How do you deal with customers asking for delivery updates?

[See Interiors]

I find that we spend the majority of the day responding to pointless requests about delivery and at the rate we are growing we will soon need a full time staff member to answer delivery enquiries.

we even get these from customers who have literally just placed an order on items with a 10-14 working days delivery timescale.

Does anyone else experience this problem and what did you do to reduce the number of emails.

 

[antropy]

Perhaps get your ecommerce system to send out more order status emails and also provide a login area where customers can track the status?

 

[Mister B]

We receive hardly any requests so I think that both your problem and solution lie in the amount of information you must provide when your customers place their order.

Upon receipt of order confirmation, include a message outling all of the delivery timescales and if in doubt, refer them to the FAQ page of your website.

Mister B

 

[See Interiors]

I think I will have to just email them an essay on the back of their order confirmation with all delivery information etc.

We receive hardly any requests so I think that both your problem and solution lie in the amount of information you must provide when your customers place their order.

Upon receipt of order confirmation, include a message outling all of the delivery timescales and if in doubt, refer them to the FAQ page of your website.

Mister B

 

[eTray Sales]

We often get questions asking us for information that is already covered on the web site. It makes me think that I should have look to see if we can make it clearer, and it often leads to tweaks to the site content.

But sometimes I get the impression that people get in touch just because they want to be reassured that they are dealing with somebody that is real and they won’t get ripped off. A lot of people are still a bit nervous about ordering on the web, and whatever the question they ask is, it is just a pretext.

I don’t mind that at all. I have noticed that people that make you work hard at first often turn into pretty good customers.

 

[JPMiddleton]

But sometimes I get the impression that people get in touch just because they want to be reassured that they are dealing with somebody that is real and they won’t get ripped off.

I'd second this, especially if i'm making larger purchases such as TVs, furniture, etc.

 

[charlesdupont]

The way I've seen it done, you can send the customer a first email to confirm the order was placed (including the price etc.).

You then send a second email for the delivery itself. If you have a tracking reference you can communicate to the customer, it's probably worth adding there - that'll give customers the ability to track the order directly.

It might be a bit more expensive to get the extra dev resource to automate this, but it will definitely scale better than hiring someone specifically for those queries.

Hope this helps!

 

[Prestige-SEO]

Does your delivery service have tracking codes?

 

[japancool]

But sometimes I get the impression that people get in touch just because they want to be reassured that they are dealing with somebody that is real and they won’t get ripped off. A lot of people are still a bit nervous about ordering on the web, and whatever the question they ask is, it is just a pretext.

I don’t mind that at all. I have noticed that people that make you work hard at first often turn into pretty good customers.

This +1.

Although the carrier I use (myhermes) provides tracking, not everyone has heard of them, and not everyone understands the updates they provide ("hub trailer via sorter" doesn't mean a lot to most people). I have had customers e-mailing asking for updates and the fact that they get a real person answering them, and promising to keep an eye on their package to resolve any potential problems gives them a really good impression of customer service and wins repeat business.

 

[lesliedocherty]

Hi,

we get very few, we email the customer tracking details, update their account with tracking details.

 

[moo-tique]

We don't see that many either. I think what helps us is that we clearly display delivery timescales under each of the products we sell. We have also included this in our shipping and returns page which is clearly visible within the page menu.

I think as long as you make it clear, and the customer feels they are well informed, they are less likely to have any concerns. We have been running for a little over a year, so it's obviously working.

 

[Danny Peters]

A lot of good advice has already been given. It's vital not to think of this as a "stupid customers" issue. Overdose the customer with information. For things with a 10-14 day lead time, maybe even consider a "Don't worry, we haven't forgotten you" message reassuring the customer that you are on the case and reminding them when you expect the order to be delivered. It doesn't matter if the information is redundant and repeated.

As another poster said, there will likely be some development cost to automate this, but it will be far less than employing a new body to cover it reactively. You will have happier, more relaxed customers too.

 

[14Steve14]

I have to agree with the sending update emails. My website automatically sends these when the otrder status is updated. I have added other order statuses to make this simpler. Originally the store only had a few, but by adding more the customer is now updated more often.

I also show the shipping costs on the shopping cart page as the store uses weight based shipping, so its not too hard.

I also have a delivery page on the site with several links to it, including the FAQ page, which details each delivery option and explains the time and costs of each service.

Saying all that, we still get customers phoning to find where their order is, or how long will it take to get here if I order it today type of questions.

 

[Startwiththis]

It's important to emphasis your 'Delivery service promise' throughout your website. Many of our users set up a 'Delivery information page' on the website with a service promise and indicate the average number of handling days from despatch. Some mention which courier they use so the customer knows the package is in safe hands. The 'Delivery Service Promise' is repeated on the basket page and enforced in the order acknowledgement email and despatch email which is automatically sent. For products which take longer to ship the delivery and handling time is highlighted in detail at the product level.

If you can track the orders you despatch it may be worth forwarding the tracking details so they can hassle your courier instead of yourself.

 

[James and James Fulfilment]

The long lead times could be the reason your customers are nervous. All the points noted above are how many companies deal with these enquiries. Interacting with your customers, automated or by a person is an opportunity to build their brand experience and loyalty. Don't forget, if they are happy with your service they will very like go online and post positive reviews.

 

[JD@fifty6]

I'm sure you didn't mean it to come out this way, but it's worth noting that there are zero requests from customers that are 'pointless'. These are the people who allow you to exist as a business. Any questions that are asked consistently by customers are just signals that there is something you can improve on, in this case it's a simple communication issue and has been discussed already in the great answers in here.

I hope you manage to get the number of emails down

 

[See Interiors]

Thanks for all the replies!

We have added an additional page to our confirmation emails full of delivery information which seems to have helped a little bit. I did get an email from a customer today asking where there item was 24 hours after placing the order when the delivery is 7-10 working days :|

We are also working on implementing estimated delivery dates on the product pages along with making the delivery information more prominent on the product pages instead of hidden away in a tab, those that still want an update we will just have to politely respond.

I get the point about the order status updates but as we dropship everything we often don't know ourselves where the items are.