Most consumers are accustomed to returning small or low-value items that they bought online. When they need to return a large and bulky item, however, it’s a dierent story. “You can’t just put a label on a lawn tractor and take it to UPS or FedEx," says Greg Boring, vice president of integrated sales at Kenco. "There are no built-out reverse logistics networks for those returns.” It’s tricky, he explains, but shippers can enable a white-glove return process in a few ways. To ensure a smooth returns process, retailers should first assess the value of the item in question, and decide what acceptable terms and conditions would look like. A consumer might be responsible for returning a $500 grill, for example, while a delivery company might haul away a $15,000 couch for free. Shippers also shouldn’t assume that the company they’ve enlisted to deliver a product will be prepared to pick it up. Returns, especially for big and bulky items, can sit in a distribution facility for weeks or months, waiting to be inspected. Not all logistics providers are equipped to handle that. Finally, companies need to decide what to do with returned items. Boring cites examples of a high-end furniture manufacturer that sold returned products online at a discount, and an electronics retailer who preempted returns by providing a repair service. The end result of streamlined returns for large items? Happy customers. WHITE GLOVE IN REVERSE
Many retailers turn to third-party providers to ensure products are delivered quickly, safely, and on time. Need it Now Delivers, for example, provides delivery service as well as warehousing for final-mile deliveries for any size retailer in the United States or overseas.
with the needed skill set to a particular job. “A different set of personnel will deliver a dishwasher versus assembling a TV stand,” says Jorge Lopera, vice president of global strategy at FarEye. “Without the right technology, you have to nd workers who know how to do everything.” Companies can also use arti cial intelligence-backed, cloud-based technology to optimize schedules. For instance, the Locus platform calculates maximally ef cient routes, in part by predicting how long it will take to assemble or install the items being delivered. The tailored consumer experience is more than a passing fad, asserts McKinsey & Co in its report, The Future of Customer Experience: Personalized, White Glove Service For All . If anything con rms that, it’s Amazon’s 2021 roll- out of a white-glove test service for furniture deliveries. The good news, according to McKinsey, is that needs-based service offerings can deepen consumer trust and loyalty and support retention, even to the point of increasing revenue. To realize these gains, companies must anticipate and respond to consumers’ needs. That will require them to foster true commitment to the customer experience, both in back-end and customer-facing roles. Get it right, and your organization moves to the front of the pack. n
There is one exception to the no-talking rule. In some circumstances, consumers need to provide speci c instructions to the delivery driver, so they expect a mechanism to facilitate easy communication. “The consumer may need to tell the driver about a last-minute change, or ask them to pull around to the back of a house,” says Bourke. “Being able to call from a masked number, similar to a ride- share app, has become table stakes.” “EXTREMELY COMPLEX” Tight delivery windows are well received by consumers, but a web of challenges are involved in trying to meet them, says Daniel Vanden Brink, global vice president of customer success at Locus, a last-mile logistics platform in Wilmington, Delaware. Accommodating the estimated time of arrival means coordinating driver schedules with the consumer’s selected delivery window, accounting for needed services, integrating with the order management system to ensure available logistics capacity, and providing visibility and a means to communicate with drivers. It also means scaling up to meet consumer demand. “All of those things are extremely complex,” notes Vanden Brink. Having the right set of tools can help smooth out the complexities of white-glove delivery. For example, FarEye’s platform matches workers
42 Inbound Logistics • August 2022
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