Building Trust on First-Class Delivery and Fulfillment in the Last Mile

Over the last few years, the norms of commerce, work and everyday life have been turned upside down, prompting customers and brands to re-establish how they connect. With 94 percent of customers saying that how they're treated influences their decision to buy from a company, it’s never been more critical to get the experience right.

For the everyday shopper, convenience is key; can their purchase be at their door within 24 hours, in time for the birthday they forgot about? Can they be sure the item is in stock and at the right location before they hit the purchase button?

With a multitude of factors contributing to the overall customer experience, retailers can’t treat the last mile as an afterthought. So, how can they use delivery to build trust with their customers?

Convenience is Still King

Convenience is crucial to keep online customers coming back to a retailer again and again. According to the International Post Corporation, 79 percent of consumers are now shopping online at least once a month, so retailers that prioritize convenience, guaranteeing speedy, transparent and reliable delivery, including same- and next-day delivery services, will reap the rewards of securing higher numbers of satisfied customers.

To achieve this, retailers need to plan ahead and dedicate a budget to ensure this convenience is maintained across their business. Otherwise, they risk being outflanked by larger competitors.

Real-Time Data Visibility

Data is vital to building trust with consumers and ensuring internal teams run efficiently. For consumers, the effects of good or bad data has never been more apparent than at the point of sale.

Our research has found that 44 percent of retailers say the top issue for shoppers’ cart abandonment is a lack of clarity into delivery options prior to checkout. Customers often take a long journey before choosing what to buy, causing frustration at the point of purchase if they discover their items aren't available within the time frame they need.

While supply chain issues are looming large, retailers are learning to work with lean inventories, ensuring that they have complete visibility on the real-time state of play of their inventory to successfully manage resources and communicate effectively with customers. It's clear that accurate stock control data can have a direct result on the customer experience.

Another way of negating cart abandonment is to offer the customer a variety of choices for delivery, ensuring they can select the option best suited to their needs. If they're not already, retailers should be looking to diversify their offerings and cater to increasing customer demands. This includes more sustainable options as well as those focused on speed.

It's by opening communications and inventory data that retailers can function at a higher level of productivity, increasing agility in their operations. Without the risk of information being siloed between departments (sales, marketing, e-commerce, customer service), businesses are better able to limit potential risks and respond efficiently if challenges arise.

AI as a Tool

Customer service offerings including chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) algorithms, allow for instant responses between buyer and seller, building trust throughout the purchase journey.

Businesses that use OpenAI tools within their services are finding success through automation as a result of its efficiencies, allowing for new opportunities to scale up. AI can help reduce the high cost of customer service by providing better visibility and quick, automated interactions with customers. It can also support in calculating estimated times of arrival, using historical data and real-time traffic updates, streamlining the process of keeping customers up-to-date.

Data is everything when talking about AI. Both the quality and volume of data are vital to support a customer-centric approach and businesses must ensure they're correctly collecting, storing and activating their first-party data.

We're operating in a competitive landscape where customer experience has never been more important. It has also never been more tangible and publicly visible, with online reviews being just as effective at influencing buying decisions as word-of-mouth. Moreover, a negative experience can lead to customer dissatisfaction, negative reviews, and the loss of potential customers.

For retailers and brands to succeed, they need to provide seamless interactions and anticipate customer needs. With real-time order tracking and instantaneous support, customers are left feeling confident and content throughout the buying journey. And with confidence comes trust — the key to unlocking customer satisfaction from purchase to unboxing.

Guy Bloch is the CEO at Bringg, a platform that helps companies scale up and optimize their customer experiences and logistics operations.