With the significant growth in online shopping, consumers are demanding an improved delivery experience from both retailers and courier companies.
The ‘last mile’ and doorstep experience is the most critical part of the online shopping and home delivery experience and is often the only part of the process where there is any human interaction. The performance of the delivery company during this vital stage is inextricably linked to the e-retailer and can play a key role in the consumer's decision to buy online again.
To ensure that the consumer receives a first class experience, e-retailers and their delivery companies must improve the level of communication with consumers.
Enterprise mobility solutions track individual parcels through every part of the collection and delivery process. The data captured can be communicated in real-time to the e-retailer, the delivery company and, most importantly, the consumer.
The statistics from recent research on home delivery solutions by Blackbay, IMRG and Snow Valley shows that only 57% of e-retailers gave their customers access to their delivery company's tracking information.
A further 95% of retailers did not provide any kind of pre-delivery text alert to customers giving an expected time delivery slot.
Successful organisations understand that the customer experience does not simply stop at offering the best price or cheapest delivery options; it requires high quality end-to-end customer service right through to the doorstep experience, particularly if the driver is the only personal contact with the customer.
Case Studies:
DPD Ireland
With over 300 delivery vans and drivers operating within the network of depots, in both Southern and Northern Ireland, DPD Ireland manages up to 25,000 parcels per day, with this volume doubling during peak periods. Over the past 5 years DPD Ireland has experienced significant growth in annual volumes of parcels and with growth expected to continue, DPD Ireland required a real-time track and trace solution, as well as a remote device helpdesk solution, which together would assist the organisation in its ability to manage this growth, whilst maintaining both high levels of customer service and efficiency within the depots. Download to read more on Blackbay’s solution for DPD Ireland |
Parcelforce
Parcelforce Worldwide is one of the UK’s leading providers of express and time-guaranteed delivery services throughout the UK and across the globe. The business provides delivery to 27 million addresses throughout the UK and more than 99.6% of the global population, reaching 239 different countries and territories. Parcelforce wanted to further improve the all-round customer experience and identified the need for a solution that would provide customers quicker access to delivery and collection information. They also wanted greater flexibility to arrange ad hoc deliveries and collections with the drivers whilst on the road, to enable them to handle customer requests at short notice. They realised that they needed to rationalise their systems architecture, enable and automate software upgrades to mobile devices and have more features and functionality, all at a competitive price. Download to read more on Blackbay’s solution for Parcelforce |
Hermes
Hermes is the UK’s largest delivery network, handling over 110 million collections and deliveries each year. It offers its customers, which include household names: Boden, Lakeland Limited, LandsEnd, Next Directory, QVC, sit-up channels and Store Twenty One, a dedicated business to consumer residential delivery solution, specifically designed to meet the demands of the UK and European retail, mail order and online shopping markets. With a growing number of customers demanding timely and accurate information on deliveries and collections, Hermes realised that it needed to replace its existing paper based delivery system with an enterprise mobility solution which would provide real-time visibility both of its couriers and the status of deliveries and collections. In order to ensure that its customers could access this data quickly and easily it needed to be available on the Hermes website. Download to read more on Blackbay’s solution for Hermes |
