Logistics provides a chance for customer contact to reinforce brand quality. Yet, as retailers increasingly turn to subcontracting in order to meet delivery targets, the need to manage how logistics shapes the end-user experience is becoming a more important priority.
The number of delivery drivers wearing unbranded, casual clothing and consequently creating a potential disparity between the professionalism of a product brand’s image and the customer-facing service, has definitely increased over recent years. As more and more retailers develop on-line offerings, a large number have become more inwardly focused on making deliveries as fast and as frequent as possible for the end-user, whilst possibly losing sight of the need to reinforce retailer brand values at point of delivery. In fact, ensuring and maintaining customer buy-in throughout the purchase experience has never been more important.
The rise and maturation of e-commerce has resulted in increasing numbers of retailers offering the same or similar products at closely competing prices. Customers are savvy and able to switch from one retailer to another quite easily if they are dissatisfied with any part of the service. While for retailers, it is important to review all aspects of its operating model, it mustn’t be forgotten that for a customer, the only touch points they have with a product or retailer brand are at point of purchase and then, when their items are delivered. This means that logistics has become even more crucial to retailers’ core operating strategies. It’s no longer about simply getting something from A to B, but delivering to the customer what they expect from the brand they have bought from. The presentation of a delivery driver plays a psychological part in this and, as such, uniform should be considered from the outset.
In many cases, the absence of a uniform can be attributed to the fact that the lines are blurred slightly when it comes to uniform policies and employee rights for those employed on a temporary contract. However, when looking from the customers’ perspective, this becomes irrelevant. When retailers spend so much time and investment making sure the look and feel of their website – or equally their store – generates customer buy-in, trust and favour, it is important that these values and this customer experience continue to the point of delivery, regardless of whether or not they have been subcontracted out.
In all cases, the responsibility for employee uniform should lie with the employer. Whether temporarily or permanently employed, uniform should be deployed to all staff as an extension of either a retailer identity or, at the very least, as a communication of the retailer’s values and working ethos. However, employees simply cannot be expected to confidently communicate these subtle messages to customers without some guidance.
Despite pressures put on retailers to make cost-savings wherever possible, the cost of a uniform has always been affordable. By simply adopting combat-style trousers and often a polo shirt, it is easy and cost-effective to achieve a professional look that will reinforce the positioning of a multitude of brands and also act to position the logistics company itself as a professional and credible business. Additionally, this short-term investment can ensure long-term gains, by helping to create a complete positive experience for the customer – from product purchase to delivery.
It is clear that retailers need to address the problem of delivery drivers not wearing a branded uniform and the impact this has on the customer experience. Growing competition and the number of retailers subcontracting work to smaller home delivery firms means that this issue will begin to have far greater impact over time if not addressed sooner rather than later. Otherwise, the work retailers will have done to ensure customer buy-in and favour will quickly start to be undone.
David Harmer, Alexandra workwear
Alexandra
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