The way the world does business is changing. We’re living in an “age of customers”, where the most successful companies are those that understand their target audience better and design experiences aligned with customer needs.
We can define customer experience as the sum of a company’s interactions with its customers throughout the complete life cycle.
For the logistics industry, this means the ease in which we do business, the speed in which we provide smart solutions, and the customization of service are just as important as price. For this reason, companies must develop strategies aligned to an experience based on the following pillars:
- Commitment: Being enthusiastic about meeting customer needs and making customers feel valued.
- Understanding: Acknowledging and meeting the needs of clients.
- Impeccable execution: Flawlessly solving the needs of clients.
- Response capacity: Solving problems and delivering on time and in good form.
- Productivity: Anticipating the needs of clients.
- Evolution: Continuously looking for ways to improve customer experience.
Statistics about customer experience
- According to Forrester, as of 2020, 80% of businesses will be competing based on service.
- According to Bain, increasing client retention by 5% impacts business profitability anywhere between 25 and 95%.
- Qualtrics Says that S&P500 companies, leaders in customer experience, generated 45% more returns than the rest between 2007 and 2017.
Logistics trends that improve customer experience
The following are some of the trends that the logistics industry is implementing to meet the demands in an effort to improve customer experience:
- Faster deliveries: Offering express service and store or convenience spot pick up is an effective way to solve the need for immediacy.
- Traceability: The possibility for customers to track shipments over GPS allows customers to know where their parcel is at any given moment.
- Flexible schedule: The incompatibility of delivery schedules has led to the creation of lockers, which are placed on public spaces where parcels can be delivered whether addressees are present or not.
- Drones, robots, and self-driven vehicles: Unmanned vehicles will be good future delivery options because they’re not subject to time restrictions and have no need for staff.
- Solving queries in the first contact: It has been proven that the customer satisfaction rate is negatively impacted when a second contact is needed to get answers or clarify doubts.
- Ability to locate addressees immediately: This is a good alternative if addressees are absent because the delivery location can be changed from a smartphone.
- Email and SMS or WhatsApp messages: Using these channels to send notifications to buyers with information on their parcels.
- Setting up a communication system with clients: Besides providing traceability, it lowers events and failed deliveries.
Supply chain strategies must be optimized to meet the demands of clients. As a company’s digital capacity grows, the coordination of its supply chain will grow in importance.
Meeting the delivery terms and communicating the status of orders, returns, and exchanges results in a positive perception, which can be conveyed to others. Furthermore, a bad experience is more likely to beshared amongst personal connections and on social media, which can influence the decisions of others in a negative way.
We’ve evolved from an age where price was the main factor to one where customer experience, or human contact, is the most important issue. This is because, when we establish a human connection, both commitment and fidelity grow. Perhaps, from today we should evolve from customer experience to personal experience.
Best Global Logistics is a company that understands that to remain competitive, companies must learn how to effectively balance costs, services, risks, and customer experience. To achieve this, we use the most advanced technology to measure, improve, and customize services for clients.