Peak Season is a whirlwind for most online retailers with the bulk of online shopping events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the festive holidays drawing near. According to Statista, in 2021, the volume of daily shipment is expected to exceed 4.7 million. Shipment delays are also expected to increase with carrier capacity still lacking from before the pandemic. 

Proactive communication such as customized notifications that keep customers informed about their shipments throughout the delivery journey delights shoppers and gives brands a competitive advantage. Similarly, to streamline internal communication, notifications that create full visibility and expedites communication between internal functions. 

Parcel Perform creates countless customizable notifications for brands to update end-customers at every phase of the delivery using various channels -  emails, SMS or webhooks. Here are five notification triggers you should be using to relay updates not only to customers but also to update internal teams to proactively manage issues. Moreover, these are available for your immediate use - in time for peak season

Proactive Communication throughout the Delivery Journey Improves Customer Experience

Keep your customers in the loop with ‘Pick Up’ notifications

A common yet often not communicated phase in the delivery journey is when a carrier picks up a shipment from a brand’s warehouse. By informing your customer that their order has been  “picked up” and on the way, you create the anticipation of a shipment arriving while setting the right date of arrival expectation. Often brands leave this notification to carriers which can lose their customer to a carrier tracking page and cause confusion and frustration with the brand.

'Pick-Up' notifications do not just let customers know which part of the delivery phase their parcel is in but it also is a crucial point in the order fulfillment process. It indicates that the order fulfillment process is over and communicates You can also set the right date of arrival expectation by including an Estimated Delivery Date in your notifications. 

Providing Customers with Delivery Options during with 'Out for Delivery' notification triggers

One of the most important phases during the delivery journey is the “out for delivery” phase. In 2021, popular global trends included giving customers control over their delivery options including parcel lockers and delivery timeframes. Keep customers in the loop and provide them with inflight delivery options such as to ensure delivery can be completed in the expected window.

A well-timed SMS notification when parcels are out for delivery reduces occurrences of failed delivery attempts. Sending this notification via SMS allows customers to promptly take action or reschedule deliveries if required. 

Create Opportunities for Repeat Purchase with ‘Delivered’ Notifications 

Most, if not all brands communicate in the last stage of the delivery process. Informing a customer that their parcel has been delivered is a vital touchpoint that can create opportunities for personalized communication for an extended customer experience. 

With Parcel Perform’s fully customizable notifications, easily add proprietary content such as customer feedback forms, rating the delivery experience or product guides for assembly. Brands can also utilize these high-engagement ‘delivered’ notifications to promote their marketing campaigns as they boast open rates four times higher than that of generic newsletters. Personalize SMS and email notifications and include references to items related to the customer’s order for upselling and cross-selling purposes. 

Optimizing Internal Communication to Reduce Time Wastage 

Flagging Shipments with ‘Issue and Delay’ Notifications Triggers

Most online brands know that shipment issues are a common part of dealing with cross-border e-commerce. Be it warehouse delays, lack of carrier data information or simply a parcel that gets no updates and appears to be “missing” at a point during the delivery phase, issues can drive up WISMO inquiries for Customer Service teams and overwhelm them. 

Using the ‘issues’ notification triggers, brands can align communication between warehouses, logistics teams and customer service teams to investigate shipment issues. This streamlines the last-mile process and ensures that parcels with issues are flagged earlier on in the delivery phase so action can be taken. This increases the likelihood of these parcels making it to the end of the delivery journey and eventually reaching a satisfied end customer. 

Ultimately, using Parcel Perform’s ‘issue and delay’ notification triggers helps internal teams gain visibility of communication to avoid additional costs or confusion. Therefore, customer service teams are in the loop and can proactively inform customers of delays or issues especially during high shipment volume occurrences such as peak season.

Communicating Delays Proactively with ‘Issue and Delay’ Notification triggers

Delays are commonplace during peak season as freight carriers get overladen by large volumes of shipment. Additionally, Brands can often feel helpless when these delays are at the hands of their carriers.

Common delays include a delay at customs or parcels that lack the proper documentation- all of which can affect the date of arrival of a parcel to the end customer. With Parcel Perform’s ‘delay’ notification, internal teams can have full visibility on shipment delays and create delay specific notifications to update internal teams. 

Therefore, customer service teams avoid being overwhelmed by WISMO inquiries and can proactively communicate these delays with customers when needed. Most brands miss out on meeting customer expectations when they fail to communicate when a parcel is delayed, customer service teams can reach this gold standard with these customizable notifications.  

Boost brand loyalty this Peak Season with Parcel Perform’s Branded Notifications

A robust notification strategy improves and elevates communication between internal teams and end-customers. Creating consistent notifications with Parcel Perform is easy with our 100% customizable notification templates. A fully flexible notification editor allows you to use your own HTML to create branded and customised email templates. Field placeholders in these templates also allow personalisation by embedding data for each parcel and its recipient.

Brands that use Parcel Perform as their chosen delivery platform, boast open rates of up to 80% with customizable text, colours and brand templates, you can keep customers informed of their parcels quickly and seamlessly. 

Automate your email, sms or webhook notifications for greater convenience and gain control over your communication this peak season. Interested to learn more about how our platform helps build effective notification strategies? Speak to our delivery experience specialists or your Key Account Manager to get started today.