How to Avoid Failed Deliveries
A failed delivery attempt means lost money, hurt reputation, and an unhappy customer. While it may seem that some percentage of failed deliveries is unavoidable, there are ways to minimize the problem dramatically.
Understanding how to tackle such deliveries can help you streamline logistics and ensure customer satisfaction. Let’s take a closer look at how unsuccessful delivery attempts work, and what you can do to prevent them from hurting your business.
What Is a Failed Delivery Attempt?
A failed delivery attempt is a delivery that doesn’t reach the destination the first time. Up to 20% of e-commerce deliveries don’t reach the recipient from the first delivery attempt.
While multiple reasons and errors may stand behind such a delivery, the outcome is always the same. The company loses time and money while the customer’s satisfaction rate goes down. The most common causes of failed delivery attempts that retailers experience are:
Incorrect or Incomplete Address Information
Incomplete or wrong address details are the most common reason for failed deliveries. Companies often fail to check and validate addresses provided to them by the customers. Meanwhile customers often make mistakes when filling out standard online or offline formsform.
As a result, the delivery driver can bring the parcel to an address, which isn’t just on the wrong street but even in the wrong city. These failed deliveries are especially hurtful because such mistakes can’t be rectified quickly.
Customer Absence
If no one is present at the delivery address to receive the package, delivery may be attempted again or fail altogether. This issue often happens because the recipient didn’t coordinate the delivery time with the company. While it’s easy to blame the delivery agent for this issue, it’s also often the retailer’s fault.
Explaining the possible delivery time to the customer before they make a purchase can prevent unsuccessful delivery. When a customer understands the delivery options in advance, they are more likely to change their schedule to fit the courier’s.
Restricted Delivery Area
Some locations, such as military bases, gated communities, or remote areas, may restrict access for couriers. The retailer who doesn’t check the address for such issues in advance may face failed deliveries.
Multiple options exist to avoid this problem or to offer additional delivery opportunities. While it may seem as if it’s the customer’s responsibility to inform the retailer about such restrictions, only a few of them do. As a result, the sender bears extra costs.
Insufficient Shipping Documentation
Missing or incorrect shipping labels, customs forms, or invoices can stop the package from being processed. A poor understanding of how parcel delivery works in other countries could keep the customer from getting their purchases overseas.
Many companies make the mistake of preparing proper documentation because it differs from what they have in their country. As a result, the customer doesn’t get the parcel, or worse, encounters extra fees and refuses to pay them.
Weather Conditions
Sometimes, extreme weather conditions, such as heavy rain, snowstorms, or floods can prevent a successful delivery. This is a force majeure situation, which can’t be prevented. However, the retailer has an opportunity to warn the intended recipient about the problem and even offer them a bonus for the extra wait time.
Package Refusal
The recipient may refuse to accept the package. This can happen for multiple reasons, including lack of information, improper packaging, and much more. In such situations, the sender may bear the extra costs of returning the parcel. In some cases, it can be possible to charge the recipient.
When refusal occurs, the company must collect information about why this happened and use it to prevent such issues from occurring in the future.
Unpaid Fees or Duties
If customs duties, taxes, or shipping fees are not paid, the package may be held at customs or sent back to the sender. This is the sender’s responsibility to check the fees and charge the customer in advance.
In many cases, customers don’t know about their parcels being held up at customs. Meanwhile, if they do, they could refuse to spend time figuring out how to pay for them.
Inaccessible Delivery Location
The delivery address may be inaccessible due to construction, road closures, or other temporary blockages. It’s the customer’s responsibility to warn the courier about the problem. However, the delivery company should also check for such issues before making a delivery.
How to Avoid Failed Deliveries and Associated Costs
Understanding the main reasons for failed deliveries makes it easy to design a plan that prevents them from happening. While it may be impossible to avoid these deliveries altogether, minimizing them is a reality.
Validate Delivery Addresses
When a customer enters the delivery details during checkout, they often make mistakes. Typos in the zip code or street name can easily send the parcel to another city or state. An innocent mistake leads to serious expenses.
Many companies automate the checkout and delivery process without checking the address. No matter how many customers you have, manual scans are time-consuming and even more costly than failed deliveries. That’s where address validators come in.
An address validator is a comprehensive tool that checks each address entered during checkout for errors, wrong format, typos, and more. If something is wrong, they can notify the user in real-time and help find the correct address.
Such validators can also check existing addresses in your customer database and flag relevant issues. This way you can fix the problem before the parcel goes out and avoid all the problems that accompany failed deliveries.
Real-Time Delivery Tracking
In today’s highly busy world, not many people have the opportunity to stay at home all day, waiting for the courier to come in. When the delivery company experiences delays and unexpected problems (e.g. weather, restricted areas, traffic), the customer may not have time to wait. This leads to a poor delivery experience and new expenses for the sender.
A simple way to improve the experience for everyone is to work with a delivery company that offers real-time tracking options. The customer can track the courier and see exactly when they are about to come to their home. This can help the recipient plan their day accordingly.
The tracking option also helps the company gather data about delivery issues. Analyzing this information can help you streamline the delivery process in the future.
Plan for Redeliveries
If the delivery fails the first time, the delivery company may start the process of returning the package to the sender. To prevent this from happening immediately, you need to plan for redeliveries. Even if the courier charges an extra fee for redelivery, it’s likely to be less hefty than the return charge.
With 80% of customers expecting same-day delivery, the second delivery attempt should happen either on the same day or the day after.
In case the customer wasn’t at home when the package was delivered the first time, you can contact them to check when they would prefer the delivery to happen. While this will take up some extra time, you can save money on returned items while improving customer experience in the process.
Ask for a Backup Option
Many companies don’t think outside the box when it comes to deliveries. However, a simple way to avoid a failed delivery attempt is to create a backup option. When the customer is providing their address, ask them to leave a backup address. For example, they can allow delivery to a neighbor or a friend who lives on the same street.
While this would require an addition of another address, if you have a validator, you can make sure that both are correct.
Another backup option is a parcel locker. If your customers know that they are too busy to receive a package at a dedicated time, you can deliver them to parcel lockers. This way, the customer can pick up the package whenever it is convenient for them.
Streamline Customer Communications
Many failed deliveries occur because of a lack of customer communication. For example, the recipient’s plans change, and they can’t be home to wait for the delivery. If you don’t give them the option to warn you or the courier about it, you will face a failed delivery.
Provide an opportunity for the customer to change the delivery time and date. While this may cost extra, some customers could be willing to cover the costs in order to get their products.
You can also provide several delivery choices for the client to consider. If home delivery isn’t an option, you could deliver the package to a nearby branch or locker.
Improving Your Delivery Rates
If your business depends on timely deliveries, each failed delivery attempt affects its reputation and reduces customer lifetime value. Minimizing failed deliveries doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need to do is invest in the right tools and work with reliable companies.
Don’t automate the delivery process and forget about it. Deliveries require your constant attention to remain effective. Take the time to streamline client communication and analyze delivery data for continuous improvement.
