“This is the third article in a three-part series on how retailers deal with last-minute delivery issues. You can access the first article here and the second one here.
Retailers often drag their delivery experience on long past an item’s actual delivery date, and rarely for positive reasons.
That was the case for New York Times best-selling author Jeff Abbott, who has had his fair share of delivery mishaps following a major house fire and remodeling project. A large furniture retailer delivered a bureau for Jeff’s son’s room, but the dresser drawers did not close properly. In response the retailer offered to either repair or replace the item. But after two months, Abbott still didn’t have a resolution.
First, the brand sent a third-party repair technician who was able to fix one of the drawers, noting the unresolved issues in his report. However, when Abbott called the brand’s customer service line to follow up, the agent claimed the item had been repaired. The brand then sent the same technician back to the Abbotts’ house, who remarked, “I’m not sure why I’m here again.”
Both the repair contractor and the Abbotts shared the same information and pictures with the retailer, but the brand was unable to act on the data.
“They wasted our time,” says Abbott. “I planned to furnish my home office with their products, but now all of my purchases are on hold because of this nightmare.”
A Convey survey of 1,500 shoppers confirms that a whopping 83% are unlikely to shop with a brand again after just one poor delivery experience. And 44% believe brands are not creating successful delivery experiences. Resolving delivery issues requires communication and collaboration—from brands, carriers, contractors, and customers.
All too often, retailers try to solve the problem with cobbled together do-it-yourself systems that can’t keep up with rising customer expectations. Whether it’s OMS, CRM or TMS, too much gets lost in translation—leaving consumers to suffer the consequences. Often, the faster a merchant’s ecommerce operations grow, the more issues from that rapid growth emerge.”
Read the three factors you need to consider before deciding to build or buy your last mile operations system here.
This article was originally published on April 22, 2019 on Internet Retailer.