It’s officially crunch time. The Black Friday/Cyber Monday surge is imminent, and as the countdown clock ticks down, there are a lot of final checks and finishing touches that need to be carried out to ensure a smooth campaign.
So we’ve put together this simple checklist to help retailers and brands make sure that every delivery-related box is ticked (and ready to ship) ahead of Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021.
Key Contacts & Resources
Clear communication is essential for the success of any Black Friday/CyberMonday campaign, so you need to know exactly who it is that you’ll be communicating with. The last thing anyone who’s knee-deep in a launch needs is to have to dig out contact details for a team member to get an answer to an urgent question. Be organised, and have all of your key contacts to hand in case you need them.
⬢ Who are the key members of your internal team (across all departments) that will be working during Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
⬢ Will any team members be working outside of regular hours? How can they be contacted if needed?
⬢ Do you have the details for the carriers you will be using? Who are your key points of contact within these companies?
⬢ Have you assigned extra resources in logistics to keep up with a surge in orders (creating labels, custom documents, tracking, etc.) Are these individuals trained and up to speed with processes?
⬢ Do you have an open line of communication with couriers about any possible delays – who will be receiving these updates?
Website
The biggest concern for online retailers is that website uptime remains at 100% across Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Makes perfect sense — after all, no website = no sales. So assuming that your site is firing on all cylinders, make sure that customers have a clear understanding of how shipping works, especially if you’ve made changes to your usual delivery policies.
⬢ Who are the key members of your internal team (across all departments) that will be working during Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
⬢ Will any team members be working outside of regular hours? How can they be contacted if needed?
⬢ Do you have the details for the carriers you will be using? Who are your key points of contact within these companies?
⬢ Have you assigned extra resources in logistics to keep up with a surge in orders (creating labels, custom documents, tracking, etc.) Are these individuals trained and up to speed with processes?
⬢ Do you have an open line of communication with couriers about any possible delays – who will be receiving these updates?
Customer Service
Spikes in traffic and sales over the course of Black Friday/Cyber Monday put extra pressure on customer service teams. As the stakes are high and competition is fierce, it’s important to approach customer service in a proactive rather than a reactive way as much as possible. Do everything you can to give customers the answers to their shipping questions on their own, and similarly, equip your support staff with all of the resources they need to help customers who can’t find the answers to their questions.
⬢ Have you clearly communicated any shipping announcements on social media?
⬢ Do customer support staff have access to all shipping information to adequately deal with any inquiries? Across all channels?
⬢ What are your channels of communication – Live chat, social media, email, dedicated phone lines? Do customers have a clear understanding of how they can contact you and when they should expect a response?
⬢ Have you created/updated your canned responses/templates with BFCM shipping information?
Shipping & Materials
Sounds like an obvious one, but it is so important to make sure that the process of picking and packing runs smoothly across Black Friday/Cyber Monday. That means having all of the necessary shipping materials ready for action as soon as orders start to fly in. Boxes, tape, stickers, tissue paper, protective packaging, shipping labels, customs forms — the list goes on. Many brands use Cyber Weekend as an opportunity to encourage repeat business or generate user-generated content, so if there are any additional inserts that need to be included in packages, now is the time to get prepared.
⬢ Do you have sufficient shipping materials to manage an influx of sales?
⬢ Are you using additional promotional/shipping materials over the course of Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
⬢ How will picking and packing work? If there are extra hands on deck, does everyone know what their responsibilities are?
⬢ Will shipping labels be generated automatically? If not, how is this going to be managed?
Post Purchase
It’s often what happens after a customer has placed an order that determines whether or not they will shop with a brand again. Paying extra attention to the post-purchase process during your Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign not only helps to relieve some of the added pressure on your customer service team, but also shows customers that you care about more than just sales, sales, sales.
⬢ Do your shipment tracking communication flows need to be updated (emails, texts, etc)?
⬢ How much visibility will customers have on the status of their orders over BFCM?
⬢ How will any potential shipping delays be communicated with customers (email updates, social media posts)?
⬢ Is there a feedback request campaign happening during BFCM? Is this synced up with deliveries? (especially if your usual delivery schedule is different to usual)
⬢ What is your return and refund policy? How can customers return orders – is this clearly communicated on your store?
Our final piece of advice to brands with just a few days to go before Black Friday is to get ready to measure! The data that you collect over peak week is incredibly powerful to help gain insight into your customers. Stay tuned to the blog for tips on how to use your BF/CM delivery data, but in the meantime, here’s to a record-breaking campaign!
Want to know how Scurri streamlines shipping, tracking and provides the perfect delivery experience? Talk to us today!
AUTHOR
Michelle McSweeney Content Marketer