Delay? Turn it into a positive experience!

Yesterday, you bought your new sound system online. Today, you're eagerly awaiting your order. Through the delivery app, you can see exactly where the delivery person is. In 45 minutes, you'll be dancing to the beat of the music! But then you read on your screen that the delivery person is delayed. And after that… nothing. For the rest of the day, you wonder where your sound system has gone. You're completely in the dark. Sound familiar?As a delivery service, you do everything to create an ultimate receiving experience for your customers. Yet, sometimes things go wrong. A shipment is delivered late, incorrectly sorted, the given address is wrong, there's a tree on the road; there are various reasons for delays. You can't always prevent things from going wrong. But you can certainly minimize the chance of errors and inform your customer on time! Because as a delivery service, you also understand that your customer doesn't like to be left in the dark. How do you best deal with delays? And how do you keep customers satisfied when things go wrong?

Keeping the critical customer satisfied

As a customer, you have the ability to track the delivery process in real-time. This leads to satisfied customers. So, all's well that ends well? Not quite! Because the tracking & tracing leads to high customer expectations. If something goes wrong, the customer sees it immediately and will be dissatisfied. Fortunately, it's the same app that also offers the solution to this problem: you can use the app not only for track & trace, but also to communicate about delays in real-time! As we wrote in a previous blog, research has shown that real-time communication absolutely contributes to high customer satisfaction. But how do you do this, communicate in real-time?

Real-time communication about delays

Admittedly, real-time communication is quite challenging. You're not actually riding along with your driver, the driver might not depart on time, or they might not have the correct packages with them. Perhaps the software isn't set up correctly, meaning your customer can't be informed about delays on time. Or you only notice in the warehouse that something is wrong. In any case, in these situations, you'll have to communicate afterwards. That's not only inefficient but also very customer-unfriendly. If you have your affairs in order, you communicate in real-time – or even proactively towards the recipient – and don't let delays be a reason for a poor customer experience.

Workflows and real-time alerts

If you want to communicate in real-time, you're always one step ahead of your customer. Historical data about your delivery process plays an important role in this. Where did the delay originate? Where did communication go wrong? Why was that van stationary for so long? With this kind of data, you can set up and automate your delivery process. You then work with workflows and automatic messages. Based on workflows, you send out a real-time message via the tracking tool for every deviating situation. Is the delivery person late? Then you send a message with an adjusted delivery window. Can the delivery person not find the address? Then a message is sent with the option to provide an alternative delivery location. Naturally, these messages also inform about the next steps the customer can take or refer to an (accessible!) customer service.

The power of algorithms

If you go a step further, you use historical data for proactive communication. Algorithms can predict deviations using a combination of historical data and the current situation – such as delays or changes in customer availability or location. They work with "if-then" schemes, or predictive alerts. These show the steps for the most common delays in your delivery and enable the driver to act in time or inform the customer. If the algorithm detects a deviation, automated instructions are immediately sent to the customer or the driver. This way, everyone always has the right information immediately!Back to the sound system. It will arrive. 2 hours later, as you've just learned. You understand that, after all, there was a tree on the road. Now you can download some new tracks. With that, you'll be rocking to the beat of the music tonight – a little later than planned, but with *better* music! Real-time communication is pretty great after all!