’Tis the Season for Clear Customer Communication

Some recent Redwood blog posts — see here and here — have focused on the importance of preparing in advance for the busy holiday parcel shipping season. Visions of sugarplums may not exactly be dancing in your head yet. But it’s time to ensure you have inventory, labor, distribution plans, and detailed shipping rates and schedules ready for the upcoming season.   

That may seem like a tall order in mid-September. But there’s more. It’s not enough to simply define your holiday parcel shipping plan. You also need to communicate key details of that plan to customers.  

If you’ve already studied the shipping cut-off dates for FedEx and UPS, delivery lead times, rates, and surcharges of your carrier mix, then you should be able to relate that information to real-world customer impacts. When will your customers start to incur added shipping fees? What’s their absolute drop-dead date for receiving items before Christmas?  

Smart shippers already know these facts. They’re also planning promotions and incentives to encourage customers to buy early, buy in quantity, and otherwise support a holly-jolly profit margin. They have alternate carriers and contingency plans in place to ensure that, like Santa, they can keep delivery promises once they’re made. 

“Do You Hear What I Hear?” (Holiday Shopper Edition)  

If you’ve done all this preparation, congratulations! Now the next step is to clearly, patiently, and repeatedly communicate key dates and schedules, expediting fees, planned incentives and promotions, and other relevant facts to customers.  

Leverage your website, social media channels, email lists, and physical stores (if applicable) to get the right information out there, soon. And repeat it at appropriate intervals, especially as critical order by/get by deadlines are approaching. Make sure your customers hear your message accurately. It will minimize confusion and disappointment later. 

Because customers will always have questions — no matter how well you communicate — make sure you have extra customer service personnel ready to repeat this information and troubleshoot any issues. Phone lines, online chats, live texts, in-store support — make sure these resources are not only available, but staffed by knowledgeable associates who are familiar with charges, deadlines, and other key information.  

What if customers aren’t looking for basic information, but trying to express concern about their current order status or a missed delivery? This is where your choice of carrier becomes absolutely critical. 

In today’s world of real-time connectivity, all your parcel carriers should be leveraging advanced tracking and visibility tools that are integrated directly with your systems. Every internal stakeholder, including customer service staff, should be able to see real-time delivery status, as well as any delays. Customers should have access to this information on-demand, either through the carrier’s organization or your organization. Today’s consumers expect this level of real-time awareness, so you should be demanding it from your carriers as well. 

Need Help Making Customers’ Spirits Bright?  

From analyzing carrier schedules to communicating rates and deadlines to customers, achieving holiday profitability and shopper satisfaction is a lot harder than it used to be.  

The omni-channel environment has increased consumers’ expectations, as well as your competition. Navigating carriers’ base rates, added surcharges, delivery lead times, and shipping deadlines has never been more complex. Effectively reaching consumers with the right information, through the right channel, at the right time, and with the right cadence, is harder than steering a flying sleigh through a snowstorm.  

If you feel overwhelmed, don’t resign yourself to a blue Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve. Instead, reach out to Redwood! We’re happy to extend a red-mittened helping hand — not only to help you define a plan for the holiday shipping season, but also to effectively communicate the relevant details to your shoppers. 

As former employees of UPS, FedEx, and other national carriers — as well as shipper logistics teams — Redwood’s experts have “been there and done that” when it comes to filling stockings on time and in full. Our Parcel Advisory team can guide you through the coming weeks and months, creating successful shipping and communication plans that will delight executives, shareholders and consumers alike.  

Don’t wait until it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Contact the Redwood team today, and let’s start making holiday magic together!

Check out our Redwood Parcel Holiday Shipping Guide page for all the latest insights.