The Big Post-Purchase CX Gap in the Order Delivery Phase
Picture this.
A shopper visits your website after a friend raved about one of your products or after clicking a compelling ad on social media. They casually navigate through the essential products section and decide to make a purchase. Your checkout process is seamless with limited navigation, thanks to your focus on providing a great user experience on your site.
Thereafter, the shopper hits “buy” and selects their preferred payment and shipping options from the choices on your checkout page. You send them a well-crafted order confirmation mail that is to their satisfaction and then proceed to pick, pack, and ship the order out.
Your shipping partner then shares a tracking URL with you, which you share with the customer. Beyond this point, the customer periodically checks their order delivery status on the tracking page of the shipping carrier.
So far so good.
But not beyond this point.
Beyond this point, there exists a BIG customer-experience gap in which you unwittingly neglect post-purchase experience.
This gap is on account of the fact that your post-purchase phase is outsourced to your shipping carrier, a third party who likely does not share your commitment toward providing your customer a standout delivery experience.
Because of a lack of control over your customers’ post-purchase experience:
- You’re unable to resolve customer issues proactively — The post-purchase phase is extremely error-prone with 1-in-5 parcels being routinely delayed. A lack of real-time visibility into shipments in transit makes you incapable of foreseeing delivery issues and offering a proactive resolution.
- You’re not in a position to communicate adequately to reduce customer anxiety — Customers are always anxious about their parcels and are known to check the status of their orders frequently. When you’re not in control of the most anxious stage of your customers’ journey, you jeopardize your relationship with a lack of communication.
- Your shipping carrier’s brand rather than your own is prominent in the customer’s field-of-view in the post-purchase phase. This is a lost upsell and cross-sell opportunity for you.
A loss of control over the post-purchase experience you offer has even more consequences.
Read till the end for a way to delight customers with a standout post-purchase CX.