Step 3: File a Refund Claim for the Lost Packages

• File refund claims for DHL lost packages here 
• File refund claims for FedEx lost packages here
• File refund claims for UPS lost packages here 
• File refund claims for USPS lost packages here

Step 3.1: How do I file a claim for lost packages?

The tracker on your package is usually true to its name and rarely allows packages to get lost. But on the off chance that the shipping label comes off, or the package is torn and the contents scattered, you’ll have no choice but to file lost package claims with the carrier.

Here are a few things you need to keep in mind if you’re going to file a claim for FedEx lost packages.

1. If the contents of the package cost less than $100, you can complete the entire form online and request a refund without documentation.
2. In the event of the package costing anywhere above $100, proper documentation is necessary for the claim to get processed.
3. Documentation can include FedEx pickup records, photos of the damaged or lost contents, and proof of value documentation.
4. Claims have to be filed within 60 days for US shipments and in 21 calendar days for international shipments (with all supporting documentation filed within 9 months of delivery date).
5. The tracking number that was initially allocated to the package is vital to the process and has to be provided.

After a scheduled inspection, your claim will be processed and you can track its progress.

In the case of other shipping carriers, you can file claims online through the following links and within the following deadlines.

• UPS lost packages claim (file within 5 months online, within 9 months through customer service, and within 45 days if it is an uncollected C.O.D)
• USPS lost packages claim (file within 60 days for all services except Priority Mail Express, First class, and Surface Mail)
• DHL lost packages claim (file within 30 days)

Step 4: How Lateshipment.Com Helps You Handle Your Lost Packages

Sure, refunds are great for your business. But getting them doesn’t help in mitigating the pain of a loyal customer who might have lost  packages such as birthday gifts or an anniversary surprises.

That’s when our other feature Delivery Experience Management (DEM) platform can help. DEM is particularly helpful if you are a bulk shipper who uses multiple carriers and would prefer an efficient automated workflow.

Step 4.2: How Delivery Experience Management (DEM) Platform Works

The post Lost Packages 101: How to Handle Them appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Use Cases for a Delivery Experience Management (DEM) Platform

As an online merchant, how many times have you struggled to handle relatively uncommon situations like weather-related exceptions because you were unable to inform specific customers in time that their parcels would be delayed?  

At LateShipment.com, we are committed to helping you retain customers through the toughest of circumstances. This is why we provide you with the ability to send custom messages to specific customers whose parcels are experiencing uncommon delays like unexpected weather exceptions.

When your customer’s in-transit order is likely to go haywire, you can preemptively inform them of the issue and offer them a solution like re-shipping the order via an expedited shipping option, a discount, or a refund on their next purchase.

The post Use Cases for LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management Platform appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

But somewhere along the way, even the best of us seem to get sidetracked by the nitty gritty of running a business. Focus on the customer gets distorted into a multitude of different things that seem to simultaneously require your attention.

If you plan on surviving the highly competitive retail space, the not- so- linear line between pre purchase and post purchase strategy needs to be revisited. The last mile has now become the ultimate hurdle to overcome for any retailer.

Image: marketoonist

Meeting customer expectations demands crafting a unique and handcrafted experience. In the age of Amazon’s one day delivery, creating an exceptional last mile experience is the way to a customer’s heart.

Technology could be the best way to do this. For when necessity arises, the gods of tech always step in.

When shipping turns crippling

One of the major areas where being customer centric becomes problematic is shipping. A third party shipping carrier takes over the shipment, and you basically lose control of it right then and there till it reaches the customer. The waiting period is made more painful if there are agitated customer phone calls demanding to know the whereabouts of a package that already seems to have been delivered according to your logs.

The only way to counter the effect of handing over the reins to a shipping carrier is to constantly monitor them and hold them accountable for their performance.  Considering the fact that your interests do not align, ensuring a great last mile delivery to every customer is something that rests on the retailer’s shoulders.

Ensuring better carrier performance

Holding carriers accountable for their performance can be achieved by filing claims for all eligible service failures committed by the carrier. This makes it expensive for them to commit errors, and therefore brings better performance to the table.

A manual audit of your shipping invoice is a laborious task (you might still miss something), so an automated audit would be the best bet when it comes to shipping. This is partly due to the fact that there are over 50 carrier errors you need to be aware of, and surcharges to add to it! Any of these might have been miscalculated or mistakenly billed into your invoice.

