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Ok, it’s time for another trip into the annals of When Customer Experience Goes Bad - @auspost, volume 362.
Or “How I learned to stop getting the basics right, and embracing mediocrity as a customer service strategy”.
Or “How I learned to stop getting the basics right, and embracing mediocrity as a customer service strategy”.
Most of you will know that, since the dawn of time, or The Year Of Our Lord And Saviour 1974, barcodes have become key to commerce - in part thanks to two boffins at IBM, Woodland and Silver, whose early work we have to thank for these little data carriers.
Fast forward to today, and at least a couple of times a day, you’re going to interact with a barcode.
From your loyalty card at a chemist, the product you bought at a supermarket, or... hey - those black lines on the parcel label of the thing I ordered last week.
Like this one:
From your loyalty card at a chemist, the product you bought at a supermarket, or... hey - those black lines on the parcel label of the thing I ordered last week.
Like this one:
(I hope Superman’s parcel wasn’t anything embarrassing)
Anywho, this is how we get to today - where one of my parcels, an. 11kg calming blanket, didn’t go where it was supposed to.
How do I know it didn’t go where it was supposed to...
The shipping carrier scanned their barcode, and their system sent me emails and push notifications that it had gone somewhere else.
The shipping carrier scanned their barcode, and their system sent me emails and push notifications that it had gone somewhere else.
So... what happened?
Enter the humans.
Enter the humans.
So, cast your mind back to that underwear delivery for Clark Kent earlier in this thread.
Here’s a (redacted) image from today’s parcel, where no less than two seperate @auspost employees screwed up - by lacking the ability of reading.
Here’s a (redacted) image from today’s parcel, where no less than two seperate @auspost employees screwed up - by lacking the ability of reading.
The eParcel label, on the right of the earlier photo - has all the information relevant to getting this parcel to its destination.
On the left is a shipper label, which has nothing to do with the parcel’s carriage.
Guess which label the @auspost staff read for the address?
On the left is a shipper label, which has nothing to do with the parcel’s carriage.
Guess which label the @auspost staff read for the address?
If you answered the label on the left - you guessed correctly.
Despite the fact the label on the right had all the right information, including the full shipping address.
And guess which label they scanned, to email me & say we don’t know where it’s supposed to go?
Despite the fact the label on the right had all the right information, including the full shipping address.
And guess which label they scanned, to email me & say we don’t know where it’s supposed to go?
Yep - also the one on the right.
But here’s the icing on the cake - Counter Officer says to me flat out when collecting this heavy parcel (and i’m quoting):
“We didn’t know where to send it”
(and that’s after they took 7min to find it)
“We didn’t know where to send it”
(and that’s after they took 7min to find it)
So in summary: Right address, right label on the parcel, full electronic data in their systems - and two people misread the right label, misroute the parcel, and then have the audacity to say that someone other than @auspost caused the problem.
Shipping parcels is core to @auspost’s business. When their own staff lack the ability to read the information, right in front of them, on a standard label format no less - they aren’t delivering on their core mission - to get a parcel from A to the intended B.
And I get tired of the times where I have to put in the effort resulting from @auspost’s mistakes, and also explain how they couldn’t even do something so basic as reading a label.
And yet they still wonder why people will choose another carrier where available.
This is why - because we can consistently get better service that delivers the basics, every time.
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This is why - because we can consistently get better service that delivers the basics, every time.
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