Delay of shipment
If you’re an e-commerce business, you know that shipping is one of the most important aspects of your success. You could offer competitive prices, great shopping experience, and excellent customer service, but if your shipping sucks, you won’t get repeat customers. Besides flawless shipping, today’s customers want real-time shipping updates. That means they want to know the status of their packages anytime. Real-time updates tell the current location of a package and its estimated arrival date.
Importance of real-time shipping updates
If you’ve ever purchased anything online, you know that you always want to be in control of the package from purchase to delivery. The same is true about your customers, which is why it important to offer them real-time shipping updates if you want to retain them. Real-time shipping updates come with many benefits, such as;
- Increasing customer retention rate
When customers are able to know the status of their package in real-time and the exact day and time it will be delivered, they’ll be extremely happy and won’t think of buying products anywhere else. The higher your retention rate, the more sustainable your business becomes.
- Boosts communication with customers
Communication is vital to e-commerce businesses because it ensures flawless shipping of products to customers. Real-time shipping updates foster communication between businesses and customers because it involves customers in the shipping process. Customers get updates on the shipping processes and product status to ensure smooth and timely delivery.
However, regardless of the efficiency of your shipping, sometimes a delay of shipment happens. Worse still, the package may go missing. When this happens, communicating delays by sending an apology letter to the customer for the delay will save your reputation. An apology letter to the client for the delay in service aims to maintain a good relationship with the customer.
How to explain a late delivery to a customer
Multiple ways exist that you can use to explain a late delivery to a customer and provide a customer service response to late delivery. But, email is the best. First, send a delay notice email apologizing for the delay of shipment and communicating delays to the customer. Then, explain to the customer how the shipping process works, the challenges involved, and things that might cause shipment delays. Take responsibility for the delay. Customers love transparency and honesty. The late delivery notice email should also explain the reasons for the delay, how you’ll manage it, and prevent it from reoccurring and give them a new realistic delivery timeline. Once the customer has accepted your apology, work to win back their trust by delivering the package on time and sending a letter to the supplier for late delivery. The supplier must reply to the letter for delay in the delivery of material and it should include the real reasons for the delay and what they’re going to do about it. Read on for more details on the sample letter of apology for the delay.
Sample Apology Letter to Customer for Delay in Delivery
Delay in shipment is one of the main causes of unhappy customers. The impacts of shipment delay can be devastating for your e-commerce business. When customers are unhappy, they won’t buy from you again and this will hurt your bottom-line. Delay of a shipment can also affect productivity. When many packages are delayed, they prevent others from being dispatched and this reduces your business’ productivity and efficiency. When shipment delays occur, initiating a customer service response to late delay is in order. It will help win back the trust of your customers and enhance your brand loyalty.
Contents of a sample apology letter to customer for poor service
Before you send an apology letter to a customer for poor service, you must ensure you create a nice sample, edit and proofread it to ensure it’s free of grammatical mistakes. A sample apology letter to customer for a mistake in delivery should include the date sent, name of the recipient (customer), postal address or physical address of the customer, zip code, subject line, the name of the customer, the message, the closing remarks and your name (sender).
Make sure to start the body of the message with an apology for the delay of shipment. Then, explain the reasons for the shipment delay without providing an excuse. Next, explain the steps you’re going to take to solve the situation. Close, the message by expressing your sincere concern about the delay and finish off it on a positive note.
Ecommerce businesses can use this apology email to change a bad customer experience into a good one, and convert one-time buyers into repeat customers and brand ambassadors.
You should also create a sample letter of delivery notice. This sample letter will notify the customer of the new delivery timeline. Ensure to fulfill the contents of the sample letter of delivery time to prevent further conflict with the customer. Ideally, this email is a sample letter for extension of time request to deliver the customer’s package. Make sure to spruce up the extension letter sample so that it’s free of spelling and grammatical mistakes.
