The transactional order delivery loop does not close with handing over the package to the shipping carrier. As an e-commerce business owner, you need to take control of your post-purchase and constantly be ready to face the risk of your customers’ in-transit packages facing issues.
This is because the customers feel that the onus of on-time and issue-free delivery is on the brand they shopped from rather than the shipping carrier.
1-in-3 customers abandon a brand after just one incident involving poor delivery experiences.
Not just major issues such as packages getting lost or damaged, even small incidents such as a delivery exception can do the trick in hurting your customer relationships.
During times like the pandemic, when issues such as delivery exceptions are more common in occurrence, you really need to step in and resolve them where necessary.
To equip yourself better to handle a delivery exception, let’s start with the basics of understanding what is it.
What Does a Delivery Exception Mean?
In simple terms, a delivery exception is when your in-transit delivery faces hindrance due to unavoidable reasons and might take longer than expected to reach your customers’ doorstep.
Keep in mind that not all cases of a delivery exception lead to a ‘late delivery’. Some just require minor actions that once completed can allow the package to keep up with the delivery timeline.
What Causes a Delivery Exception to Occur?
As mentioned before, delivery exceptions are unavoidable. And of course, more common during the pandemic. But what really causes them?
Here are some of the most common reasons why your customer’s package might face a delivery exception.
1. Label errors
If the label or its content is unclear/damaged/missing, etc. then a delivery exception code is generated.
For example, say the address written on the label is unrecognized or is at an undeliverable location or the label is so damaged that it is impossible to read the barcode, etc the last-mile carriers in charge are exempted from fulfilling the delivery.
2. Natural causes
Natural causes for a package delay such as storms, wildfires, and other severe weather-phenomenon lead the package to be held back due at a location for safeguarding. In such cases, a delivery exception is granted.
3. Man-made causes
Similar to natural causes, even made-made reasons such as accidents, packages lost in transit, delays at the hands of customs officers, issues that arise due to handlers at the sorting facility, etc all lead to delivery exceptions as well.
4. Federal Holidays
While shipping internationally, shippers need to be aware of federal holidays in both the origin country and destination. Shipping carriers are less likely to operate during these days, leading to an exemption to be given.
5. Missed drop-off
This kind of exception is uncommon as carriers often inform if the delivery is about to be made on a specific day. However, unexpected emergencies can sometimes lead to no one at the drop-off location to sign and receive the package, thus leaving the delivery incomplete.
Why is it Important for E-commerce Businesses to Address a Delivery Exception?
In most cases, a delivery exception is often minor and is resolved in a day. However, in some cases, they can persist for several days as well. Either way, you must be committed to resolving them at the earliest as they can cause a bad delivery experience for your customer.
- Lower customer satisfaction scores – Unattended delivery exceptions can quickly affect your customer satisfaction metrics such as retention rate and lifetime value. Don’t forget that in the worst-case scenario, your customer might even opt for a return and cost you dollars.
- Frequent WISMO inquiries – Even when the delivery exception is minor, the customer who isn’t aware of it constantly bombard your support reps with WISMO calls and consumes all of their time. This is because your customers feel missed out of the loop regarding their orders and are wondering why there isn’t an update.
It is evident that a delivery exception incident can cost your business significantly. Therefore, it is important to handle them in order to inspire customer loyalty.
How Can Businesses Handle Delivery Exceptions?
Handling delivery exceptions is actually quite easy. All you have to do is comply with your customers’ expectations — let them know of it beforehand.
Responding proactively is the best ploy when it comes to handling delivery exceptions. Remember, when you take delivery issues to your customers and not the other way around, you’re always restoring their confidence in you and setting them up for a great post-purchase experience.
You can start with tracking your parcels in real-time and share the data with your customers via a branded tracking page that your customers can use to track their orders on a self-serve basis.
Real-time tracking data also provides you with predictive alerts when a delivery exception occurs. You now have the chance to resolve the issue before customer impact or if it goes out of hand, you can still notify your customers of it via shipping notifications. This can help in cutting down WIMSO calls and freeing up your support team’s time.
Remember, your customers are in deep angst when a delivery exception occurs. Therefore, even your simple act of acknowledging it and communicating with them displays your empathy and assures them that you are indeed taking measures to resolve the issue.
Handle delivery exceptions by providing great delivery experiences
You can make use of a Delivery Experience Management (DEM) solution such as LateShipment.com that offers:
- Real-time shipment data – across carriers, services, and locations.
- Predictive analytics – to take preemptive action before customer impact.
- Automated ticket creation – so your support agents can dive in where needed.
- A dedicated support team dashboard – to help your support agents easily spot shipments that may require attention and initiate contextual email communication with customers.
- Proactive customer engagement – to send custom emails tailored to that specific customer or situation helps revive customers’ trust in the brand.
- Custom branded tracking pages – To improve brand recognition when customers are tracking their orders.
- Automated and customized shipping notifications – To keep customers informed at every event of their package journey via automated email and SMS notifications.
- Self-serve tracking widget – So your customers can track their package anytime, all by themselves.
And a lot more to help you seamlessly handle delivery exceptions and change negative delivery experiences into positive ones.
Reduce the impact of delivery exceptions by claiming refunds and save up to 20% on your shipping costs
Remember, the terms and conditions of shipping carriers have clear mentions of valid delivery exceptions in their range of services for which refunds are not guaranteed.
A valid delivery exception may be caused by weather conditions, customs delays, or even an unexpected roadblock.
On the other hand, your carrier can sometimes claim that delivery could not be made due to a fault at their ends like damaging the package or the label during handling, and still calls it a valid delivery exception.
In that case, LateShipment.com’s Parcel Audit and Shipping Refunds solution claims refunds on your behalf and deposits it directly into your account! Regularly auditing and claiming refunds also helps you save up to 20% on your shipping costs.
Bottom Line
Remember delivery issues such as exceptions are inevitable in occurrence. However, resolving them quickly is possible, easy, can help in reducing your customer’s frustration and set them on the course towards a positive delivery experience.
Seamlessly handling delivery exceptions can strengthen customer relationships. Try LateShipment.com today and start managing your delivery experiences with ease.
