Introduction
Let’s face it: Managing shipping and returns while keeping customer satisfaction intact is no easy feat. Just one loophole - they will never think of buying from you next time.
On the other hand, if you provide them with an excellent shipping experience, it’ll make them your brand ambassadors. But it’s easier said than done. Connecting with the 3PL providers, engaging with each customer, and resolving issues instantly - there are a number of things you’ll have to manage.
That’s why, in this article, we’ll discuss the 11 easy yet fruitful ways to improve the shipping experience for enhanced customer satisfaction.
Let’s start! But first…….
How Does Improved Shipping Experience Impact Customer Satisfaction?
Once customers pay and check out from a store, their only concern is when they’ll get the orders. If you can meet their expectations and provide them with excellent customer satisfaction, it’ll help you from all fronts. For example:
1)Increased brand loyalty
Drowning in an ocean of fake deliveries and eCommerce scams, shoppers crave authenticity. They want the right delivery at the right time while staying in the loop throughout the journey.
Now, if you provide excellent delivery services, it’ll portray your brand as the legit one. This becomes even more important when you’re absolutely new in this market and looking to grow your business.
2)Boosts customer retention rate
SurveySparrow’s study revealed that 95% of customers who had a bad experience with a company will tell others about it. It clearly indicates that if they find any gap in the shipping or any other service, it’ll not only make them leave your brand but also spoil your brand reputation.
Conversely, if they are satisfied with the shipping experience, it’ll make them your brand ambassadors, which directly will boost your customer retention rate and acquire new customers.
3)Grows your Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
Obviously, when you have a wide pool of happy retainer customers, you already have a secure stream of annual recurring revenue. Plus, as they are loyal to your brand, you can also leverage the upselling opportunities to improve your yearly profit.
Now, if we see the other side, you can also persuade window shoppers and win their buy-ins by showing them the free shipping option - the most wanted shipping method customers look for.
How to Improve Shipping Experience for Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: 11 Best Practices?
Now that you have a clear picture of how an improved shipping experience can skyrocket your business growth, here are the top 11 practices to help you uplift the game.
1) Offer diversified shipping methods
Today’s customers want a particular shipping method that’ll suit a specific type of delivery. For example, if your customers have ordered a fragile item, you’ll have to offer a special shipping method where the goods will be delivered with utmost care.
Likewise, if you have to ship time-sensitive goods like a flower bouquet, you must have options like two-day delivery, overnight delivery, etc.
This will help you cater to every individual customer (and their shipping needs!), that’ll directly improve their shopping experience.
Now, if you feel overwhelmed while managing each shopper’s special delivery needs, you can always delegate the tasks to 3PL providers like FedEx and Delhivery. They cover almost every type of shipping option, like same-day delivery, 3-day delivery, overnight delivery, and more.
2) Provide almost accurate EDD (Estimated Delivery Dates)
Say your fiance’s birthday is 7th March and you want to buy her a luxurious handbag. But you’re skeptical about the delivery date. If it reaches after the 7th, what’s even the point of gifting? That’s why customers always check the EDD before hitting the buy button. They want to know whether they’ll receive the product within their preferred time frame.
In fact, Project44’s study found the same. It said that around 75% of online shoppers consider checking EDD before making purchases.
So, providing a predicted delivery date is unignorable! But, brands often provide that EDD on the checkout page, which the shoppers rarely navigate. So, it’s always a great idea to add the EDD on the product page itself to ease the shopping process for them and win impulse buy-ins.
Here’s an example:
3) Choose the carrier that’ll better fulfill a particular order
Every carrier is known for its own specialty. While DHL is known for the fastest shipping, FedEx is considered the most suitable logistics company to deliver fragile goods. Likewise, if you want to ship internationally, you can rely on USPS, UPS, and Blue Dart. So, first, check out the delivery type and customers’ preferences and then assign the carrier that’ll suit them best.
To achieve this, you can rely on software like ClickPost that auto-assigns carriers based on the order type and particular shipping needs. This further takes the daunting task from your plate and provides customers with shopping satisfaction.
4) Keep your customers in the loop throughout the shipping journey
According to a recent survey, around 80% of customers want to stay updated about the shipping journey once they check out after making payment. They want to know when they’ll receive the item. That’s why they keep on checking the tracking page every now and then and wait for shipping notifications.
In such a situation, if you don’t provide them with time-to-time delivery updates, they might doubt their purchases and question the brand's reputation.
On the other hand, if you keep them notified of every progress happening in the journey, it’ll not only make them free from anxiety but also position your brand as legit and customer-centric.
You can also mix an extra layer of personalization, like considering multiple channels to update customers, adding their names to the update, or translating the message into customers’ native languages to stay at the forefront of your customer’s minds.
5) Adhere to the delivery date
In this competitive era, where brands are going beyond and adopting multiple automated processes to improve customer satisfaction, keeping up with the delivery date is the bare minimum you can do. Some well-known brands even deliver the items way before the delivery date - just to enhance customers’ shopping experience.
