'Sure, I dont mind sitting in all day for a delivery.'
“I recently ordered a new cooker, and the price included free delivery and installation. However, the only appointment offered requires me to be in the house between the hours of 0800 and 1900, which is very difficult as I have nursery and school runs to make. Why cant more businesses offer more specific appointments?” Kerry Adams, Weymouth
Ah, the dreaded all-day appointment, one of the biggest bugbears for customers and the perfect of example of businesses forcing the customers to work around their processes. There has been some improvements in recent years, with some businesses narrowing the slots down to morning or afternoon bookings, requiring customers to take less time off work.
However, CSI believes that adequate service in the modern consumer age is the same as awful service 10 years ago and urges businesses to do a better job in this capacity. Spending half a day at home waiting for goods or services is ridiculous given the customer has already shelled out their cash.
Most businesses will argue that it is impossible to offer more accurate times, citing the number of variables (traffic, lack of correct parts, break down further up the supply chain, staff absenteeism) blocking any attempts to offer more accurate Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on where you are sitting) the random factor is no longer a valid excuse.
The fortunate party in this example is the customer, there are a number of ways that businesses can ensure a reasonable time for house visits and as more organisations offer these friendlier slots, the more pressure will be heaped upon businesses to follow the example.
The unfortunate group here is the business as offering accurate appointments requires an investment, in systems and in people. The first investment requires the purchasing of a number of products.
First, a scheduling system, this will take in a wide number of variables and build a realistic time table. The random elements associated with deliveries are actually quite predictable when studied and the formulas required to account for things like traffic jams have already been written.
However good the scheduler, it needs to be fed the right data, and ideally should be aligned with fleet management and route planning technologies (it is possible to build such systems in house, but the investment needed and the availability of proven off-the-shelf software means that it is an unattractive option.)
Then you need a robust communication system to ensure a constant flow of information between the the field-based staff and the control room. A good scheduling system will be flexible and change the schedules on a regular basis depending on the changing variables.
The communication should extend to customers: if for example the slot has to be changed, informing the customer of a new time as quickly as possible will minimise customer frustration.
Finally, you need staff who understand and can manage these systems, and drivers/engineers who have faith that the technology can help them do a better job and is not there simply to spy on their movements.
Tesco is a good example of the complete package in action. Delivery slots are allocated to within an hour, a text is sent on the day the shopping is due to arrive confirming the time. If there is a problem, a new text is sent to customers amending the time.
Yes, it is too much to expect that all organisations commit to such to such a major investment fully, but even a slow roll out and honing of the key technologies involved will allow the business in question to gradually narrow down the slots and improve its accuracy. As the systems mature and integration improve, the cost and complexity of building a complete solution for this issue will tumble.
Hopefully, in the not so distant future, we shall speak of the all-day appointment in the past tense only.
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