After struggling to achieve its vision of placing the customer at the heart of its operations with its current delivery management solution, the Dufresne Spencer Group (DSG) switched to Package.ai. Its customer satisfaction interactions have transformed, resulting in impressive operational efficiencies and cost savings.
Just three months after Ashley Furniture Franchisee DSG decided to move from its existing industry-standard delivery management software to Package.ai‘s complete customer engagement platform, it witnessed the following impressive results:
- 42% reduction in not-at-home failed deliveries
- 700+ additional successful delivery attempts per month
- 45% response rate for post-delivery feedback, with 89% being positive 4-5 ratings
- 22% improvement in confirmation success in the first entire month of implementation
- $25 million of potential savings every year thanks to improved capacity utilization and more cost-effective deliveries
Why Did DSG Decide to Make The Switch?
Even though it was using the industry standard routing and delivery management solution, DSG still saw a high number of customers staying in the fulfillment process even though their deliveries had been confirmed and routed. Due to cancellations, delivery vehicles were being dispatched without being fully loaded.
Despite its customer-centric vision, DSG could also not successfully coordinate deliveries around their customers’ needs because customer day-of-delivery messages needed to be received. The lack of messages created a gap in understanding issues at the point of delivery that customers had tried to make them aware of.
Its routing and delivery management solution must also be fully integrated into its IT architecture. This meant there were often delays of up to 5 hours in updating and synchronizing fulfillment and customer data between their ERP/WMS system, data warehouse, and routing/delivery management software.
When reviewing its fulfillment process, DSG realized it needed a common customer communication platform that captured customer responses and made them visible across all departments, including sales, store operations, customer care, and distribution and delivery. Without an outlet, communication silos were often created that negatively affected customer satisfaction and perception of the DSG organization.
Delivering a Truly Customer-Centric Vision
The DSG team wanted complete cross-department visibility of all customer interactions throughout the fulfillment process. It knew this would deliver its vision of implementing true customer centricity. DSG wanted to automate and integrate customer-centric engagements with sales, customer care, and delivery in real-time through one platform to achieve this.
Its current delivery management software is needed to meet these requirements. To avail of a more effective, efficient, and, ultimately, cost-effective solution, it decided to make the switch to Package.ai to:
- Ensure fully functioning interactive customer communications.
- Minimize customer ‘Fall Off’ after deliveries have been scheduled.
- Allow full integration into retailer operations, ensuring customer data is synced across systems in real-time.
- Give complete visibility of all engagements with each customer across all departments.
- Implement a more cost-effective, efficient solution.
One Platform to Engage with Customers
Package.ai thoroughly analyzed DSG’s current software systems and workflows for routing deliveries and customer messaging. It then consolidated these functions into one unified solution powered by conversational AI, workflow automation, and last-mile intelligence.
“We were looking to switch over from our current last-mile delivery management solution because it simply couldn’t deliver our vision of customer centricity,” says Chris Gustafson, Director of Quality Assurance at DSG. “With Paclkage.ai, we can eliminate departmental silos throughout the customer journey, specifically within the fulfillment process. We finally have a single platform that manages customer satisfaction, engagement, and logistics through automation and AI.”
To ensure customers were kept up-to-date in real-time on the status of their delivery and have their questions answered immediately, Package.ai’s flagship AI chatbot Jenny was placed at the heart of DSG’s communications.
Package.ai was successfully rolled out to DSG’s 124 stores and 20 distribution centers in under three months. The onboarding process included training calls tailored explicitly for different divisions, including store operations, customer care, and distribution and delivery operations. The rollout was supplemented with training documentation for each task the teams were responsible for, detailing how it was done in the past and how it would be done using Package.ai’s solution.
“From an implementation standpoint, the Package.ai team has been outstanding,” says Brian Fields, Quality Assurance Manager at DSG. “Package.ai has become the cornerstone of our fulfillment and customer service. The ease of use and the overall platform is a significant improvement over our previous routing delivery management solution.”
Impressive Results
After completing the implementation, DSG saw delivery confirmation rates steadily increase. After just three months, it reduced not-at-home failed deliveries by 42% and enabled over 700 additional successful delivery attempts to be completed every month.
These changes meant improved capacity utilization on delivery trucks and fewer disappointed customers due to the spike in successful deliveries. The improvements immediately impacted customer satisfaction rates and feedback, with a 45% response rate for post-delivery feedback and an 89% positive 4-5 rating.
Future Plans to Expand Use of AI and Automation
The goal now for DSG is to move towards almost full automation and to use Package.ai’s chatbot. Jenny is scheduling, routing, and confirming the customer. The automation will allow staff to focus on areas where they can add value and improve overall customer satisfaction and service.
DSG also wants to deploy Package.ai to manage floor-stock and clearance product flow to their retail stores and coordinate and report furniture repair activities. The will:
- Make it easier for DSG staff to focus on furniture handling fully
- Improve their customer and team experience
- Ultimately improving performance and reducing costs.
“We are looking at how we can expand Package.ai’s functionality to do the stuff that we really struggle with,” says Chris. “For example, how it can impact customer ‘Fall Off’ rates (where a customer cancels a delivery, leaving unused space on delivery vehicles) and identify orders so we can automatically fill in those routes.”
Thanks to improved capacity utilization, this could be worth hundreds of millions of savings to DSG every year.
“Right now, Fall Off averages about 12% on a $1 billion company,” he says. “If we could deliver an extra 20% through improved confirmation rates and capacity utilization, that translates to a potential $200 million dollars more per year in delivered dollars.”
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