Most courier services assume that a customer wants their delivery as soon as possible. It’s true, speed is a factor, but not always the deciding one based on why people work with one service over another and continue to work with them again.
Speed is appreciated, but what really wows customers is never having to wonder. Knowing when something is coming. Having actual options when plans change. Not having to guess if anyone gives a damn when things go wrong.
There’s obviously a disconnect between what courier services think wow their customers and what truly does. Unfortunately, this disconnect costs them repeat customers daily.
Knowing What’s Going On (Even When It’s Bad)
Customers can handle delays. They cannot handle silence.
Your package is two hours delayed? Okay, it’s a bummer, but it happens, especially if you get the notification that someone acknowledges it. Your package was given a 2-5 pm window and you hear nothing? Now you’re on Google looking for the competition.
The companies that get it right send notices at each major milestone that matter. And no, “your package is out for delivery” does not cut it anymore—that’s to be expected now. It’s the real-time updates when the driver is in the neighborhood, the delayed cautionary alerts, the chances of weather/traffic influencing the time frame.
They also need to be accurate—even better—is if the customer gets three updates that are true versus ten that are overly optimistic and fabricated. Trust is fragile, especially when the notification says “your package is arriving in 30 minutes” for three hours straight.
Flexibility Without Running in Circles
The old way was simple: we’ll tell you when it’s showing up, and you’ll be able to ensure someone is there with access to accept your package. This no longer works with both adults in a household working, apartment buildings having strange access configurations and business loading docks closing at 4 PM.
What wows today’s customers is having real options without having to beg for them. Redirecting a package from one address to another via an app; requesting a delivery time that works with one’s real schedule; leaving notes for the deliverer that are actually acknowledged and completed.
Some courier services use the best courier software in US markets because it gives them the flexibility options without the need for their dispatches to manually coordinate every little thing. The software takes care of the heavy lifting, so customers get what they want without compromising staff sanity.
Those who do it best allow changes to be seamless. A few taps on the phone or a quick call and it’s done—not “let me transfer you” three times only to find it’s a tomorrow issue instead of today.
How You Handle Issues Says Everything
Every courier service has its share of deliveries gone wrong—delays in packages, wrong addresses, drivers unable to get into gated communities, the weather happens.
What separates decent courier service from those you forget about is what happens next.
Companies that wow customers during issues do a few things consistently: they acknowledge the issue as soon as it happens—not three days later when an email queue gets checked; they provide an actual solution—not just a sorry; they follow through instead of ghosting customers who must check back for status updates.
This seems basic but you’d be surprised how many operations fail at this step. The customer is told “we’ll redeliver tomorrow” and then…nothing—no confirmations, no tracking updates, just hoping it all works out.
Better operations have clear protocols for when things go wrong. There’s a person/a team dedicated to making things happen and keeping customers posted—not blaming then talking about how it’s not technically the courier’s fault.
The Proof That Actually Proves Something
“Left it at the front door” doesn’t provide much when there are three ways to get into a home, it’s an apartment complex with a lobby or a business with multiple entrances.
Customers appreciate proof of delivery that actually proves something—a picture showing exactly where the package went; a signature that is more than just a squiggly line; GPS coordinates confirming the driver was there/on-site/had access at the right address/location proper.
This protects everyone involved—the customer knows their package got there and where—and the courier has backing documentation if the other party says they never received anything.
Some operations fear this takes too much time for deliverers but with technology becoming faster by the second, it takes ten seconds tops—and those ten seconds save an hour-long investigation later on down the road when packages go missing forever.
Messages That Sound Like Someone Wrote Them
Small nuggets that make larger differences than you’d ever think—updates that don’t look like they’ve been written by one, massive robot from 2008.
“Your parcel is in transit” does nothing for a customer; “your package is 20 minutes away; your driver today is Marcus” does. “Traffic on Highway 40 is really backed up today so your scheduled 3 pm delivery will likely be more like 3:45 pm” is even better.
Tone matters as well—overly formal corporate language brings in a cold attempt while too casual sounds almost irresponsible. The happy medium exists somewhere in between—direct, clear and respectful as if someone truly cared about something that mattered for both of you.
Behind-the-Scenes Nobody Sees
Customers don’t see route allocation software, dispatcher workloads or maintenance schedules—but they absolutely feel the benefit when they’re running properly behind the scenes of everything else going on.
When a courier runs without problems behind-the-scenes, deliveries come on time; customer service has immediate answers instead of checking “I’ll have to call you back,” problems are caught and solved before the customer even knew something was off track in the first place.
Operations consistently give customers this wow factor aren’t doing anything special—they’ve built systems where information flows and nothing falls through cracks they shouldn’t be in anyway; people get help from technology instead of technology getting in people’s way.
What This All Means
Customers aren’t asking for much—reliability and transparency and someone who gives off the appearance that they care when things go wrong are basically all that’s needed.
The companies that get repeat business know this and have made this part of their operations—not hoping that people will care enough; they’ve constructed buildings where good customer experiences are earned by design.
Because customer impressions aren’t made in one single wow-worthy moment—they’re compiled through dozens of subpar interactions or plenty of good ones—or bad ones for effective comparisons—they came cumulatively over time from each notification sent by each window worked for each problem managed each time something went well/poorly/mediocrely along the way. And every time someone was left guessing what was going on with their delivery adding in additional stress.
The companies that get this right aren’t perfect—no one is—but they’ve made being consistently good at the things most customers actually care about their competitive advantage—and when customers have options (and they always do), this consistency brings them back every time.
