Operations Experience Management Is a Priority Customer Retention Strategy
ParcelLab is a Business Reporter client.
One of the biggest problems with last-mile delivery is a lack of transparency and communication. Due to the wide range of variables at play, it is difficult to manage expectations and provide timely updates. Find out how operations experience management (OXM) is the solution for online brands.
The pandemic has greatly accelerated e-commerce growth. More people are shopping online than ever before, and these customers are expecting the same personalized experience that they receive in-store. But what is the state of online retail in the UK and US today, and why should post-purchase communication be a priority customer retention strategy?
Customers want to be updated on their order. Our recent research found that 66% of consumers want regular updates on delivery, and 65% want to be notified immediately if there is a delay. That doesn’t sound too complicated, does it? Sadly, most of the world’s leading brands fail to do this.
parcelLab is on a mission to change this by deploying operations experience management (OXM).
What is operations experience management?
Imagine this: You buy a product online, check out, receive the order confirmation and then ... nothing. A total absence of updates about your order from the brand you just purchased from. Perhaps you get some communication from the carrier, but not always. Sounds awful, right? Well, this happens every day when consumers are shopping online with some of the world’s biggest brands.
OXM is the combination of operational processes and customer experience, further enhanced by personalization and relevant value-led touchpoints.
How OXM benefits customers
Although delivery is the most emotional part of the customer journey, many customers are left in the dark about the whereabouts of their order. Here’s how OXM changes that and benefits customers during last-mile delivery:
1. Customer-centric, user-friendly delivery tracking
Accurate and easy-to-access tracking during shipping and delivery is a basic requirement when shopping online—but many retailers still don’t provide this; our research found that just 21% of UK retailers communicate with their customers after dispatch. By taking control of post-purchase communication and sending branded, proactive updates to the customer, they can easily find the tracking information and there’s no confusion around where the package is from.
2. Live ETA
A live tracking link allows the customer to stay up to date on any changes to delivery. Once the parcel is in the delivery truck, a host of factors can affect the final delivery time. Traffic jams, closed roads, poor weather conditions—the list is endless. Any one of them can change the course of delivery in a second, which is why providing live tracking is so important. Plus, by sending event-triggered notifications, brands can manage expectations by keeping their customers informed, so they don’t wait around for their parcel.
How OXM benefits brands
Customers are their most engaged during delivery, and many brands don’t capitalize on this. By owning the end-to-end customer experience, brands can create a fully personalized and branded communication flow. Here’s how OXM benefits brands during last-mile delivery:
1. Extended brand engagement
By sending branded tracking emails, retailers can create a familiar experience. This not only creates an engaging end-to-end journey for customers, but also means there is no confusion about when each parcel will arrive. Plus, if the customer has a good last-mile experience, they will remember who provided it. OXM allows brands to add branded details, such as logos, fonts and graphics, to their delivery notifications.
2. Reduced customer service inquiries
By keeping customers up to date during shipping and delivery, WISMO inquiries will no longer be such a time-consuming issue. The customer doesn’t need to call to find out where their parcel is because they can easily track it on the order status page. This means customer service agents have the time to answer more important customer inquiries—a huge benefit to businesses.
3. Commercial cross-selling and upselling
Having control of post-purchase communication means brands have new opportunities to cross-sell and upsell to customers. For example, brands can embed product recommendations in delivery notifications or on the order status page, based on the item the customer has bought. This is a low-cost, low-effort way to improve retention rates and increase traffic back to the retailer’s store.
4. Reporting and analytics
OXM provides brands with unique reporting and access to delivery data, so brands can identify performance trends and improve their ability to forecast delivery times. The data generated also allows brands to understand a carrier’s efficiency and compare it with that of other providers, so they can establish firsthand if carriers are meeting agreed SLAs and flag areas needing improvement.
5. NPS and feedback
When post-purchase notifications are sent by a brand, customers remember them. To take the opportunity to request feedback at that moment, when customer satisfaction is at its highest, OXM allows brands to send automated, event-triggered feedback messages to customers within the first few hours of a product being delivered.
Why you should invest in OXM
Through OXM, parcelLab wants to help brands improve the most crucial stage of the customer journey: shipping, delivery and returns. By transforming every transaction into an experience and every touchpoint into a personalized and memorable interaction, customers receive an exceptional end-to-end branded experience.
When a brand owns their end-to-end customer experience, customers receive relevant, reliable, personalized and branded communication throughout their journey, which adds value to their experience. OXM gives brands the opportunity to share relevant content, cross-sell and upsell to customers and create a community among their buyers.
Above all else, OXM enables brands to be more efficient and better manage customer expectations while reducing manual work. For their customers, this means increased visibility into their parcel’s journey, creating a streamlined, worry-free experience.
Read parcelLab’s latest research on the post-purchase performance of the top 200 UK retailers and top retailers in the US:
— Tobias Buxhoidt, Cofounder and CEO, parcelLab
This article originally appeared in Business Reporter. Header Image credit: iStock id905767522