Considering all this, it is certainly wise to opt for an automated shipping invoice audit.

The big picture: Refunds or the last mile?

Let’s say you have an automated audit process in place. You might be using internal resources or an online tool, depending on what your business needs. The great thing about the audit would be that you don’t have to lift a finger to get the refunds that are rightfully yours. At the end of every month, you get the report along with a chunk of cash you otherwise would not have noticed you were missing out on.

Despite shipping refunds making you feel great and saving you quite a bit of shipping costs at the end of the day, the other side of the story is not that good for your business.

At the tail end of every refund you receive for a shipping carrier error, is a frustrated and angry customer whose order didn’t make it on time. Or whose order was damaged upon arrival.

When you look at it from a customer centric perspective, the joy of receiving refunds does not really cut it when an unhappy customer is on the line. Over 50% of customers rarely choose to shop from the same retailer again after a bad delivery experience. Repeat shoppers are another story altogether.

Providing a memorable last mile experience to customers needs to top your list in order to earn the trust of repeat customers and entice new customers to keep coming back for more.

The key herein is to have an eye on the refunds while your focus is on the bigger picture- the customer.

Two birds. One stone. Happy customers.

When we at LateShipment realised that the big picture was going out of focus to several retailers, we decided to create a solution that would ensure

1. Proactive prevention and addressing of last mile issues
2. Automated refunds and
3. Carrier accountability

This is how (LateShipment.com) Pulse was born. As a service, LateShipment.com strives to bring more trust and transparency to the world of shipping. This helps businesses predict and fix delivery exceptions even before they happen, working around existing shipping strategies.

The value of predictive softwares can possibly be measured only in proportion with increased customer retention per se. What makes this a wonderful resource for any retail business is that it equips more than one team to handle both customers and revenue.

The customer support team for instance, could be on top of all the orders that require immediate attention, and notify customers when a delay becomes inevitable. Or even send in a replacement for time sensitive deliveries when the predictive software shows that a delivery is not going to make it on time for that party!

The fulfilment team benefits from a predictive tool too. The data collected on the shipping carrier becomes a valuable resource to analyse and compare performance rates between carriers. It also comes in handy when negotiating prices with your carrier.

As for customers, it will not turn into a case of blaming the retailer for the carrier’s error. If informed well in advance and kept in the loop, their brand loyalty only tends to increase. They can also time their availability to collect the package, so that multiple delivery attempts are avoided.

Your business gets those coveted repeat customers, along with extensive data on the shipping carrier you use, plus the refunds! I guess that’s technically three birds then.

How Pulse works:

Like I said before, Pulse is our real time tracking dashboard that keeps track of multiple shipments (it tracks over 25000 packages at any given point of time). The tool uses around 150 data points to predict the course of any package that might deviate from the set path. Some of the major features of Pulse include,

1. Real- time tracking across multiple carriers on a single dashboard
2. Predicting delays beforehand
3. Pinpointing orders that require immediate attention
4. Estimated number of returns at any given time
5. Notifying customers in advance regarding delivery exceptions

When the customer comes first, the customer will last.

We realise that putting the customer first is vital to the success of any business (in theory). Bringing it to practice is an entirely new ball game. Not only does it require extensive strategic planning on your part, it also involves paying attention to the needs of a customer.

When it comes to shipping, around 60% of customers expect fast delivery options which they are willing to pay for. This makes it all the more critical for retailers to step up, proactively fix delivery issues, and explain the situation beforehand in case of unavoidable circumstances. Customers appreciate being informed and kept in the loop even if the there is a slight change in the schedule.

Your focus should therefore be on the trail of unhappy customers left behind each refund you retrieve, and not solely on the money. The revenue from returning customers will more than make up for the reduced number of shipping refunds you receive.  

Minimizing the number of claims you dispute will automatically increase the number of repeat customers and help in building a loyal customer base.

The post The BIG Picture: Think Beyond Shipping Refunds and Claims appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Digital Supply Networks consolidate information from many different sources and locations, from across vendors and stakeholders to drive the chain ahead. The priorities of a supply chain are still the same, over the years: Volatility, velocity, volume, and visibility. All these are digitized today. Needless to say, digitization lowers computing charges, makes storage cheaper, and reduces costs of bandwidth among other things.

