Real Business Solution
Tackling the Tracking Numbers Problem
From concerns and complaints to happy customers and employees. How I tackled the tracking numbers problem in our online store.
Role
Idea, Research, Visuals
Idea, Research, Visuals
Duration
Oct - Dec 2018
Oct - Dec 2018
Tools Used
Sketch, Pen & PaperProblem
Handwers online store ships orders worldwide. After sending the order, the manager sends the tracking number of the package to the buyer. At some point, I noticed that tickets from customers in our help-desk asking for a tracking number appear too often. I started digging, and it turned out that managers simply forget or are late to send tracking numbers on time. The problem was aggravated by the fact that we do not send mail directly, but through an intermediary company. And this company usually sends us tracking numbers with a delay of 1−2 days. And there are also flaws in the interface of the store engine. Something had to be done about all this.
Research
This is not a task where a comprehensive research is required, but anyway I gathered a bit of data to understand the users and managers need.
As a first step, I interviewed managers and found out, among other things, that:
Then, we conducted a survey among regular customers. It turned out that:
As a first step, I interviewed managers and found out, among other things, that:
- It is really inconvenient for them to assign statuses to orders, and then additionally send a notification with a tracking number (and sometimes more than once)
- They have to constantly maintain a list of orders for which tracking numbers have not yet been received
- The general list of orders lacks the output of tracking numbers and delivery services
- In general, they would like to work with tracking numbers in a separate tab
Then, we conducted a survey among regular customers. It turned out that:
- Almost no one reads the information on the site regarding package tracking
- Customers are waiting for the tracking number along with the shipment notification
- Even if the tracking number is received immediately, it is difficult to find it in the letter quickly
- Customers aren’t happy to manually search for sites where they can track the package
Ideate
The problem was clear and the silhouette of the solution also appeared. After additional discussion with colleagues, I came up with the following list of ideas:
- It is necessary to add a special function to the manager’s interface to work with the tracking numbers
- Along with the tracking number, the manager must set the delivery service via which the order was sent (DPD, DHL, Russian Post, etc.)
- In the general list of orders in manager’s interface, the delivery service and the tracking number should be displayed
- After adding to the order, the tracking number should be displayed in the user account
- The customer in the email notification receives a tracking number, the name of the delivery service, and a link to the website, where it’s possible to track the status of the parcel
- In cases where the parcel has been sent and the tracking number has not been received immediately, we say in the email that the tracking number will be sent soon. Along with that the reminder is being set to the manager that the order doesn’t have a tracking number assigned
- In case that the tracking number or the delivery service was set incorrectly by the manager, after correction, the user is automatically gets a notification of such a correction
- If the order was sent using our own couriers (no tracking number), then the tracking number field is inactive in the managers’s interface and the notification email contains different information
Implementation (aka Solution)
I formulated and assigned the task to our development team.
Here is how the architecture of the new solution looked at that time in terms of the manager’s point of view (and this is the main part of the solution to the problem):
Here is how the architecture of the new solution looked at that time in terms of the manager’s point of view (and this is the main part of the solution to the problem):
In addition, I created layouts for notification emails…
…and a rough layout for the manager interface.
We also made changes to the manager’s interface related to the display of information in the general list of orders. And we added the output of the tracking number in the user’s personal account as well.
Something had to be changed due to technological limitations. The solution was offered to me by the developers, and I agreed with them.
Summing up, the following came out:
Something had to be changed due to technological limitations. The solution was offered to me by the developers, and I agreed with them.
Summing up, the following came out:
- New tab in the manager’s interface dedicated to tracking numbers appeared
- The ability to sort orders by delivery service and the presence of a tracking number in the general list of orders for the manager
- Displaying the tracking number (with a link) in the user account
- Six new email templates for customer notifications + scripts for sending them
Results
Several years have passed since the introduction of this function in our online store. Since it went live, requests for tracking numbers have virtually disappeared. Managers were able to use their working time more efficiently, the level of customer service and customer happiness increased, and the help-desk began to breathe easier. Win-win!
Afterword
All this could probably work completely automatically with the help of relevant APIs, but our company did not have the resources for this. Therefore, we tried to simplify the process as much as possible without spending too much money. In an ideal situation, the manager should not think about tracking numbers at all, which should be transferred to our database from the delivery service, and automatically trigger the sending the notification to the user.