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Challenge‍

Slow and missed deliveries during peak season led to a decline in key business metrics

Footasylum knew that a customer’s delivery experience was an integral part of the retail experience. According to research, 85% of online buyers consider that a bad delivery experience would prevent them from ordering from that retailer again. Without a way of understanding delivery issues, there was a real chance that Footasylum would never get another chance to make a good first impression. 

That’s why - when James McGhee joined Footasylum as Director of Customer Experience - he knew that good delivery improves customer loyalty and brand perception. He was focused on creating a reliable customer feedback loop that would help Footasylum to address and resolve operational issues as quickly as possible.

“Early on, we concentrated on addressing customer feedback related to returns, refunds, and delivery issues, as these problems had the highest likelihood of generating customer contact. We discovered that the speed of delivery was frequently highlighted as a major issue, so we made this a priority in our business strategy to improve our key business metrics,” says James. 

However, collaborating with third-party carriers to address these delivery issues proved to be a major challenge. James and his team struggled to quantify how missed or late deliveries by individual carriers were impacting their critical business metrics.

“The carriers often reported high delivery success rates, which looked impressive on paper but did not reflect the true customer impact of missed deliveries,” says James. 

“Although carriers were satisfied with a 97% delivery rate, the remaining 3% of missed orders had a substantial financial impact on Footasylum. We lacked the tools and data needed to show that carriers were not meeting their obligations and to push them to address issues beyond standard agreements. Proving the true impact of final mile delivery to our carriers was a significant challenge,” he adds. 

As James observed increasing contact volumes and declining Trustpilot ratings, he realized that monitoring quantitative feedback alone wouldn’t resolve the issue. He needed to analyze large volumes of unstructured customer feedback and leverage technology to understand specific nuances and gain actionable insights that would help him resolve the problem.

“I used the example of five-star Trustpilot reviews where customers highlighted specific issues that were resolved. A review might mention problems like poor delivery or damaged packaging, but if someone in our Customer Support Team fixed it, a customer would still leave a five-star rating,” explains James. 

“By analyzing review and NPS scores without looking at the detailed, verbatim feedback, we were missing out on these critical insights. This approach helped me clearly demonstrate the need for a comprehensive feedback analytics solution to our leadership team,” says James.

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Solution

Customer insights uncover key delivery issues and enhance operational efficiency at Footasylum

Footasylum chose Chattermill for its capability to centralize customer feedback, analyze large volumes of data efficiently, and detect subtle details that the team might otherwise miss.

“Chattermill allowed us to unify all our feedback data from NPS surveys, CSAT responses, and Trustpilot reviews, and then quickly spot a theme and identify a problem across thousands of comments,” says James. “The platform was well-priced, met our needs perfectly, and had a straightforward, hassle-free commercial approach. There were no hidden costs, and the contract was very transparent, which was important for a growing business like ours,” he adds.

With Chattermill in place, James quickly began to leverage its capabilities to analyze customer feedback. He specifically focused on identifying instances of missed or late deliveries by individual carriers.

During the analysis, James observed that one carrier stood out because of its poor performance. This carrier's delivery shortcoming significantly impacted Footasylum's crucial 'deliver-to-promise' score, which tracked whether deliveries were made within the promised four business days. 

“We observed that parcels took an average of 6.8 days to arrive when they were delayed, which required immediate attention. ​​We began by analyzing the operational data for this carrier, including delivery times, the financial impact of late deliveries, and the value of lost parcels. We also assessed the potential revenue loss if we had to refund every lost parcel.” 

Next, Footasylum used Chattermill to generate comprehensive reports that highlighted how negative feedback about this carrier impacted their critical business metrics.

“We used Chattermill to create detailed reports and dashboards that illustrated how delivery issues impacted our net sentiment score. We identified large volumes of feedback referencing specific carriers and saw that themes like "Delivery speed" were causing our net sentiment to drop,” says James.

“Combining Chattermill feedback with our Trustpilot scores, we found that 102 out of 785 one-star reviews directly mentioned this underperforming carrier. Of these reviews, over a half specifically mentioned "no delivery." We discovered that in FY22, these negative reviews contributed to a significant drop in our Trustpilot score - from 4.2 to 3.9,” he adds. 

With Chattermill dashboards and reports, Footasylum prepared detailed materials clearly outlining specific issues and providing evidence that the carrier’s performance needed improvement. 

“Chattermill enabled us to demonstrate how this underperforming carrier was negatively impacting our customer experience, online reviews, ratings, and overall brand perception. With solid evidence and detailed customer quotes, we were able to prepare a plan to rectify the final mile delivery issues with this carrier,” explains James.

“I was able to sit down with some very senior people there and show them very easily the impact that they were having on our business. Having this data changed the relationship with our delivery company forever.  It certainly has put us in the driving seat - now we can articulate exactly how they impact our customer experience.”

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Results

Reduced shipping costs by 8%, 97% delivery-to-promise score

James and his team were now able to clearly present their analysis and results at the quarterly review meeting with the carrier’s representatives. They used customer feedback and Chattermill reports to renegotiate the contract with the carrier, which helped them significantly cut shipping costs. 

“We leveraged the data to push for reduced pricing, additional services, and more reliable performance. For instance, we negotiated lower per-parcel rates, reducing shipping costs by 8% for that specific providerl,” says James.

Additionally, the third-party logistics provider could use this data to make substantial improvements, enhance the speed of the deliveries, and rebuild the Footasylum team’s trust. 

“By presenting clear evidence of customer dissatisfaction, we had solid reasons for demanding change. This approach prompted the carrier to make significant improvements and commitments, which in turn enhanced their performance and benefited their other customers as well. Their responsiveness to our feedback was crucial in restoring and strengthening our business relationship. They performed significantly better during the last two peak seasons. As a result, we entrusted them with a much larger portion of our business than ever before.”

Finally, by addressing critical issues with this carrier, the team greatly enhanced the customer experience. This led to fewer customer inquiries, better product ratings, and a positive impact on their brand reputation.

“Addressing our biggest customer concerns has not only restored trust but also significantly improved our key business metrics. We've reduced contacts per transaction by 42%, from 0.28 to 0.16. Our Trustpilot rating has risen from 3.9 to 4.4, leading to a notable increase in 5-star reviews. Today, we maintain a consistently high NPS of 80, ensuring exceptional customer experiences across all touchpoints. Chattermill has been instrumental in achieving these results and keeping us connected with our customers.”

Discover how Chattermill can help you identify customer pain points and enhance operational efficiency - book a demo today.

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