The new age methods and tools in DSNs that make a huge difference are powerful analytics, visualization, scenario analysis, predictive learning algorithms and easy access to data. Organizations are keen to collect real-time data and study them in a digitized manner to learn things better. State of the art robotics, drones, additive manufacturing and autonomous vehicle play a major role in implementing these methods.

Manual intervention has been made minimal in most logistics operations now. Robots man warehouse functions. Drones are being sent out to finish last mile deliveries. Uber tests driverless cars. These developments help with the functions of the supply chain. There is exchange of money, time, information and physical goods in every leg of the chain. Lower computing costs and real-time data sharing goes a long way now.

It is no longer a mean feat to gain insight to every step of the supply chain operation. Digitization enables systems to gather data from everywhere and present them in any format you need.  The linear flow of designing, creating, and moving physical goods is still intact with the addition of new inter-linkages that enable digitization.

Connectivity, with technical capabilities, has reduced hiccups that have plagued supply chains for aeons. Data predicts disruptions. Real-time data can hasten decisions. Damage control is handled effectively from various corners of the world. Inefficiencies and potholes are identified easily from the data generated by efficient systems.

With the advent of 3D printing, some businesses are shifting to different business models altogether. The requisite materials are shipped across destinations. On the last leg of the journey, 3D printing enables the business owner, with a careful network of logistics and supply chain, to just assemble the final product with 3D printing technology and deliver it to the customer.

Related:

Leveraging shipping data analytics to cut supply chain cost

The Beginning of the drone era in shipping: Should your business be worried?

How analytics can transform supply chain management?

The post Digitization of Supply Chain: The Rise of Digital Supply Networks appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

The most compelling reason to switch to an automated audit process is that manual process could be time sinking as well as labor intensive. Moreover, the cumbersome process of auditing your invoice takes your focus away from building a successful business. Listed here are the definitive advantages of using automated parcel shipping invoice audit over manual in-house process.

As noted in the illustration, the first step towards logistics digitalization is automating the auditing process of FedEx and UPS shipping invoices. LateShipment.com is a service that helps you audit upto 50+ service failures committed regularly by your shipping carriers and save instantly upto 20% of your shipping costs. Our realtime tracker also empowers your business to predict delivery exceptions and help you make data driven logistic decision.

Are you willing to take a calculated leap and step out of your in-house process? Sign up now to automate your shipping invoice audit process.

The post Why should your retail business automate shipping invoice audit process? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

The most important areas in digital logistics are:

• Distribution: Improved, current generation fulfillment processes and real-time warehouse management system (WMS) technology.
• Transportation: Automated load building, optimization of inbound and outbound freight movements, and efficient management of carriers.

Digital logistics ensures that there is end-to-end visibility in inventory, orders, and shipments across the supply chain. It reduces network-wide inventory levels, maximizes customer satisfaction, and responds dynamically to logistics events. There is a central command and control centre to aid decision making. So, the system becomes very efficient. There is increased visibility to performance metrics that helps in continuous improvement. All information is accessible online and allows people to filter information and gain comprehensive knowledge on problems if any.

Everything becomes easy with GPS tracking system. A parcel can be tracked in real time from anywhere in the world. A slight delay in the parcel’s path is known immediately to everyone concerned. And if there is need for rerouting, it can be done as soon as possible. With the advent of digital logistics, it has become very easy to eliminate loss of packages, wrong destination deliveries and package delivery failures. Weather conditions are predicted and deliveries are scheduled accordingly. From the moment the item is picked from the warehouse to the second it reaches destination, the entire path is charted digitally. There is no room for error.

One of the important factors in moving to digital logistics is the need for flexibility to integrate with newer systems to communicate information, synchronize activities, and collaborate across processes. Digital applications are based on a central repository of all logistics information. Stakeholders can view information, add or modify details.

The incorporation of groundbreaking research like data analytics, data sciences, and machine learning are used in logistics, along with the digital know-how, to enhance the technologies and processes. People study previous data and come to conclusions on strategies. For example, last year’s peak season shipping data can help in shaping this year’s data.

Related:

Is logistics the new brand differentiator

Logistics Fulfilment Services

How to get a handle on your lost packages?

The post What is digital logistics? appeared first on Lateshipment.com.