Deliveries

Reducing the costs associated to 'missed' deliveries

A logistics company responsible for scheduling several thousand deliveries each day was using SMS updates to inform customers of delivery progress. A message was triggered to the end customer once a delivery date and time slot had been allocated, followed by a second message sent as a reminder on the day before. Despite this, ‘missed’ deliveries were still proving costly, as customers would not always remember to make contact if they were not going to be available and even when they did, call centre agents were occupied rescheduling those deliveries.

View the Deliveries process

Step 1

Confirm a delivery date when scheduled

Step 2

Issue a reminder message prior to the delivery including the delivery date and response options for the recipient to reschedule or leave with a neighbour

Step 3

Issue a further reminder on the day of delivery, advising of the time of arrival including the same response options

Step 4

Use the content of recipient’s response to either cancel the scheduled delivery, re-schedule it or leave it with a neighbour

Extending the SMS capability to provide the end customer with some options within the reminder SMS message has helped to address these issues. Using Boomerang means that on receipt of an SMS message, customers have the option reply: ‘1’ to leave the delivery with a neighbour, or ‘2’ to reschedule it for a different day (with alternative dates provided).

This empowers the customer to take immediate action from their mobile device, avoiding the courier making a wasted journey and preventing unnecessary pressure on contact centre staff.