How snowmaggedon exposed online retail flaws

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According to the latest study from eDigitalResearch the UK has just experienced something of a truly digital Christmas. I’m not too surprised that 86% of us used the internet on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, or that 22% of us did it via a smartphone or tablet device.

It’s no great shock that 30% of folk visited the online sales on Boxing Day either, or that 62% of those shopping online over the Christmas weekend were looking for sales bargains.

What did surprise me, however, was just how badly some of the biggest names in retail dealt with the snowmageddon disruption in the lead up to the seasonal festivities when compared to your average small business.

Not that I would dream of dismissing the December weather as a storm in a retail teacup, especially as I live in rural South Yorkshire where for the best part of a fortnight we had more than a foot of snow on the ground and temperatures dropped to as low as -15 overnight. At the height of the Arctic conditions, the Royal Mail was unable to get down my lane to deliver any post for an entire week; I lived in the village of the snowy dead to all intents and purposes.

So what am I doing complaining about retailers having trouble delivering online orders in time for Christmas? Actually, what I am complaining about is the difference in how the biggest and smallest retailers handled the crisis.

Here’s a simple truth: big retail business brands simply said ‘no problem’ and took my money for online orders when they had no idea if my items would arrive in time or not, and even (I suspect) when they knew there was a fair chance of them not arriving at all. Smaller retailers, on the other hand, were totally honest and up front, even if that meant they lost an order.

A seemingly common practice amongst bigger retailers is not to provide parcel tracking details, whereas the small guys nearly always send this data out with the email confirmation of your order. It might seem a small detail, but it’s one that makes a huge difference in terms of customer service when things go wrong, as I found out.

When a number of my deliveries from a handful of small retailers — ranging from one-man-and-his-dog confectioners to village real ale brewers — were delayed by the weather, I was able to use the tracking data provided and discover where they were and when they were likely to arrive.

You simply cannot decide to use snowmaggedon as a convenient excuse to try and cover up a poor understanding of the very basics of customer service

When my order of a trio of Apple iPod Touch units failed to arrive from Tesco Direct, despite assurances on the telephone that they would be delivered within 48 hours of my order, I was left none the wiser about their whereabouts or estimated time of arrival. Bigger was not better, not least as I had no tracking information. What I did have was an email informing me the items had been dispatched, but when I finally got through to customer services I discovered that the Tesco definition on dispatch was different to mine. Dispatch does not, I was informed, mean the item is on the way to you. Apparently it means it has been sent to the courier.

Unfortunately, Tesco Direct doesn’t reveal who the courier is unless you telephone them to ask, as I did. And nor do they provide the customer with the tracking codes that the courier gives them, unless you telephone and ask for them.

Yes, the bad weather played a big part in delaying Christmas deliveries across the UK. But you simply cannot decide to use snowmaggedon as a convenient excuse to try and cover up a poor understanding of the very basics of customer service. One has to ask why it is that small business can appreciate that, when selling remotely across the internet, the customer appreciates as much information as possible about the transaction, including parcel tracking codes, yet big business apparently cannot.

For all the changes in the way we shop, as the first decade of the 21st century becomes just a very cold memory, one thing remains as true as ever: the customer is king. Forget that, no matter how big a business you are, at your p

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