E-merchants: are you responsive enough when it comes to parcel tracking?
An estimated 91% of online consumers want to stay informed regarding the progress of their packages throughout the delivery stages (Ifop 2016 study).
However, carriers attach little importance to the various interactions they can have with your customers. It's not a priority, since their activity is not linked to the messages sent, but only to the convoying of products .
The challenge is not just to transmit information at the right time, but to use this opportunity to get closer to your customers, offering them personalized content relevant to the offers most likely to attract their attention.
Let's take a look at the advantages of internalizing this type of communication, with the help of tools adapted to the use of marketing automation.
1. Boost customer satisfaction
Sending regular messages on the progress of your parcels, at every stage, helps you anticipate any questions or concerns your customers may have, and build a relationship of trust.
It also underpins the improvement of customer satisfaction by focusing on four key areas: reducing the number of people to contact, reducing the frustration of waiting for an answer, avoiding unnecessary efforts to contact the carrier(s) or your support team, and interacting on their preferred channel (sms, email...).
For all these reasons, your customers will be more likely to order from your online store again. And they'll remain loyal to your brand, because you've reassured them and shown that you've mastered every stage of the customer journey.
2. Increase your sales
The informative aspect of your messages is only one of the two sides of this form of communication. The commercial objective is to highlight additional and complementary products, i.e. to suggest relevant offers based on past orders. But also best-sellers and new products.
The aim is to build customer loyalty by increasing the average basket size and frequency of purchases.
Feedback from numerous SaaS marketing software applications demonstrates the favorable sales dynamics generated in this way. For example, transactional email and SMS software (email and SMS notifications) such as Wewmanager, Sendinblue, ExpertSender etc. show that their campaigns generate a 7% increase in additional sales. In fact, this commercial approach takes advantage of consumers' prior interest in your emails, as evidenced by the 67% open rate, again according to the same company.
3. Look after your (e)reputation
Improving customer satisfaction has various corollaries: they become ambassadors for your brand, you get less negative feedback on opinion sites or social networks (80% of e-buyers are more forgiving in the event of late delivery if they are warned in advance, according to a 2014 Ifop study). Your online reputation is therefore preserved.
You remain in the minds of customers (with your logo, graphic charter...) which constitutes a bulwark against your competitors.
And it's also an opportunity to nurture your brand image with a specific narrative aimed at demonstrating your credibility, generating buy-in and positioning your e-commerce site.
4. Gain greater visibility
By centralizing all your distributors on a single platform, you'll gain a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in parcel delivery. Which carriers meet their delivery deadlines? For which products? Can you identify the pitfalls that lengthen delivery times? At what stages?
What's more, you can identify correlations between transport-related events (delays, damaged packages, etc.) and customer satisfaction.
As a result, you'll be able to make better strategic decisions, such as choosing transport companies based on their performance, or delivery options that don't put your visitors off: 50% of them abandon the shopping cart when it doesn't suit them (Toluna study). But also establish relevant marketing campaigns, based on observed behaviors.
5. Increase your productivity
Automated communication solutions make it easier to manage marketing campaigns according to pre-established scenarios. For example, promotional offers when parcels are delayed.
They require little technical knowledge, and don 't require an entire team to keep them running smoothly. A single person trained in this type of platform is sufficient.
You send personalized messages across multiple channels, at the right time, with relevant information and suggestions.
The other benefit is the reduction in time spent by your after-sales team dealing with customer queries about delivery. You also reduce the cost of recruiting additional staff.
Conclusion
E-retailers have realized that they can generate additional sales and improve their customer relations and brand image by taking back control of parcel tracking communications.
This approach enables them to enhance the customer experience by proactively responding to customer expectations. To achieve these objectives, e-retailers use marketing automation tools, specifically designed to automatically send personalized messages.
Article translated from French