If you think the delivery experience finishes at the front door then it’s definitely time to think again. When a customer carries a parcel into their home, whether it’s been delivered via their letterbox, handed to them by a courier or picked up from a collection point, the delivery experience isn’t finished until the transaction is done – ie the item opened and deemed to be exactly what the customer ordered, received when and as they expected it.
When the delivery driver themselves also comes into a customer’s home – as is often the case with furniture delivery – it’s even more important that the last impression is a fantastic one, especially if such customers are also delivering installation services too.
ArrowXL’s launch of a new training facility at its HQ aims to do just that. The company has launched a mock-up home for its delivery drivers to test out their service skills – and presumably their patter too.
Getting the experience of delivery right is crucial. A new survey this week shows that nearly two-thirds of customers have had a bad delivery experience with typical frustrations including packages arriving late, left in the wrong place or supposed attempted deliveries when the customer was in. All of which leaves the customer with a bad impression of the retailer involved.
Fashion retailer Superdry is looking to further hone the experience of its customers by serving its ecommerce customers from all three of its distribution centres from the autumn.
Another company aiming to continually improve the experience for its customers is CollectPlus. For those customers who don’t have printers – of which millennials are apparently the most guilty – the company has launched a print instore service for returns customers. For those with Alexa at home it has also gone one step further enabling customers to order their returns labels through voice activation too.
Whilst on the subject of returns Wincanton has announced its latest industry partnership – a deal with ZigZag to help improve returns for its customers.
And finally we have news that Seko Logistics is moving into a new London Heathrow location as it looks to exploit cross-border opportunities.
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