Whether you run a B2B or a shopping cart website, logistics is always at the forefront of your mind. Your customers are waiting from the moment they place the order and when they find out about the delay, it can impact their perception of your business. Delays can and do happen, which could be for any number of reasons that are out of your control, but when shipments are running late, here are a few tips to ensure your customers will understand the situation.
- Quick Communication – Once you know of the delay, the next person to know about it should be the customer and armed with a new schedule, the customer will appreciate the call, even if it is isn’t that important. This can be done with SMS, email or a voice call and you should have an automated system, which you can get from a managed IT service provider.
- Think 3PL – Third-party logistics is a huge industry and if you want to avoid delays completely, outsource your picking, packing and delivery to an established 3PL provider. An Adelaide courier service, for example, is always ready to jump into action and take that order directly to the customer’s door and they have a 24/7 service and have all the resources to process high volumes of orders. If you live outside Australia, you can locate reputable courier services near your area through Google search.
- Free Shipping – The perfect way to soften the blow of a late shipment is to waive the shipping cost and for a VIP customer, this would be the thing to do. People remember stuff like that and you will develop a large customer base if you pay attention to the small things.
- Gift Vouchers – You should have a bunch of these, ranging from $10-100 and a late delivery is certainly a time to inform the customer of the gift voucher. The value is up to you and when you give out a gift voucher, it is an invitation to purchase and a very effective way to compensate for late shipment, which is always warmly received.
- Tracking – Using a 3PL provider means you can instantly find out where any consignment is at any given time. Paste the code into the tracking website and hit enter and you will know where the shipment is and when delivery is expected. It really is as easy as that! Should you receive a message from a customer about their delivery, within a few minutes, you will have the answer to their question on your screen, which is very efficient.
- Make Best Use Of Available Software – If you have a support number, for example, this could be handled by a call handler and automated responses certainly help. There are software developers who design for the e-commerce sector, incorporating every aspect of your business practices and a Google search will put you in touch with a developer.
Customer relations is a critical aspect of every retail business and using a 3PL company virtually ensures fast delivery, while this is also the cheapest way to fulfil orders, as you only pay for orders processed.
