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Porch Pirates, Bad Weather, Low Inventory, And More Could Wreak Havoc On Holiday Deliveries

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What guarantee do you give customers that you will take care of them, regardless of mishaps that are increasingly occurring in shipping?

As we head into the holiday season, customers are concerned about being able to buy the gifts they want for their friends, family and loved ones. The labor shortage, shipping challenges, supply chain problems, inventory issues and more have consumers worried that they may not be able to buy and receive gifts in time for the holidays. The press is sensationalizing this problem and putting fear into consumers’ minds. This is a huge problem for SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) that have to compete with large brands, some of which have their own shipping and logistics divisions.

If you’ve been following my work, you know that the focus of many of my articles is customer service and experience. When I have referred to guaranteeing and standing behind your products it’s been focused on what you sell. What the customer buys is expected to work, and if it doesn’t, the customer wants the problem to be properly handled by the support department. If it’s not handled the right way, the customer may never buy from your brand or company again.

But what happens if the problem has nothing to do with the merchandise? According to a recent UPS Capital-sponsored survey, SMB owners are concerned with inflation, supply chain shortages and shipping issues that include loss, damage, porch piracy, and delays. This means there could be problems, not with the merchandise itself, but with receiving the merchandise.

I had a chance to interview Kiel Harkness, vice-president of marketing for UPS Capital. We all know UPS, the brown trucks. UPS Capital is part of the UPS we know and love, and it partners with companies to to provide industry leading CX and post purchase CS on every order, regardless of what mishaps occur with shipping.

UPS is gearing up to deliver a higher volume of packages this holiday season. A forecast by Bain said holiday retail sales in November and December should grow 7% over a year ago and reach $800 billion. Ecommerce sales will see huge growth, which means more deliveries—and more opportunities for delivery failures.

Harkness said that for SMBs to compete they must be prepared to quickly get another product out to their customers when there’s an issue, just as the big brand retailers do. If not properly handled, this could become a larger expense, which even after taking care of the problem, could still cost you the future business with that customer.

Here’s the bottom line. Your business is being compared to Amazon, Target, Walmart and other major retailers that are big enough to self-insure, manage supply chain and inventory issues, and more. But, what if you’re not Amazon or Target? What if you are a small or medium-size business and you don’t have the resources to overcome issues the way these larger brands do? Well, actually you can.

Harkness’s answer is insurance, which can be as low as $1 for every $100 of value. What that means is businesses don’t need the capital necessary to replace every stolen or damaged package. They just have to properly insure the package. If there’s a problem with the shipment such as a damage,, the company submits a claim that covers the cost and quickly ships out a replacement product, just like Amazon would do.

According to the UPS survey, consider that 35% of consumers would be motivated to shop online during Small Business Saturday if offered guaranteed replacements for lost and damaged packages. Regardless of the size of your business, you can’t ignore this statistic. This is even more important as consumers want to do business with SMBs, but sometimes the guarantee that the bigger brands make is an irresistible proposition. Having a guaranteed replacement program takes that objection off the table.

A consumer choosing to not make a single purchase is bad, but what if your customers chose to never come back? Citing the survey, Harkness shared that 44% of consumers said that the lack of a strong problem resolution for a stolen or damaged package will cause them to never shop with that SMB again1. Losing a single sale hurts, but losing the customer completely is far worse. Can any business afford to lose up to 44% of its customers?

Trusting the companies and brands you do business with is far from just having honest salespeople taking care of you. Trust must also be baked into the process and experience you have with a company. Talking to salespeople and customer support people, researching the company and its products online and reading reviews are how customers begin to trust a company. The company’s responsibility does not end once the product leaves the warehouse and is on its way to the customer. The company must take responsibility all the way up until the customer opens the package and is enjoying the product.

Don’t leave that last part of the experience to chance. Insure the delivery to ensure your customers get the experience they deserve, even when there’s a problem. That’s the kind of guarantee that can help make a customer say, “I’ll be back!”

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