Blame the shop... or courier company

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Ross
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Ross » Fri Feb 24, 2017 4:37 pm

AUbicycles wrote:
RonK wrote:Unless the delivery is significantly overdue, just be patient.


A good scenario however - and where the entire logistics process can improve is that delivery info / status is checked by the retailer and if the delivery has not arrived - then the retailer does two things. Firstly they inform the customer that the delivery is taking longer than planned and they are following up. Secondly, they actually follow-up and enquire with the shipping company to determine the cause.

This empowers the customer, though the order is not there, they are informed and also know that the online shop is working in their interests rather than shifting and ignoring a problem.
In a perfect world yes, but in the real world where you and I live and the one where you aren't the only customer of that business then it's probably not feasible or realistic to expect them to check on every single order to find out where it is and when it is likely to reach the customer. That's why the business sent the item(s) by AP/courier. They (the business) don't have the time or possibly the expertise (or staff) to hands-on manage logistics. Once the item has been sent and left the business' premises that's really where their obligation/responsibility stops. You the customer have the tracking details and can/should contact the coarrier directly yourself if there are any concerns.

Large online retailers like Wiggle have literally thousands of orders going out every day, all over the world with probably dozens of different carriers. How time consuming would it be check and keep to keep track of all these orders?! And answer all the email enquiries that come in regarding their products - "does product x fit my bike?" ; "how many of product y do you stock and do they come in blue?"; "if I buy 10 of product z what discount will you do me?" .

As has been mentioned previously, if you need the item in a hurry then go down to your LBS and buy it or if you are prepared to wait then order it online.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby mikgit » Fri Feb 24, 2017 4:40 pm

^ yep queue the chain reaction video on their warehouse...
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby AUbicycles » Sun Feb 26, 2017 12:57 am

Ross wrote:In a perfect world yes, but in the real world where you and I live and the one where you aren't the only customer of that business then it's probably not feasible or realistic to expect them to check on every single order to find out where it is and when it is likely to reach the customer.
Automation. Just a matter of setting up the system to do this track and flag orders, then send automatic information and when necessary - flag the small number of 'irregular' deliveries for customer support to follow-up.

Building or integrating a system is not trivial, but it is an investment to improve customer service and satisfaction because repeat customers are far cheaper to 'acquire' than brand new ones. In the system are variables (or learning) to gradually identify 'problem' orders and increase efficiency over time.

The c r c and Wiggle have both been gradually improving their customer service over years - fast delivery is an important part of building satisfied customers as well as fast customer communication. While it may not always be perfect, most often things are resolved. A specific example is assigning a single person for a case, rather than the customer dealing with an un-named staff member or running between a dozen different people (and explaining the problem over and over again).

ProBikeKit for example have a good reputation in the UK for looking after the local customers however customer satisfaction for overseas customers is substantially lower - so they are missing out on their opportunity to build and grow overseas sales.


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Ross
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Ross » Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:53 am

AUbicycles wrote:
Ross wrote:In a perfect world yes, but in the real world where you and I live and the one where you aren't the only customer of that business then it's probably not feasible or realistic to expect them to check on every single order to find out where it is and when it is likely to reach the customer.
Automation. Just a matter of setting up the system to do this track and flag orders, then send automatic information and when necessary - flag the small number of 'irregular' deliveries for customer support to follow-up.

Building or integrating a system is not trivial, but it is an investment to improve customer service and satisfaction because repeat customers are far cheaper to 'acquire' than brand new ones. In the system are variables (or learning) to gradually identify 'problem' orders and increase efficiency over time.

The c r c and Wiggle have both been gradually improving their customer service over years - fast delivery is an important part of building satisfied customers as well as fast customer communication. While it may not always be perfect, most often things are resolved. A specific example is assigning a single person for a case, rather than the customer dealing with an un-named staff member or running between a dozen different people (and explaining the problem over and over again).

ProBikeKit for example have a good reputation in the UK for looking after the local customers however customer satisfaction for overseas customers is substantially lower - so they are missing out on their opportunity to build and grow overseas sales.


Christopher
I wasdn't aware that checking/tracking of orders could be automated, where do you buy the software for this, how much does it cost and is it compatible with legacy systems?

