Now that the holidays have concluded, it is time to think about how the customer experience can be improved. This can be done by taking a look at some customer dissatisfiers that can occur during peak season and how they can be transformed into customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Upon observing several logistics and supply chain firms websites and social media content, I noticed that there was one common denominator. The common dominator was always something along the lines of each firm touting, “We have the best customer service.” Apparently everyone has superb customer service. From these firms prospectives, that is likely true because their definition of great customer service is probably having nice customer service representatives and a friendly sales team. The problem with this is, there is no competitive advantage with having nice and friendly customer facing employees. Almost everybody is nice and friendly when their job is on the line.
If you want to have unmatched customer service, you need to focus on the customer experience. In other words, thinking of the customer journey and embarking on that journey to understand how your service affects your customers through each step of the supply chain.
When emulating your customers journey there are some questions that you need to keep in mind:
1. Was there any delays and did your product go out in time?
If your answer is yes, please pass go and collect your imaginary $200 of customer satisfaction points. If your answer is no, take a moment and think about why this happened. Maybe there was issues with your inventory management system. Out of stock items are a surefire way to reduce or even eliminate customer loyalty.
Another problem that could be attributed to this could be that you are exchanging low cost for slower shipping or a shipping and fulfillment center that is not in a strategic location. Over the years, customers have come to have an expectation of two day shipping. By reducing your last mile of transportation, you will speed up your shipping and it will allow for more time for order fulfillment which will in turn increase your accuracy.
2. Was there damage to your customers packages?
To some customers, unboxing is a large component of their customer experience. Imagine a Youtuber with a large following going live or uploading a video unboxing your product and the package being damaged. It is not aesthetically pleasing and it shows that your package was handled carelessly. Your product the customer might be receiving might be broken and cause the customer to either return, refund the product, or even worse, never buying from you again. The Youtube viewers might get a bad impression from this video and may decide to remove you from consideration and buy from your competitor instead.
3. Did these issues lead to compliants or worse, a loss of customers?
To be realistic, it probably led to both.
Here is how we at Lincoln Distribution can help:
- We can lower your costs and improve speed and accuracy with our strategic locations in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Tampa
- By lowering these costs, you can pass on the lower costs to your customers and drive revenue and increase your customer base
- We can speed ship since customers now expect two day shipping or less
- We can customize your packaging to allow you to be a part of the unboxing phenomenon
To revamp your customer’s journey, give us a call at (813) 544-5910.