Delivery - Brand investment not simply a cost overhead
Delivery needs to be viewed as brand investment and not an inconvenient process/cost. Your customers experience has to be good as repeat business depends on it.
For decades businesses have focused their efforts upon the customer experience. The choosing of a product from the store, the relationship they have with the call centre, the colour of the environment and the layout of their store. All investments to help customers enjoy the experience of shopping and browsing products designed to ensure that they will subconsciously remember you when returning again and again.
This is further explored with the product itself - whether own brand or not, the shape of the packaging, its colour, features and carefully selected display location. These are all investments that, along with your store experience, would rarely be challenged as excessive or unnecessary. True they need to be conducted or created within a budget; however, they are not driven by cost alone.
So why is it then we have a purely cost driven strategy for the delivery of products to customers homes?
Yes, the retailer will always consider the experience the customer has through their delivery channel, but it normally stays within the confines of delivery performance to timescales. From this, they immediately consider the cost of shipping, some try to conduct the entire process with least cost impact to the business. Unfortunately the true overall cost of a poor delivery service is rarely known or considered.
Delivery is not seen as a customer relationship building experience. It should be. If you invest the effort in making delivery as attractive and enjoyable as the shopping experience then the customer will stay happy. Not as is often the case - utterly disappointed, having had the perfect shopping approach to then be left to the four winds when delivery comes round.
A customer disappointed by the delivery process is likely to tell far more people of your failings than if they didn't like your store layout!
Using Axida's home delivery software HDi, retailers can choose the balance between service and cost that reinforces their brand. For more information, contact us.
Delivery. It's an investment, so make the effort to understand how your customers want their delivery experience and meet their expectations - consider the true overall cost of a poor service!