Connectivity. Access. Speed.
Modern technology has revolutionised how businesses interact with their customers, and this is most visible in ease of ordering, customer service and delivery. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, convenience, flexibility and notification of delivery is right up there beside ease of ordering and price as top customer priorities.
Don’t Deliver Your Customers to the Competition
In 2014, research conducted by Research Now for the MetaPack Group, an eCommerce delivery services provider, found that 59% of consumers were less likely or unlikely to order from a retailer
ever again if they had a negative delivery experience – and 78% said they would probably tell their friends about it, potentially discouraging their custom too. So not only could you fail to win or keep new customers with a substandard delivery service – you could also lose customers if they feel let down by it. However, 95% of consumers said a positive delivery experience would encourage them to shop more with that retailer in the future.
Time to consider if the delivery service you’re offering is competitive and up to scratch – and if you could improve it.
Delivery Price
Do you offer free delivery or discounts for certain items, or orders that are high in value or small in physical size? Take a look at what your competitors offer and bear in mind that people love a ‘what-you-see-is-what-you-pay price. It’s particularly aggravating to have to look up delivery prices on a separate page or, even worse, to have to wait until you get to an online checkout to discover how much delivery is going to cost.
The ultimate sin? Those complicated delivery rate tables some companies still cling to, where working out the combined delivery charge for several items of different types requires a degree in maths!
Delivery Speed
People are increasingly expecting their purchases to arrive on their doorstep within a few days – if not the next day. We know that company named after a South American river is anathema to you small business owners; but how many of us can say that when we need something urgently, we aren’t won over by its offer of delivering many items the very next day – even when we’ve ordered them after dinner?
Certainly not me, she says, eyeing her son’s newly arrived GCSE Physics book…
Delivery Flexibility
Sometimes, though, speed isn’t a customer’s top priority. If they don’t need the items for a few days or even a week, they like to see that reflected in a lower delivery price. They want choice. They might be quite irate that next day delivery is automatically included in an item’s price if there are no other delivery options available. Alternatively, customers may want to choose their level of delivery security, requiring, for instance, a tracked or ‘signed for’ delivery.
Offering a range of delivery options means there’s a far better chance of your customers finding the one that’s just right for them and their needs.
Delivery Convenience
How many of us have had to wait in all day – ensuring we’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at dawn – to take delivery of furniture or white goods? Even half-day delivery slots can cause problems. Spending hours hanging around waiting for a new fridge is nobody’s idea of the best way to use annual leave.
Customers crave the ability to pick where and when their item is delivered. A named delivery day is becoming essential; a specified delivery period is better; a one-hour time-slot is king. The ability to specify a neighbour’s house or a workplace for delivery is also one that customer’s favour, and if they miss a delivery, then they would far rather reschedule it – either online, by phone or via SMS – than trek miles to pick it up from a distribution centre (or run the risk of missing delivery again!).
Delivery Tracking and Notification
The ability to track their delivery gives customers reassurance, as well as keeping them up-to-date with expected delivery times and any problems. Emails and SMS notifications are great ways to keep customers informed. I didn’t need to see the card on my doormat last week to know that my parcel had been left 3 doors down, because I’d received a text telling me already; I went straight there to collect it.
Think Outside the Box
Achieving a great delivery service may require you to think outside the box and investigate delivery methods you haven’t considered before. Robots and drones may be impractical at present, but depending on your type of business, taxis, local drivers or bicycle and motorbike couriers are worth considering, alongside local and national couriers and haulage companies. How about sharing a delivery service with other local small businesses, thereby reducing costs?
Speaking to the Guardian recently, David Senior, a Sector Director for retail engagement specialists OpenMarket, neatly summed up modern customer expectations.
“Being able to complete a purchase online anytime is not enough for an optimum customer experience. From the moment the customer places an order and until that order is delivered to their door, timely, relevant and personalised two-way communications are expected.”
If you don’t think this describes the service you’re currently giving your customers, then it’s worth researching cost-effective ways to bring it closer to the ideal – before your customers are lured away for a ride down That River…