Not every business has a "customer service department" either. Probably c r c and Wiggle don't either and these duties are performed by salespeople.

Assigning a single person to a case isn't always practical. That person may only work certain days a week, go on holidays or get sick, go on maternity /paternity leave, get promoted/demoted to a different job or quit or get fired. Some sort of computer system would be needed to keep track of queries with a number of staff needing access - even a generic email would be good something like customerservice@yourbusiness.com.au.

I'm not sure c r c etc really care how fast the deliveries take to get to customers (especially o/s ones) and care even less when the customer isn't being charged for delivery. They would be more concerned with keeping costs down and would pick the most cost efficient method. An option for a customer to pick and pay for a faster option would be good.

Not trying to be argumentitive but as I said in my previous post in a perfect world all this stuff would happen but in the real world where there are limited funds, resources and staff it doesn't always happen. Look at Centrelink for a good example of having shiploads of money and resources but fail miserably at customer service. ATO is another good example. In fact the same could be said for a lot of goverment departments.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby eeksll » Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:26 pm

A quick google seems to show Aus post, Star trak and DHL have API's for parcel tracking. So automation is certainly not difficult. Given a online store most likely already has developers for the website, integration with the API wouldn't be that much more difficult.

However, from experience the Aus post tracking is pretty crap so I don't know if there is much value in automating that. I would also wonder how much value a store would get with these notifications, most likely the customer would have contacted the store before any of their automated systems would flag a parcel as missing.

From a customer point of view, I "may" prioritise a store who has choosen to take ownership of the issues related to the shipping side of things as well. ie if I have issues I only have to deal with the store and don't have to chase up Aus Post with any handballing of responsibilities between store and parcel shipping company.

Having said that, from my experience parcel delivery has been very reliable, sometimes just a bit of patience is all thats required.

Also online stores such as wiggle do take "ownership" of this by sending out products that are lost via post. TBH I have come to expect this "ownership" from all online stores since most seem to do it, is that just me?

edit: Its probably far better for a shop to spend more on a fast reliable delivery service than it is to field the answers of annoyed waiting customers or implement any of this tracking. Also better customer satisfaction. A online stores credibility must work in tandem with the speedy delivery service.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby AUbicycles » Mon Feb 27, 2017 8:36 am

Hey Ross,

API is the keyword as eeksll has noted - as a retailer you are looking for a the final delivery notification and when your system recognises that deliveries are not completed within a pre-defined time-frame (e.g. 2 weeks) then these are flagged. The retailer is typically getting delivery info anyway - so this is an in-between

For the major retailers - it depends on what systems they are using - often they have a software service and modules may be available for some functions - or they hire or contract developers to build the extra functionality.

On staff - absolutely all the big retailers have staff to deal with customers. Wiggle even were recently advertising for local staff to specifically look after questions from Australian customers. The name of the department / staff may vary.

For allocating staff - often a tracking number is assigned and depending on your experience, you may have spoken or communicated to staff who let you know of their availability - and when they can respond. Small businesses with few staff have an advantage whereas big businesses tend to have complex structures and allocated the first available staff member. So it is more advanced to setup a system with a single (or few) staff handling a single customer/case - and it pays off.

c r c certainly care about the speed - and I think that they know that the fast delivery is an advantage they have over other smaller retailers who are not setup as well for speedy processing. With their providers - they are looking for a good price, accurate tracking and speed.

--

Both c r c and Wiggle have a big turnover however the recorded profit margin is comparatively small - they both merged and I guess have had substantial costs with their new warehousing facility and moving to the new location

--

From our perspective as customers, we don't have to do much... but the retailers who identify how they can improve will have a better change of winning us back.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby CycloTron » Tue Feb 28, 2017 9:16 am

CycloTron wrote:I've unfortunately had recent experience with failed deliveries of orders, one each from Merlin, c r c & PBK. Forgive me for the lengthy post... etc
Quick update - both c r c and PBK have been good in keeping their promise of replacing lost orders and both have organised replacements to be sent. Also, neither of them expected me to wait an unreasonable amount of time before deciding on sending the replacements. They gave it 5 days from the time they contacted the courier company themselves, and once that time had elapsed without satisfactory resolution, they sent out the replacements.

