The e-commerce landscape today is more competitive than ever. Consumers have more choices than ever when it comes to their shopping needs.
Meaning, the customer experience (CX) has become a cornerstone of customers choosing brands to shop with and businesses need to go above and beyond to provide a positive delivery experience in order to keep customers coming back.
You might think why is the importance of package delivery satisfaction overstated particularly?
Simple, the thrill of clicking that “Buy” button is undoubtedly satisfying, but the real magic lies in the journey of the package from the virtual shopping cart to the customer’s doorstep.
Picture this from the customers’ PoV: You’ve spent hours scrolling through an online store, meticulously selecting items that caught your eye. You make your choices, enter your payment information, and eagerly await the arrival of your package. The anticipation is palpable. But what if the package arrives late, damaged, or worse, not at all? Suddenly, that excitement turns to disappointment, frustration, and a sense of letdown. This is where the efforts taken up by brands to offer a great CX in the order delivery phase differ and have a profound impact on customer retention and revenue growth for businesses.
With fierce competition and a low threshold for customer tolerance in place, today’s businesses have no option but to ensure that their customers’ expectations with the delivery experience are satisfied at the most.
So, as an e-commerce merchant, how can you determine that your customers are indeed satisfied with the delivery experience you’ve offered them? By simply asking them.
Delivery Satisfaction Ratings: A Metric to Measure Delivery Experience Quality
At its heart, the Delivery Satisfaction (DSAT) rating is a surprisingly simple system that allows your customers to rate their delivery experiences on a scale of 1–5.
After each successful delivery, these ratings give you a clear and unbiased view of customer sentiment about the quality of the delivery experience you offer. They act as a window into the world of customer experience, allowing businesses to gauge how well they’re meeting their customers’ expectations.
These unprecedented insights stand to benefit your e-commerce business by helping you:
- Measure Post-Purchase Customer Experience on Par with Pre-Checkout Customer Experience – While most businesses place a great deal of emphasis on the onsite experience they offer their customers, the post-purchase phase is inevitably neglected. With CSAT and NPS providing an idea of customer sentiment in the pre-checkout stage, DSAT can help shine a light on the quality of your post-purchase phase.
- Hold Your Shipping Carrier Accountable for Service Failures – Not only do carriers get away with service failures but the burden falls on you, leading to overpriced shipping costs. With data in hand from the DSAT system, you now know how your carriers’ actual performance impacts your customers and it becomes easier to hold them to account for their SLAs.
- Identify Which Areas of Your Logistics Operation Need Attention – The feedback mechanism that the DSAT system provides allows you to unambiguously identify which areas of your logistics operation need attention in order to allay customer concerns. By identifying areas of improvement and taking appropriate action, you can now address issues, rectify mistakes, and streamline your delivery processes. In the long run, this leads to operational efficiency, cost savings, and improved customer experiences.
Understanding customer satisfaction levels in the order delivery phase is just one part of things, the important challenge remains in the form of amplifying delivery satisfaction, as it translates to increased retention and profits.
The Importance of Positive Customer Feedback Around Delivery Satisfaction Ratings
Satisfaction Ratings: A Window into Customer Retention
DSAT ratings provide customers with a platform to voice their opinions and share their experiences. By giving regular feedback, customers now feel heard and will more likely continue their association with your brand.
That’s not all! Each time a negative review is taken seriously and improvements are made, customers will begin to trust the brand with their choices. As this becomes a routine, happy customers become loyal patrons and will return time and again.
The Domino Effect: Revenue Growth
Customer retention is closely linked to revenue growth.
Satisfied customers not only come back for more, but they also become brand advocates. They recommend the brand to friends, family, and even share their positive experiences on social media.
Moreover, satisfied customers are more likely to explore other offerings from the same brand. Cross-selling and upselling opportunities increase as customers gain confidence in your efforts to improve the delivery experience. This translates directly into higher average order values and increased revenue per customer.
How E-Commerce Businesses Can Improve Delivery Satisfaction Ratings
Here are some ways your retail business can boost customer satisfaction in the last mile:
- Improve on-time deliveries: One of the top-most expectations of customers when it comes to delivery satisfaction is their packages being delivered on time or even earlier. On the other hand, each time there’s an unannounced delay, there’s a possibility of a negative review that can affect your overall satisfaction scores.
- Ensure proactive communication: Delays are inevitable and almost all customers understand this. This is why, despite the underlying disappointment, they will appreciate your efforts to keep them informed about the status of their orders. On the other hand, each time they’re unable to determine their package status and are left in the dark, you are feeding their pre-parcel anxiety and putting your CX efforts at risk. Thus, ensure that there is proactive communication with customers throughout the delivery process.
- Focus on proper packaging: Ensure that the contents of your customer’s purchase are well-protected from damage during the shipping process via proper packaging techniques such as using the right box, sufficient protective measures, and fragile stickers (if necessary). During times like the holiday season, customers also appreciate receiving their packages in themed and personalized packaging.
- Bring in efficiency to your customer support: The chances of all your customers’ parcels facing issues while it’s on its way to reaching their doorstep are low but never zero. In such cases, customers expect to be able to get the help they deserve from your customer support representative. By empowering your customer support team to step in before customer impact and proactively address issues, you can boost your customers’ confidence to keep shopping with you.
- Invest in technology: There are a number of technologies that can help businesses improve their delivery processes, such as real-time and self-serve tracking, predictive analytics, automated ticket creation, proactive notifications, etc. These technologies can help businesses to improve on-time deliveries and to provide customers with more information about the status of their orders.
In the quest for constant enhancement of delivery satisfaction ratings, you can adopt these data-driven strategies to take a proactive approach that not only prevents future disappointments but also showcases the brand’s commitment to providing your customers with a great delivery experience.
Decode customer actions in the post-purchase order delivery phase with LateShipment.com
LateShipment.com does’t just help you deliver phenomenal experiences but also helps you understand whether all that money, time and effort spent on shipping is working in your favour or not.
By capturing customers’ delivery experience ratings, you can now learn from your customers the experience your brand delivered. All you have to do now is to consistently direct efforts and get those 5-star ratings that promote brand credibility.
That’s not all! LateShipment.com also helps you gain insights on:
- User engagement metrics – To measure how your customers are engaging with your brand post-purchase via your tracking page, emails, and SMS notifications and to know what your most effective channels are
- Carrier Performance Scores – To review your carrier choices based on a detailed assessment of how your carrier’s delivery performance fares against service-specific delivery standards.
Conclusion
In the ever-evolving landscape of e-commerce, package delivery satisfaction ratings emerge as a critical factor in driving customer retention and revenue growth. They offer customers a voice, allowing them to shape the way brands operate. By paying attention to these ratings, businesses can build trust, enhance customer experiences, and pave the way for long-term success. After all, a satisfied customer today is an ambassador for the brand tomorrow.