Apology letter to unsatisfied customer
One bad customer review is enough to ruin the reputation of your e-commerce business. So, when a shipment delay happens, it’s important to send an apology letter to an unsatisfied customer immediately before things get out of hand. The apology letter should set an accurate delivery expectation for the delayed package. It’s important to set accurate delivery expectations because:
- It increases customer loyalty to your brand
You could make a shipping mistake with a new customer, but if you handle it correctly and professionally, the customer will understand and still buy from you. That’s why it’s important to set an accurate expectation for your delayed package delivery. In other words, set a delivery timeline that you’re sure you’ll manage.
- Minimize your business costs
Shipment delays can dramatically increase your business costs because they increase your customer support calls, you pay for shipment delays, customers may cancel the shipment or customers can spread the bad news about your business. Setting accurate expectations eliminates all that.
The apology letter to unsatisfied customers should also be accompanied by a letter of request for extension of the deadline. The letter should set realistic expectations for the delivery of the delayed package to prevent further issues with the customer. You should also send a complaint letter about delivery service to the person or company shipping the product and ask them to provide reasons for the delay. They should inform you of the steps they’ll take to ensure the customer gets the package as renegotiated.
Order confirmation template
Order confirmation emails are emails sent to customers after they’ve successfully made a purchase. They are important because they verify the successful placement of an order. This helps reduce problems that occur after shipment and delivery. Here are the benefits of order confirmation emails:
- Improves your relationship with customers
Confirming your customers’ purchases every time means you’re communicating with them. Communication builds strong relationships, which can help you stay long in the competitive ecommerce market.
- Improves the reputation of your business
When customers see that you’re notifying them or updating them of their purchase, they feel like you care about them. As a result, they convert from one-time customers into repeat customers and brand ambassadors. This means a boost in your business sales and reputation.
- Can help you upsell your products
You can embed images and information of similar products on the order confirmation template or order received template to encourage customers to buy.
Before you send this email, ensure to create an order confirmation template that will help you create an excellent order confirmation email. The order confirmation page template should include details like the order number, your business address, customer’s address information, contract number, if available, order confirmation date, complete order description, estimated delivery date, delivery terms, as well as charges and payment terms. Other templates you should consider preparing include order status email sample, shipment notification email template and your order is ready for pickup email template, all of which ensure smooth shipment and delivery. These templates will help keep your customers updated about their shipment. For example, they’ll be able to know where their package is in real-time and when it will be delivered to their homes.
Delivery Lead Time Letter
Delivery emails, also known as shipping update emails, or delivery lead time letters are emails sent by e-commerce businesses to customers to update them on their order status. The ability of a business and customer to track order status is critical to the success of the shipping process. Typically, e-commerce businesses send delivery emails (letters to inform delivery date) when a package leaves a warehouse, and when it’s about to reach the customer. Ideally, delivery emails are meant to enhance customer satisfaction and not to drive sales. While you have an opportunity to market and upsell with delivery emails, you should prioritize important details first, such as order number, shipping address, order status, and expected delivery time.
How businesses can use delivery emails to supercharge their brands
To create a great delivery email, you must create a delivery notification email sample or template. This template will help you come up with a comprehensive and useful delivery email. The template should include information, such as order number, shipping address, order status, and expected delivery time. It should also contain information on how to ask about delivery time.
Here’s how to improve your delivery email to boost your brand reputation
- Send two delivery emails
Most customers don’t have the time to check their emails frequently, so sending many delivery emails won’t help. Just send 2 emails (when shipping the packet and when delivering it).
- Provide detailed order tracking options
Embed a link to the delivery email that directs the customer to a detailed tracking page so that they can choose which tracking option to use.
- Take advantage of delivery emails to promote other products
Delivery emails are powerful marketing tools. You can use them to upsell your products. Simply suggests similar products or other discounted products at the end of the email to customers to upsell. This can help you increase your sales without spending a dime on advertising.
Need a sample email of delivery notice? Check out our e-book, featuring examples of real, high-converting shipping emails.