Couriers Please remain completely useless, unable to even admit they had lost the parcel.

DAI Post (Trakpak's local forwarder) had the same person email me daily with updates, and even though the parcel was declared lost, at least they took the time to keep me informed.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby hamishm » Wed Mar 08, 2017 10:40 am

Sometimes I'm impatient but I find it frustrating when shops don't even pack and send an order promptly. I ordered from Cell on Monday afternoon expecting the order to ship Monday afternoon or more likely Tuesday, but it still hasn't.

Meanwhile kudos to Cecil Walker and AvantiPlus Croydon, who both shipped stuff ordered Friday afternoon, on Friday afternoon.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Ross » Wed Mar 22, 2017 7:47 pm

This article about Amazon and online logistics start-up Shippit is relevant to this thread

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business ... 516e50860c
Mr Hango-Zada said local retailers were realising that delivery would be Amazon’s real weapon, and that Amazon’s strength came from its focus on the “end-to-end” customer experience and “owning the logistics space”. “Successful online retailers see themselves as a logistics business first that happens to sell product,” he said.

He said Shippit’s data showed only 56 per cent of orders reached the customer within the time promised by the carrier, and nearly half (48 per cent) of orders don’t reach the customer on the first attempt, resulting in the dreaded “slip”.

Mr Hango-Zada said solving the “slip” was not an easy task.

“Carriers are very good at delivering product from A to B, that’s what they’re in business for, but what they are not are tech businesses,” he said. “Tech businesses really look at responding to customer-centric issues.

“The first is about communication — how effective is the communication a carrier has with a customer and how transparent is the delivery process? Ninety per cent of the battle is about being about to articulate to a customer, where is the parcel, when is it likely to arrive, which gives them the ability to schedule around that.”

According to a 2015 survey, 66 per cent of Australians who suffer a bad delivery experience say they will never buy from that retailer again, and 78 per cent will warn their friends. If they have a good experience, however, they are 30 per cent more likely to buy again.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Ross » Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:02 pm


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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby RonK » Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:36 pm

Understanding what is behind this carding thing - quite simply Auspost want to convince you to have your shipments sent a parcel locker address so they don't have to make a door-to-door delivery at all.

Parcel lockers work quite well for me, because there is nobody at home during the day. I live in a secure building where couriers cannot gain entry and there is no safe place to leave a delivery. Collections from a parcel locker are not constrained to business hours so I can easily collect going to work or on the way home.

But it's pretty poor when you are actually at home and they don't attempt a delivery. I suspect the cards may be pre-filled before the courier leaves the depot.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Arbuckle23 » Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:02 pm

RonK wrote:
Understanding what is behind this carding thing - quite simply Auspost want to convince you to have your shipments sent a parcel locker address so they don't have to make a door-to-door delivery at all.

Parcel lockers work quite well for me, because there is nobody at home during the day. I live in a secure building where couriers cannot gain entry and there is no safe place to leave a delivery. Collections from a parcel locker are not constrained to business hours so I can easily collect going to work or on the way home.

But it's pretty poor when you are actually at home and they don't attempt a delivery. I suspect the cards may be pre-filled before the courier leaves the depot.
This is why I generally get all my deliveries to work. Always someone there :)

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Mulger bill » Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:41 pm

Been there. Working in the garage, door wide open...
I said a few words
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby ironhanglider » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:25 pm

Some eBay sellers use a 'click and collect' system via Woolworths, just nominate your most suitable location and you get a message when it arrives. It is easy to combine the pickup with other tasks, and they have extended hours, so it is a very convenient solution for me.

My Auspost outlet is thankfully open on Saturday mornings, otherwise it is a pain to get to in their opening hours.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby CycloTron » Tue Mar 28, 2017 2:12 pm

Ordered some Rapha kit, all good and coming by Fedex. The ETA from Fedex was for tomorrow 29/3/17.

However, checking the tracking online, it appears the parcel has been cleared and at the Fedex depot since Saturday 25/3/17, with no updates since.

Then, the tracking gets updated today and I just had to laugh - the new status is "Package not due for delivery".

Far be it for any courier company to try and overachieve. No, instead, just let the package sit there until it absolutely needs to be delivered. Seems it's okay to be late, but never, ever early...

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