Tag: Customer experience

Co-opetition Isn’t New, It’s Improved

February 3, 2022

COVID laid bare an uneven retail playing field, and exposed supply chain issues, with the “Big 3” giants gaining market share at the expense of small and mid-size retailers.

On top of that, smaller retailers and brands have become accustomed to logistics and supply chain management that derails supply chain planning capacity planning with constant and unexpected rate increases from transportation providers compounded by a seemingly endless drumbeat of capacity and labor issues that continues to chip away at their bottom line.

The good news is that retailers are grabbing a lifeline: each other. While competing for the hearts, minds, and wallets of consumers on the front-end, they are discovering that they can gain real economies of scale in fulfillment and shipping by co-operating on the back-end of retail logistics. The goal of this model of “co-opetition” is to aggregate relationships and bring scale and efficiency to the business of moving products through the supply chain.

Co-opetition isn’t new; decades ago, brands began to shift product sourcing offshore to contract manufacturers, often right alongside direct competitors utilizing the same facility. This move allowed those brands to manage their cost of goods and selling price points by leveraging the economies of scale.

Today, retailers and brands are deploying co-opetition at the other ends of the supply chain – sourcing and shipping.  After all, supply chain sourcing co-opetition is already in play in last-mile delivery as competing brands’ parcels ride side-by-side on national carriers’ delivery vans to reach the customer.

AirTerra is an innovative parcel shipping and supply chain company that solves ecommerce challenges in a unique way so retailers and brands of all sizes can compete on a level playing field. Embracing co-opetition with AirTerra, small and midsize retailers can implement a diversification strategy for capacity planning and supply chain planning. The result is logistics and supply chain management that provides access to more capacity, greater flexibility, and benefit from simplified pricing, contracts, onboarding, and carrier management, all without the additional cost required to manage multiple carriers. It’s Diversification Simplified.

Brands that embrace “co-opetition” take control of their collective destinies to meet ecommerce challenges, banding together on all stages of shipping retail logistics—from the fulfillment center to the customer’s door.

The Importance of Localized Service

December 16, 2021

AirTerra has the capability to deliver packages more quickly, with greater reliability and at lower cost for brands and retailers. It delivers parcel carrier diversity with a simplified model to provide capacity and flexibility for shippers of all sizes.

AirTerra has the capability to deliver packages more quickly, with greater reliability and at lower cost for brands and retailers. It delivers parcel carrier diversity with a simplified model to provide capacity and flexibility for shippers of all sizes. AirTerra also provides shippers with more transparency on their items locations by providing real time location tracking of all packages via GPS during the shipping process.

AirTerra provides customer service support for consumers that prefer to work directly with the company shipping their parcels rather than with the brands or underlying carriers. This localized service isn’t just a differentiator for AirTerra in terms of providing reliable, best-in-class delivery for the end-consumer, it’s a market-centric, service-level commitment and mindset catered to each client.

Filling an industry gap in carrier diversity, AirTerra aggregates packages from multiple shippers through its own network in major metropolitan areas. The company’s “point-to-point” network is designed to ship parcels across long zones faster and with a greater degree of control than what is offered through legacy carriers. The end result is shippers will see the time from click-to-deliver reduced along with lower costs for those deliveries.

As global supply chain disruption persists, threatening timely delivery to customers in advance of shippers’ pivotal peak season, AirTerra’s client-approach remains unchanged: providing a local presence, putting customers’ needs first and preparing for the unexpected.

At AirTerra, everywhere there’s a customer, there’s a local rep.

In planning for the 2021 peak season, Adam Cody, AirTerra Customer Operations Manager, partnered closely with his client to align visions and capacities, troubleshoot challenges and create contingency plans.

“At this time, and in this environment, plans can fall through quickly,” Adam notes— and that’s precisely why the AirTerra standard includes providing plans B, C and D… just in case.

A seasoned veteran of the Los Angeles market, Adam not only makes himself accessible to his clients 24/7, but he also offers open office time twice a week and incorporates 1-2 monthly site visits to his customers into his schedule to ensure all needs are being met– and to witness operational workflows firsthand. With his support, the $10B retailer has already successfully delivered more than 250,000 parcels.

We’re Answering Your Top FAQ’s

December 11, 2021

In today’s world, instant gratification is not only possible, but it has become the expectation.

In today’s world, instant gratification is not only possible, but it has become the expectation. However, buying online has also become the norm rather than purchasing at brick-and-mortar locations. This means an inevitable wait for products to arrive. And while ecommerce shipment times have improved over the years, there’s mystery in the interim. Here are a few of the most common customer service questions we get asked after a package ships:

Where is my package?

Or as we call it in the ecommerce industry “WISMO” aka “Where is my order?” Naturally, you want to be able to follow your package’s journey to you from the moment it ships! Full transparency WISMO capability is evolving all the time providing more end to end lines of sight into where your package is at any given moment.

AirTerra’s WISMO page can be found here.

Why do I have multiple tracking numbers for one order?

There are many moving parts within a package journey to you. These are separated into “miles” and consist of first, middle and final (last) mile. Sometimes shipping companies will use several carriers throughout your package’s journey, which is why you might see your initial tracking number provided by your retailer, but two tracking numbers on your package, as one may be the final mile carrier.

AirTerra’s tracking numbers will reflect all “miles” of your package journey even if multiple carriers are used.

I need additional help, what should I do?

While it is nice to have a variety of options to self-serve issues, sometimes you still have a question that is not covered. It is always good to start with the retailer you made your purchase with for the most expedited solution. AirTerra works closely with retail customer service teams to get consumers fast resolutions. At AirTerra, we pass all of our shipping data through to our retail customers for a unified tracking experience!

If you do need to get in touch with AirTerra directly, you can reach us here!

5 Tips to Improve Customer Service Experience with Ecommerce Deliveries

Consumers have so many options these days. Once you have a great product and a solid ecommerce strategy, customer service has to be the competitive advantage you offer your customers.

The best customer experience is one where the consumer does not have to reach out to a support group at all! When you do need assistance from an ecommerce customer service team, not all experiences are created equal. Here are 5 ways you can improve your customer service experience and set yourself apart:

 

1.      Make It Easy
Customer ease is what yields customer loyalty. While it is important to delight your customers with your product offering and capability, what is even more valuable is making sure that their experience is low effort when they need to contact you. Make it easy to get in touch with your support team and state their issue. Make sure that your services do not require your customer to switch channels or repeat their issue more than once.

 

2.      Provide Options
In order to tailor the support experience to varied preference, meet your customer where they are and provide several options for assistance. This could include Omni-channel options like live chat and social media as well as self-service options.

 

3.      Be Transparent
Your customers don’t know what they don’t know (about your processes). Be transparent about when they should expect to hear back from your team and what your estimated resolution time frame looks like. Better still, be proactive – if you can notify your customers in advance of a delay or impact of their package, you have saved them the effort of looking into it themselves.

 

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    4.      Personalize the Experience

    Just because we are living in a virtual world does not mean our customer experience interactions have to be devoid of personalization. In fact, a personal touch should be even more top of mind. Even if you have decided to utilize chat bots or templates to provide a more efficient experience, there are still ways to make sure your customers feel valued and important – starting with using their name and making sure that your teams are taking care to spell customer names correctly and accurately.

     

    5.      Follow Up and Follow Through
    Remember the old adage ‘say what you mean, mean what you say?’ This certainly applies when it comes to customer support. Make sure that you are closing the loop with your customers and even anticipating what questions they may ask next. If you do not yet have a resolution, keep your customer updated so that they feel confident that you are advocating for their issue.