Delivery Appointment Scheduling is a self-service, white-glove delivery feature that project44 offers through its online tracking pages.
The challenge for retailers
Today, 30% of large-item shipments require multiple contact attempts to schedule, and 28% of those successful appointment events still fail. This results in dispatchers spending more time on the phone rescheduling deliveries, and less time scheduling and routing their valuable trucks and employees for optimal efficiency.
The challenge for carriers
When data is exchanged manually by the retailer, carrier, and customer, over one-third of white-glove deliveries experience an issue in transit. When this happens, it results in racked-up terminal fees for the retailer, angry customers, and additional costs for carriers making delivery attempts. Retailers wanted to partner with their carriers to make the white glove delivery appointment process as smooth as possible while saving costs. In order to do this, retailers needed to control the process while giving consumers the flexibility they craved.
The solution
Using project44’s API, Delivery Appointment Scheduling automates carrier outreach and empowers brands to take control of the delivery experience, and it gives end-consumers the flexibility to schedule, or change, their appointment windows. This reduces the cost and frustration associated with scheduling, such as multiple calls from carriers and long delivery windows with missed appointments.
Retailers And Carriers Improve Cost, Speed, And Customer Happiness
project44 partners, Estes Forwarding Worldwide, Pilot Delivery Services, CEVA, AGS Logistics, and Metropolitan Delivery Warehouse launched Delivery Appointment Scheduling in 2019, using the feature to provide a better customer delivery experience with fewer exceptions and lower costs. These carriers connected project44’s Delivery Appointment Scheduling API to retailers in project44’s network using the service.
Each retailer and carrier used the feature to get better control over their delivery experiences. The feature notified and scheduled white glove delivery appointments with customers through their tracking pages, reducing the need for carrier dispatchers to get on the phone, and for retailers to waste money on packages sitting in terminals. This saved retailers and their carriers 4.58 days in booking time and 3.3 days on average in transit time.
Customers enjoyed the flexibility of the scheduling tool provided as well as the ability to receive alerts when their carrier came. As a result, all carriers who implemented Delivery Appointment Scheduling saw increased positive feedback from end-customers. AGS Logistics increased positive feedback by 24%, while Metropolitan Warehouse Delivery saw an increase of 23%, and Pilot Freight Services increased positive feedback by 16.5%. YDesign Group, a family of online-led retail brands offering the best in modern, high-end home furnishings, also saw positive feedback increase by 15% and NPS rise by 20% due to Delivery Appointment Scheduling.
Results
Benefits for carriers:
6%
gain in positive customer feedback
4.58 days
average reduction in booking time
Benefits for retailers:
3.3 days
average reduction in transit time
20%
gain in NPS
15%
gain in positive feedback
We pride ourselves in world-class delivery services for our customers. Because of Delivery Appointment Scheduling, we were able to help our customers reduce transit costs, improve delivery speed, and make end-customers even happier with their deliveries.
Lance Harcrow
Estes Forwarding Worldwide
