First Attempt Delivery Rate: The Metric for CEP & Retail Success

The retail industry around the globe is in a state of flux. Retailers and CEP (Courier, Express and Parcel) businesses are trying hard to find a balance between customer expectations and profitability. To satisfy the increasing customer demand and enhance their competitiveness, they are under constant pressure to improve their First Attempt Delivery Rate (FADR). Things have become highly difficult for CEP and retail businesses to improve their delivery success rate. Is there a way to crack it?

Let’s face it—this is the era of ‘let’s order something and unbox it now’. As a retailer/e-retailer you are now catering to a smartphone-savvy generation that expects orders to have been delivered yesterday. Gone are the days of week-long delivery times. 

The new-age customer cannot take delays and certainly not a failed delivery. Ask any customer support agent and they’ll tell you the number of calls/tweets/chats they receive asking for an explanation as to why the delivery cannot be done right in one go. 

“I’ll tell you my preferred time slot. Just deliver it, man. Can’t you do this?” #unsubscribe

It is no secret that no brand wants to get in the bad books of a loyal customer. With product selection going online and payment becoming so very simple, the customer experience suffers only in the delivery part of the cycle. 

This young demographic is even ready to spend a few extra dollars to ensure a great customer experience. 

First-attempt delivery rate: Backbone of a superior last-mile customer experience

Being a retailer in today’s age is no easy task. Consumers’ expectations are ever-changing— they want retailers to provide a wide selection, at the best rates, be environmentally conscious, deliver on time, provide attractive discounts and what not! 

But, retailers just cannot change so quickly. As they say—change is usually slow and always a work-in-progress. Retailers are still learning how to serve today’s customers and also be profitable.  

A major part of this change lies in streamlining the most complex part of their operation—last mile delivery and logistics. 

Many are still stuck with manual processes and silos. One part of the logistics operation does not know what the other is doing, thereby leading to a lack of efficiency and oversight. Sometimes, the logistics operations are even outsourced. 

Many companies still track their logistics with primitive excel sheets. On top of all this, retailers fail to meet customer delivery expectations, which also means that they are wasting valuable man hours and money on deliveries. 

According to a Capgemini Research Institute’s report titled ‘The last-mile delivery challenge’, “A superior last-mile experience engages and retains consumers, with our research showing that three-quarters are willing to spend more if they are satisfied with the delivery services.”

While that sounds like good news, delivery execution is where the problem lies. Catering to the ever-increasing demand is already gnawing at the retailers’ profitability.  

“We found that over half of (the) consumers (55%) said that they will switch to a competitor if that competitor offers a faster service. Organizations that provide a superior last-mile customer experience will gain a competitive edge over their peers,” adds the report. 

First time delivery success is the backbone for a superior last-mile customer experience.  

What does a first-time delivery success actually add to a retailer?

• Free word-of-mouth recommendation
• Higher customer retention
• Increase in order size 
• Cross-sell and up-sell opportunities 
• Higher chances to sell exclusive memberships

Well, well, if you can potentially achieve all this, why not just get the delivery attempt right? 

It’s not as easy as it sounds. There are just too many things working against you. From traffic, wrong addresses, vehicle capacity, delivery personnel’s route knowledge, etc. Long list, really! 

What if you could get the delivery right, the first time?

First attempt delivery success rate to the rescue

Enter FADR or First Attempt Delivery Rate. To put it simply— it is a direct indication of successful deliveries made in the first attempt.

Whether it is a retail or a CEP business, first attempt delivery success can reduce costs involved in executing multiple deliveries (for the same order), storage of packages and management of personnel.  

With artificial intelligence coming in, it is now possible to collate a large number of data and execute deliveries precisely. The end goal is to use tech to make customers happy. 

An improved first attempt delivery success rate is a win-win situation for the customer, the delivery executive, and the service provider.

How Locus helps in improving your FADR

Today, more than faster deliveries, customers want predictable deliveries. The primary factor that enables predictable deliveries for your businesses is First Attempt Delivery Rate (FADR). 

When there is a delay in a delivery or unavailability of customers in their destination during delivery attempts, it leads to multiple delivery attempts. Beyond resulting in waste of time and energy, multiple attempted deliveries incur additional costs. So, to increase your profit margins, it is necessary to deliver products successfully in the first attempt. 

By managing your last-mile delivery manually, you cannot deliver the orders on time. Hence, to increase the chances of a successful first-time delivery attempt, investing in a retail logistics solution is necessary. 

Locus has been helping its clients deal with failed delivery attempts as a unified real-world dispatch management platform. 

Locus’ world-class products help retail and CEP logistics businesses:

• Deliver on customer-preferred time windows and also provide customers with the live ETA of the delivery via a tracking link.
• Come up with a dynamic routing platform that intelligently plans delivery routes by factoring in operational constraints and environmental factors like real-time traffic.
• Map any delivery package to the customer with only time of delivery and location.
• We also help in:
  • Partial pickup and drop
  • Assigning on-demand and bulk orders
  • Rescheduling and canceling orders on the go

Locus offers best route optimization software to enterprises to improve last-mile deliveries with greater cost-efficiency.

Are you looking for a solution to improve your FADR in the last mile? Get in touch with us for a free demo.