It is always important to provide visitors to your online e-commerce shop with the best possible user experience while on your website. But things should not end there. Your e-commerce strategies should also incorporate ways to ensure a great delivery experience for your customers.
Many shoppers crave quick delivery of their orders. Some also like to keep track of their orders as they are being shipped. These are just a few factors to consider when designing your delivery policies if you want to stay competitive.
Here are a few tips that can help your e-commerce store achieve a great delivery experience.
Automated Delivery Tracking Alerts
The world of e-commerce is not as competitive as the brick-and-mortar world. Thus, to ensure brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and retention, e-commerce businesses have to think strategically.
In the product delivery process, one clever strategy to show your customers you care about them is to send them personalized automated delivery alerts in the form of SMS and/or email or other notifications that inform them about the real-time movement of their product as it is being shipped to them.
Such notifications convince customers that they are dealing with an efficient customer-centric organization. For those expecting their product urgently, shipment tracking alerts can be a morale booster that not only makes for a great delivery experience but also inspires further confidence and dedication to your brand.
Motivated Drivers
If your organization is large enough to have drivers deliver purchased orders to customers, then the need to keep them highly motivated and happy cannot be overemphasized. You do not want frowning and frustrated drivers complaining to customers about your company’s insensitivity and poor employee welfare policies as they deliver products.
Customers who have an impression that you treat your staff shabbily may perceive you as inept when it comes to personal relationships. This can make them move over to competitors that have better employee motivation strategies. A well-motivated delivery driver can be a potent PR asset for the promotion of your e-commerce business and products.
Moreover, drivers’ responsibilities do not end with the transportation, loading, and unloading of items, they double-check their loads and pay special attention to their route planning. Drivers have a direct influence on delivery experience and customer satisfaction since they are the major contact between the head office and your customers.
No-Contact Delivery
No contact or contactless delivery became more popular with the emergence of the corona pandemic. Though it involves a complete lack of human-to-human contact during delivery, this delivery mode can also offer a great delivery experience if conducted appropriately.
How? Since the recipient is not available to directly receive his or her order, the onus is on the delivery staff to ensure that the product is kept in a location where it will neither be tampered with, stolen, or affected by extreme weather conditions like rainfall.
Even if the recipient has given prior instructions on how and where to keep the order, your delivery staff can make alternative suggestions if not satisfied with the original instructions, upon arriving at the destination. The key here is effective communication between the delivery side and the receiving side pre-delivery, during delivery, and even post-delivery.
Route Planning Software
The present supply chain disruptions and global inflation induced by the above-mentioned corona pandemic means that businesses are hard pressed to ensure that operating and other costs do not spiral out of control. One way to ensure efficient delivery operations management is by adopting route planning and optimization software to boost your delivery experience.
Adopting route planning can go a long way in preventing delivery delays and improving customer reviews. An AI-based route optimization software like Norma helps you plan the optimal routes to make deliveries on time.
Conclusion
For every e-commerce firm, a number of factors such as those highlighted above can help make for a great product delivery experience. Customers are likely to see your organization as caring and efficient if you send them constant message alerts that update them on the delivery status of their product. Also, you are bound to get good reviews and more loyalty if your clients see your employee welfare system as top-notch.
Furthermore, even when you have to deliver products in contactless mode, communicating effectively with the other side can enhance the delivery experience. Lastly, route planning software can help you ensure optimal resource utilization in a variety of ways. For more information on how Norma can enhance your delivery experience, contact us today.
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