Austin, TEXAS – March 14, 2019 – Convey, the leading provider of delivery experience management software, and eft Supply Chain and Logistics Business Intelligence today announced the results of a joint study examining the importance of customer experience (CX) in last mile delivery, and the impact it has on supply chain performance and dehttp://www.eft.com/cision-making. The report, which surveyed more than 230 retail supply chain professionals, revisits questions first tackled in a 2017 survey.
Commissioned by Convey and conducted by eft, the study reveals that despite increased understanding and measurement of supply chain’s impact on CX, little progress has been made towards implementing tools or processes to improve outcomes in the last two years. The report includes expert commentary from Matt Bergerson, director of omnichannel experience and operations at REI; Sucharita Kodali, vice president/principal analyst of eBusiness and Channel Strategy at Forrester; and Poonam Goyal, sector head/senior retail analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
According to Goyal, “There’s a lot of room for improvement in the last mile, and it’s a really important aspect of the customer experience. It goes back to the basics.”
The survey data reveals that:
CX metrics are crucial to measuring last mile performance
- 96% consider CX important when measuring last mile supply chain performance, up from 83% in 2017
- 66% are held accountable to CX metrics, up from 56% in 2017
However, technologies are still not addressing CX needs
- Only 5% report their current systems “fully support efforts to improve the customer experience,” compared with 3% two years ago
- Meanwhile 61% report their existing systems do nothing to improve CX, only a 5% decrease since 2017
- Additionally, 89% are not confident they can balance customer experience demands with rising transportation costs
According to REI’s Bergerson, “While the industry is getting more sophisticated, [delivery] CX-focused technology solutions are still highly disaggregated. Whether it’s order management, customer data, freight pay and cost analysis data, or order tracking, there is no one stop shop for solutions and data sets supporting last mile.”
Siloed data continues to be a roadblock to improved customer experiences
- 66% say that connecting disparate data quickly is among their top three challenges and 18% report zero visibility into distressed shipments
- 53% don’t make delivery data accessible to their marketing teams
- 60% of customer service and logistics teams don’t share delivery feedback or data about distressed packages with each other
- Despite this, 87% believe access to shared data and improved collaboration between teams is important to long-term success
According to Kodali at Forrester, “One of the single biggest reasons that retailers get calls to their call centers is that consumers often want to know where their package is, or why it’s late. So having visibility into that last mile and having better processes around it are things that can be really helpful to the customer experience.”
Other report findings include the importance of new supply chain metrics like shipment-to-order ratios, data around efforts to collaborate with common carriers, and how environmental sustainability factors into supply chain decisions. To learn more download the full report here: The Perfect Order: Overcoming Roadblocks in Last Mile Experience.
About Convey
Convey enables retailers to take control of the customer delivery experience. We provide the experience shoppers demand and the efficiency retailers require. Our cloud-based platform aggregates and normalizes disparate data across carrier, retailer and customer systems, giving retailers the insights they need to make smarter decisions and the tools required to take action to improve the customer experience. From parcel to freight and cart to door, Convey helps the world’s largest retailers reduce costs, improve visibility and transform the delivery experience into their next competitive advantage. Founded in 2013, Convey is based in Austin, Texas. Learn more at: www.getconvey.com.
About eft
eft Supply Chain and Logistics Business Intelligence is the global leader in business intelligence and C-level networking for the transport, logistics and supply chain industry. We specialize in connecting senior industry executives with their industry peers, and with the crucial information they need to excel in their work. For 16 years, eft has provided the industry with essential business intelligence in the form of news, reports, benchmarking data, white papers and C-level events. Through constant direct engagement with industry leaders, we ensure our products and events are directly tailored to meet the industry’s needs.