I am sure you’ve been asked this question plenty of times by your customers. Have you ever purchased something online and received an order notification email with the words “label created” or a delivery date of “TBD”? This can be very frustrating because you still don’t have any shipment data. The lack of shipment data triggers “Where is my order calls” to occur. As a customer, you expect to be in the know at all times from the first notification until you receive your package. This happens all the time, to everyone. It’s the difference between having a one time customer versus a lifetime customer. As consumers’ expectations increase, “Where Is My Order?” calls (known as WISMO calls) become the most common reasons why ecommerce retailers lose customers.
The good news is: you can prevent and reduce WISMO calls and these order enquiries and customer complaints from happening.
WISMO calls occur when the customer feels uninformed about their delivery information, therefore calling customer service to ask or complain about their order. What if there was a way to inform customers right away? What if retailers use predictive logic to estimate the arrival time of the order before the order leaves your warehouse? Even if the customer didn’t have the shipment data in the first 24 hours, they would still get a date estimate of when their package could arrive, which would keep them in the know at all times and lower WISMO calls.
Relying on customers to reach out to you is no way to inspire customer confidence. Instead, to avoid losing customers eCommerce retailers must communicate proactively to customers during the post purchase experience, so WISMO calls are reduced. Communication is therefore key to retain the customer, and create a positive brand reputation and customer lifetime value. Keeping your customers in the know so customers know when to expect their order, so they’re less likely to place WISMO calls as they can simply identify the location of their order at any time.
To further reduce WISMO calls, e-commerce retailers must consider delivering status information for customers. Reaching out to customers first via email and SMS alerts and mobile tracking information to customers are ways to proactively communicate with your customers. This reduces the chance of customers’ s getting frustrated and making WISMO calls, as they are informed of their delivery ETA and therefore are loyal to the brand and have peace of mind.
Reducing WISMO calls further cuts down operational costs. Since eCommerce retailers are giving customers a great post purchase experience, your customer service, marketing and logistic departments are dealing with less customer enquiries and complaints. That way, you can continue to focus on being able to offer more value to your customers with your brand, giving your customers a better personalized experience to further increase customer loyalty to not only continue purchasing from your brand, but also increase revenue.
WISMOlabs is the post-purchase experience platform that enables ecommerce retailers to get proactive in keeping customers in-the-know at all times during the post purchase experience. The number one problem we solve is to lower WISMO calls.
Through WISMOlabs predictive tracking capabilities, we are able to use the retailers’ business logic and estimate the arrival time of the order before it leaves the warehouse, thus lowering WISMO calls. For example, when Capezio, an online dancewear site used WISMOlabs, they “almost eliminated (their) ‘where is my order’ calls” from getting 0-2 calls each day instead of 20-25 WISMO calls”. Not only does this reduce company costs in the short term, but you can generate more revenue and create more business efficiency.
To lower your customer’s WISMO calls, provide a post-purchase experience that keeps your customers informed. Reach out to us at wismolabs.com today.