However, delivery date is often affected by some external factors like adverse weather conditions, and political issues that delay the process. In such an unpredictable situation, you must update the customers regarding the delay and the next EDD to stay on the safer side.
Here’s a delayed shipping update provided by Kapiva to the customer:
6) Offer free shipping
There’s nothing new in the fact that free shipping is the ultimate favorite of every online shopper. They are even ready to purchase a product worth $300 with free shipping rather than buying the same product worth $255 with a shipping charge of $5. So, offering free shipping isn’t an option nowadays; it’s a necessity. On one hand, it delights customers, and on the other hand, it increases the yearly revenue.
One problem businesses face while providing the free shipping option is they often compromise their profit margin. Thus, you need to be a bit strategic while adding free shipping as one of your marketing assets. For example:
- Add the shipping cost to the price (Don’t forget to perform competitors’ pricing analysis)
- Keep a minimum order quantity to access the free shipping
- Offer free shipping on special occasions and festivals.
7) Invest in the proper packaging system
How the item is getting delivered to the end customer mostly separates a good brand from the best one. Suppose you have ordered an expensive piece of fragile artwork. But you have received it in a broken condition without any bubble wrap or sturdy cover. Will you ever prefer buying from that brand next time?
The same happens when customers receive a damaged product after a long wait. Thus, ensure taking protection of the main item at every cost.
For instance, you can make extra efforts in packaging, like covering it with a sturdy box, adding cushioning materials to keep the item safe from external force, secure sealing, double boxing, and more.
Now, if you want to go the extra mile, consider going for personalized packaging with your brand logo and colors. You can also use short handwritten notes for first-time buyers.
8) Resolve fake & failed deliveries instantly
With the rise of eCommerce scams, fake deliveries have become a severe problem that hampers customers’ shopping experience.
Often, the delivery agents don’t cover those destinations that don’t fall under the same route and they mark it as rejected by customers.
While you don’t have any direct solutions to mitigate this issue, you can eliminate this problem to a great extent with an OTP-based cancellation process. Until the OTP provided to the customer is entered into the portal, the delivery agent can’t mark it as “rejected by customers.”
Likewise, failed delivery is another growing issue that businesses need to eliminate for improved customer satisfaction. According to Harvard Business Review, companies lost billions of dollars because of failed deliveries.
Now, it’s your duty to manage the failed deliveries by automating the communication between the delivery agent and the customers. This will eventually reduce the RTO% and make the readers feel like you actually care for them.
9) Integrate AI & ML into your operations
Automation and Machine learning is changing the whole eCommerce sector. And shipping is also no exception. Not only to improve operational efficiency but also to enhance customer satisfaction, the power of AI and ML is unavoidable. You can leverage them in multiple ways. These are:
- Carrier allocation
- Real-time tracking
- SLA breach notification
- Shipping updates
- Shipping label generation
- Failed delivery management
- Return management
And more
In a nutshell, AI & ML can take off a huge chunk of the repetitive manual tasks, so you can focus on the most important thing of your business - say, connecting with the customers and offering them more personalized services.
10) Leverage the power of top-notch shipping software
All the strategies we mentioned above, like automated carrier allocation, showing EDD, providing time-to-time shipping updates, and managing failed deliveries, are taken care of by a single exclusive shipping software.
Yes! You don’t need to invest your money in separate solutions. This software integrates AI and ML technologies into their functionalities to ease most of these tasks.
ClickPost is one of them. It leverages ML algorithms to cooperate with you on multiple operations. You can fetch the most suitable carrier as per your needs, notify your customers of shipping updates, and manage failed deliveries automatically by streamlining communication between the delivery agent and the customer.
In fact, you can automate most return-related activities like self-serve return portal, instant return request analysis, and more to improve customers’ post-purchase experience.
11) Make the return and refund processes as easy as possible
Sure, a return simply indicates your customers aren’t happy. But you can retain those unhappy customers with a simple and streamlined return process. According to a recent survey, around 96% of customers will buy from a retailer if they offer easy return processes.
However, a simple return process doesn’t mean just providing a single self-served return portal; it also suggests:
- Offering prepaid & labelless return processes
- Instant feedback on return requests
- Providing on-time return updates
- Offering multiple refund methods
- Quick refund initiation
Once you check all these points, it turns those unsatisfied shoppers happy and loyal to your brand.
Final Words!
If you’re running a business, you’ll have to deal with ups and downs. If you have happy and loyal customers who are satisfied with your shipping process, you’ll find one or two shoppers who have left negative reviews on your site.
And that’s quite normal. But how you manage those customers and resolve their problems will set you apart from your competitors.
So, consider shipping as a key component of your business growth, and adopt the strategies mentioned above to create a pool of happy customers. Plus, don’t forget to go for ClickPost to manage all the shipping-related tasks seamlessly.