If I would walk into your business...

Aug 26, 2019

They messed it up twice.

A few weeks back now, we decided to order a Mexican-style clay chimenea to heat up our terrace so we can stay out longer in the chilly autumn evenings.

We’ve seen one of these La Hacienda chimeneas on a neighboring terrace and we thought it would be a great fit for ours too.

I looked it up and found there are not sold in Sweden so we have to order them online and the easiest way was to buy it from Amazon UK and have it shipped home.

We did that right away and we even paid the expedite delivery to have it in three days before Florina’s mum and sister who were visiting us would head home so we would create an amazing memory of eating out around the open wood fire.

So far so good until when, on that Friday, I went to the Post Nord dispatch center to pick up the package not noticing that it was a little bit tilted on one side as if the box has been dropped.

I can admit that I was surprised by the weight of the box when I tried to lift it and so might have others been too. It was a 26 kg carton box not visibly marked as heavy and lacking the usual wholes for a good handgrip.

As soon as I started unpacking it I realized that on the tape that sealed the box there was red clay dust which led me to suspect the chimenea might be damaged. I lifted the lid with anticipation and I could easily see that the chimenea was completely broke apart.

You should have seen my face when what I suspected has been confirmed. The only thing I had in mind was how would I present this to my wife, Florina the news that the evening out on the terrace around the fire is not gonna happen while her mum is still here because the delivery company was unable to deliver our chimenea in one piece.

That was not a face you'll want to see at your customers, no matter what you sell.

I called Post Nord (the Scandinavian Post Company) to declare the damage. The guy who answered my phone after waiting 28 minutes of waiting in the queue said that I should report a case on their website and enclose pictures of the damaged package and product. I told him "I have all that on a video" at which he said, "That’s fine too, you can enclose any type of files you want to the claim form."

Full of anger I started to fill in the claim and sure enough, when I tried to enclose the video, it didn’t accept any other type of files but pictures. I then took some pictures and I sent that in.

Next thing you know I got an automated message that my claim was received and someone will review my case as soon as possible, which doesn't say anything to me. What do ASAP means anyway? Some things take months and that's as soon as possible, others take seconds.

As mentioned, that was on a Friday. More precisely, August 9 and since then I haven’t heard anything from Post Nord until Tuesday the 13th when I called them.

This time a woman answered my phone after 16 minutes of queuing and she asked me a very important question,

"Are you the sender or the receiver of this package?"

"I’m de receiver", I replied.

"Then you shouldn’t report the problem to us, but to the seller, she said, for they have bought the delivery service from us and they are the only ones that can file a complaint."

You could imagine my surprise when hearing that without any reasonable explanation for why nothing seems to happen with my complaint. When prompted, she said they were to busy after the summer break and no one had the time to take a look at my case…

I then called Amazon and told them about the issue to which they said to just dispose of the damaged product and they will send me a new one at no cost for me.

The second box arrived on Tuesday, August 20, this time delivered by UPS and at first glance the box seemed in better shape than the first one. But as soon as I started cutting the tape I saw the same red clay dust on the tape and the same disappointment popped to mind as when I opened the first one. Again, the delivery company failed to deliver the chimenea in one piece.

I got angry and filed another case on Amazon and have another one delivered in the hope this time it will be lucky but honestly, I doubt they will manage it. We'll see how many I have to order to have one delivered in one piece.

This story got my mind thinking that day and I’ve tried to figure it out what would the problem be that two different delivery companies failed to deliver a fragile reasonably heavy package across the North Sea?

What do you think it is?

Having moved three times in the last four years I got to know a bit about packaging and ergonomics and it soon rang a bell when the moving company came about four years ago to pack our stuff in our small place in south Romania.

They had what I called at the time tiny boxes and they never overloaded them and they put lots of paper in between things to keep them from moving around the box. The boxes were light and easy to grab as they had these perforations on the side so you could put your hands in a grab it firmly.

The only thing that has been damaged in that move was a small glass that I’ve packed in a heavy big box and reassure them it was well done so they don’t need to re-pack it.

I was wrong.

Now you might ask yourself what has this to do with you and your business. Well, it has a lot to do with it and let me tell you why.

What La Hacienda haven’t done is they haven’t asked themselves why is that we have so many broken chimeneas in transportation? What could we do differently?

Now, you might ask yourself, "How do you know this Florin?" How do I know they haven’t done that? It is simple. If they would have done it, I wouldn’t have had an awful experience with my delivery.

You see, they haven’t walked into their customers' shoes for a while. And when I say customers I don't only mean their final customers, I mean everyone who gets in touch with their product or package before it gets to me, the final customer.

Amazon is their wholesale customer. The delivery company is the customer of their packaging and designing a practical, easy to move package would have been in everyone’s benefit, isn't it?

So what could they have done differently?

Here are some ideas.

Adding a big visible "Fragile" sticker on the box. Would that help? Yes!

Adding a big visible "Heavy" sticker on the box. Would that help? Yes!

Creating some perforations on the sides of the box to allow a good firm grab, would that help? Absolutely!

Using a denser stronger insulation foam around the chimenea. Could that have helped? I'll say it certainly would.

What do you think?

Would those small and inexpensive changes help the delivery guy tired after a long day of handling packages to not drop this box? At least to help him set his expectations right for this eighty-seventh box that he had to sort that day? I think it would, isn't it?

Have you ever tried to lift a twenty-six kg box with no handle? It is damn hard and when is not yours and you don't really care about its content 'cause you know is insured anyway, you might even drop it a few times... I perhaps went a little too far here assuming that all delivery guys and girls would think and act that way, but I'm not far from the truth seeing how languages are handled in an airport. You get the point right? 

The box lacked the big orange label which says "Heavy".

So my question to you is what would I see, feel and experience if I would walk into your business?

When have you walked into your business the last time?

When was the last time you bought from your online shop?

When was the last time you visited your website as one of your customers would do?

When was the last time you walked into your physical store or office if you have one?

When was the last time you went through the onboarding process you put your employees through?

If the question to any of the above is "Long time ago", or even worst, "Never" perhaps you should.

Many times, we are so close to our businesses and to our lives that we don’t see things that are obvious to someone who experiences it for the first time. As they say, you cannot see the picture when you are in the frame.

Food for thought…

Florin