Was your delivery carrier naughty or nice this Christmas?

Last mile shipping service Deliver In Person CCO, Darren Kawalsky, shares tips on how delivery carriers can achieve exceptional DIFOT and first-attempt success metrics during peak period.

Welcome back to work, Supply Chain Channel readers! Hope this finds you rested and relaxed and ready to sit down and review your Christmas-peak delivery performance.

Finding a carrier that can truly scale to peak-demand without dropping the ball (or losing a parcel) is no easy feat. We live in the shadow of December 2021, in which an industry suffering from the effects of COVID was faced with unprecedented volume amid a workforce that was impacted by illness. This created a steep increase in enquiries to customer contact centres and an outpouring of frustration on review platforms with both carriers and the brands for whom they deliver.

Such was the Ghost of Christmas Past, that for 2022 Australia Post encouraged Australians as far back as October to keep Christmas cut-off dates in mind as well as hiring thousands of new staff to meet demand.

We at Deliver In Person approached our inaugural Christmas period with determination and a healthy respect; and the will to work right up until 9pm Christmas Eve, delivering same-day and next-day parcels for eCommerce retailers.

Despite a 4x increase in volume, our DIFOT and first-attempt success metrics remained high and steady, at 100.0% and >99.0% respectively.

This was a testament to our systems, processes and people. We’re doubly proud of the 4.9 / 5 feedback rating our recipients gave us, against the 1.3 / 5 industry average, from hundreds of reviews.

We’ve taken some time to reflect on what are the elements that allowed us to deliver (pun absolutely intended).

    1. Customer Communication

Being rigorous about designing our customer journey and ensuring the CRM tech was fail-safe earlier in the year was key. We have trigger-based emails, SMS and a real-time live tracker that updates the customer at each stage of the delivery, including alerts when we’re five minutes away so they can ready themselves for handover. It’s all seamlessly integrated with our routing algorithm, meaning the drag on the driver is negligible. It’s a two-way street, also – our leads and service team are in constant communication with our drivers, and our customers are encouraged to call or text us with requests that we manage on the fly. Customer comms can vary hugely between carriers: some have nailed it, some are evolving, and yet far too often this important contributor to transparency and customer experience isn’t prioritised.

     2. On-time Delivery

For a same-day and next-day business, being on-time is table stakes – our surveying of 300 Aussie consumers indicated that late deliveries along with carding are the two biggest pet hates. Make sure your logistics partner a) gives you a clear understanding of what their definition of DIFOT means – it may differ to yours!; b) provides rigorous and transparent reporting and; c) is willing to have open and honest conversations on points of failure and what’s being done to remediate.

     3. A True Service Culture

Sounds great. But what does this mean in practice? Here’s a few examples: our executive team are always ready to lean in and assist our delivery drivers when required. We employ carefully, seeking entrepreneurial and personable drivers, and we pay them above industry rates. They’re also respected as the foundation of our business, rather than a faceless team of doers. With workloads carefully managed, our drivers have the time to go the extra mile for the customer: communicating, returning after hours for a second drop to catch a recipient at home, carefully photographing parcels with an authority to leave to reassure the customer their parcel has been delivered safely. In the rare event of a problem, we huddle as an executive team to support the driver and help reach consensus with the recipient.

      4. Listen To Your Customers

DIFOT and FAS stats are well and good, but the real proof is in what your customers tell you. Delivery experience is the new battleground for eCommerce retailers. Read their reviews. Reach out to a sample and ask how they found their delivery experience. Make this a standard touchpoint in your Voice Of Customer feedback loop. And act upon what they tell you! Make sure you bring these anecdotes to your logistics supplier and follow up on individual complaints. Complacency will see this customer look over your shoulder to another retailer with similar products who has invested in a superb customer experience, from the website right through to the customer’s front door.

Darren Kawalsky brings over 20 years of eCommerce, logistics and tech experience to his role as the Chief Commercial Officer of Deliver In Person – an ambitious new last-mile shipping service which is transforming the customer experience for same and next-day deliveries.

Visit https://deliverinperson.com/ to learn more.