of shipping to Europe from the USA. But it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t strive to prevent them.

Delivery delays cost a lot in the long run. They deal a blow to the reputation of the retailer.

Customers are less willing to buy from the same shop if they have experienced shipping delays. The negative feedback also makes it harder to attract new clients.

Not to mention extra costs. They might add up when you have to compensate the customer for a late package. You may also need to deal with cancellations or returns because the parcel took too long to arrive.

How to Avoid Delivery Delays

While some of the factors that impact package delivery, such as weather conditions and global events, are beyond human control, you can still take measures to minimize the risks. Here’s what you can do before the holiday season surges.

Adjust delivery expectations

The best way to deal with customer dissatisfaction over delivery delays is to establish realistic delivery expectations. Don’t wait till the peak of the holiday season. Start preparing your customers in advance.

You can put a banner on your website with the delivery times for the holiday season, especially for international shipping.

The key is to kindly inform and encourage the customer to order sooner to ensure that the goods are delivered on time for holidays.

Some of the international shipping companies, such as FedEx and UPS, have already posted their holiday season shipping schedules. You can follow their example and inform your customers beforehand.

Use multiple carriers

It’s comfortable to work with the same international shipping company that has delivered your packages for a long time. But when the holiday season arrives, your usual carrier might be overwhelmed with the increased volume of parcels. It’s a good idea to partner with more international parcel service providers to ensure that all your packages are handled on time.

If you’re shipping to Russia or Eastern Europe in general, consider partnering with a shipping company that specializes in delivering packages in this region. You can also cooperate with local delivery experts to take some load off your main carrier. Try to ensure several ways of transporting your goods to the client.

Track your packages

International package tracking has several benefits. It’s good for both the client and the retailer. The customer will feel more relaxed with the possibility to check on the parcel from time to time.

You, as the seller, can also take advantage of parcel tracking. You can observe where the packages are being held up and take action in advance.

Proper package tracking can even lessen the burden on customer support. Some clients might not be in a hurry to send inquiries about late packages if they can see at which point of the delivery chain their goods are delayed.

Prepare in advance

The holiday season comes every year at the same time. It’s very convenient because you can anticipate the increase in demand and make preparations beforehand. It’s best to learn from past experiences.

Analyze the most common causes of delivery delays from your personal experience. Try to identify the issues and fix them. Or have a solution ready, if they reappear this holiday season.

Take control of your delivery management

It may be difficult to control everything when shipping overseas during the holiday season. But you don’t have to do this alone. Consider crafting delightful delivery experiences with a post-purchase solution such as LateShipment.com

Delivery experiences from end to end consists of different aspects such as:

Enabling your customers to track their orders in real-time
Resolving delivery delays even before they happen
Delighting your customers with branded tracking pages
Engaging with your customers via automated and customized shipping transactional notifications
Collecting customer feedback to know how their delivery experiences fared.

Apart from all these aspects, an important factor i.e always overlooked while choosing a carrier is their delivery performance. Especially during times of high volume such as the holiday season or the pandemic period, shipping carriers have been known to have struggled to deliver on time amidst supply chain limitations.

Check out LateShipment.com’s ‘2021 State of Holiday Shipping in the US’ – an unbiased trend analysis and forecast report for UPS and FedEx from an on-time delivery performance standpoint in retail parcel shipping.

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