Delivery is now an essential factor in customer satisfaction, and a highly influential one. In a study run by IFOP in 2021, 64% of respondents called it a decisive part of their online buying journey. With the pandemic sharply accelerating the delivery boom, plenty of sectors beyond e-commerce are now affected. How do you turn this stage into a real lever for customer satisfaction? Which elements matter most? Start reshaping your deliveries with the points below.
What part do deliveries play in customer satisfaction?
Whether they go to e-commerce customers or business customers, deliveries are a crucial step in customer satisfaction, all the more so now that they touch every sector. Some consumers are waiting impatiently for the parcel they ordered online. On building sites, your business partners need materials delivered on time, because a delay puts the whole job at risk. So how do you make delivery an asset in satisfying your customers? Delivery is usually a source of stress, for recipients and senders alike. The consequences of a badly handled delivery hit your brand image directly and damage the commercial relationship between you and your customers. According to IFOP’s 2021 study, 98% of online consumers are inclined to order from the same site again after a good delivery experience. After a bad one, 26% of them stop using that service and go to a competitor. A badly handled delivery has a cost, then, and the quality of that service becomes an absolute priority.
How do you make delivery an asset in customer satisfaction?
Offer a wide choice of delivery services
The quality of your delivery service is not decided only at the operational moment when the goods move. Delivery now shapes the buying decision itself, so it has to be thought through from the start. Delivery services are diversifying almost everywhere, and consumers expect to be able to pick the one that suits them best, whichever company they buy from. The risk of not offering that choice is that they go to a competitor who does offer the delivery option they want.
Diversify your delivery services
Offering, and being able to run, a wide choice of delivery methods is a real asset. It lets your customers choose the one that suits them best while you work around their constraints. It shows a degree of flexibility in your service as well as a personal touch, and that does a great deal for satisfaction across the board. Being that adaptable can be complex to set up, though. Bringing in a logistics provider such as Shippr can give you what you cannot always run in-house. Whether you need us during peaks in activity or for specific requests, we are there. Home delivery, transfers between shops, delivery rounds, refrigerated transport, night and weekend delivery, fragile or bulky parcels: our wide range of delivery services lets you answer any kind of request.
Package your parcels properly
On packaging, consumers expect to receive their order in good condition. Reluctance to have fragile or bulky items delivered can hold your customers back from buying. A damaged parcel leaves the recipient with a bad feeling, and that undermines the trust they place in your service. Which is why the choice of packaging deserves real attention.
Choose packaging that fits the goods you are delivering
As we have just seen, packaging is not a detail. First it has to do its primary job: protecting the products in transit. So go for packaging sized to the goods, so they cannot move on the journey. That takes away the risk of breakage. Environmental concerns are also front of mind for consumers right now. Plenty of people criticise companies that use too much packaging on their parcels. So it is worth finding the middle ground between the packaging needed to protect the parcel and the excess that provokes a negative reaction. To counter that over-packaging problem, Shippr has made same-day delivery its speciality. Once Shippr’s partner drivers have picked up your parcels, you know they go straight to their destination. They avoid sorting centres and the risk of heavy handling.
Track the parcel and communicate well with your recipients
Tracking and communication are effective ways to cut the stress and uncertainty around a delivery. Once their basket is confirmed or their order placed, consumers want to know where their parcel is. In a study by the IFOP group, 77% preferred a delivery option tailored to them and kept to time over an express delivery within the hour. Clear information is therefore vital. Recipients are also readier to forgive a late delivery if they were warned in advance. With steady communication, consumers are more likely to buy again, because their trust in your brand has not been shaken.
Communicate effectively with your customers by email or SMS.
At Shippr, both channels are already in place, and they run automatically. They keep the recipients of Shippr deliveries informed at every stage of their parcel’s journey.
Give your recipients real-time parcel tracking through an online tracking link.
At Shippr we always make that link available, to you and to your recipients. They can get ready to receive their parcel, and you can check that everything is going to plan through the same link.
Have an operations team dedicated to making your deliveries run smoothly
In the same spirit as an after-sales service, a team dedicated to keeping operations on track is a major asset. Available 7 days a week, Shippr’s support team takes the stress of your deliveries off your hands. It manages every operation and makes sure each delivery runs without a hitch. The unexpected is common in logistics, and our team anticipates and resolves it proactively.
Set up an easy returns solution
Making returns free is spreading fast as a way of offering flexibility. In fashion, for instance, returns are now an essential part of the buying journey. In other sectors, such as catering deliveries or wine, they are more of a logistical necessity: the crates, empties or cool boxes delivered on the way out are collected on the return leg.
Offer your customers several returns options
First, we would advise you to offer your customers several ways to return a delivery. That is how you meet their needs. Logistically, though, it can be complex for every organisation to put in place. Bringing in an external logistics provider gives you the benefit of their set-up for goods returns. That is the case with Shippr, for example. We take part or all of our customers’ logistics off their hands and organise returns whenever they are needed. Tick the “returns” box when you create your deliveries and our service handles them automatically.
Tell your consumers about your returns policy
Any returns logistics obviously has to be backed by a written policy. As well as existing, it has to be accessible to your consumers. Getting this step right is what reassures them. You can:
- give over a page of your website to the details of your returns policy
- explain the policy across several questions in your FAQ
Analyse the reasons for returns to improve your service
Every piece of information your customers leave you is a genuine seam of insight for improving your business. Use it to keep improving your services and to answer your customers’ needs more precisely.
Making delivery your asset in customer satisfaction: it is entirely possible!
Delivery involves many factors that shape what customers experience, and so how satisfied they are. Before, during and after the delivery itself, every element deserves attention. Several of them are not always easy to put in place in-house.
That is where you can bring in an external logistics provider such as Shippr, to support you or to take the whole delivery burden off your hands. Feel free to get in touch with one of our business experts to discuss what you need from your deliveries.
