5 Customer Experience Hacks for Click and Collect

Click & Collect (C&C) is here to stay. Reports suggest that through the last few months, C&C has grown in the US by 30% and that 60% of customers say that they intend to continue to use this type of service. I imagine the same sort of magnitudes are true in the UK, if not higher with retailers reporting a surge in the use of C&C. Pre lock-down, the UK C&C market was predicted to grow to ￡10bn by 2023, a rise of 46%, with Clothing & Footwear accounting for 60% of spend. Forward-thinking retailers developed C&C many years, even decades, ago – today it’s a must have.  

The customer experience needs to improve: I recently ordered a product from a retailer and had, to say the least, a disappointing experience with a long wait time. A colleague of mine similarly had a terrible C&C experience: “they couldn’t find my parcel and I was kept waiting for 15 minutes and then, because I was in the store anyway, I cancelled the order, and picked the same items off the shelf!” 

So, I went looking for the evidence. There is limited data on customer satisfaction across retail that is specific to this channel. Global Data Retail’s 2018 e-retail survey of 10,000 online shoppers found that 79.9% of users were satisfied with C&C services, significantly lower than for home delivery, which stands at 89.5%. Only 80% of customers satisfied in a growing and important channel is not good enough.   

I surveyed a trusted community of C&C users and gathered views of where the end to end experience could improve in those critical moments of truth: only 60% of this group were “very satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with their last C&C experience.  

 What we really want is: 

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate!  

• Let me know where my parcel is at all relevant times. Use mobile notifications like text, or push notifications for app users, to keep me up to date on the progress of my C&C order. If my parcel has not arrived or will be delayed, let me know in good time. 

2. Tell me where in the store to pick up the parcel from  

• The location should be easy to reach and ideally not at the back of the store or in some unloved corner. It should be clearly signposted, dedicated to C&C (and maybe other services) and comfortable to wait around. Contactless options with the use of lockers would be welcome in the current environment. 

3. Don’t keep me waiting, and treat me like a valuable customer 

• Let me know what the expected wait time is likely to be when I arrive in store. I expect to wait a few minutes - under 2 is great but anything beyond 5 will detract from my satisfaction.  Retailers should measure wait times in stores, and act to ensure these remain within an acceptable range. 
• Store staff should be trained to recognise C&C customers as engaged, valuable and loyal customers of the brand. 

4. Give me a wide choice of pick up locations, free C&C options and easy returns  

• Give me free options to pick up from a location close to me, even if it is not your own brand store. Allow quick and easy returns with confirmation of a refund at the pick-up location. Also, enable easy contact with customer service teams across the various channels (email, phone, live chat, social) to get the information I need to make changes to my order. 

5. Make the digital experience seamless  

• Provide a friction free visible experience across the homepage, products pages, basket pages and throughout checkout. Consider single click checkout, make it easy to find stores (interactive maps) and develop a consistent experience across all devices.   

Done right, C&C will build customer loyalty, frequency of purchase and a higher average order value. It is imperative that the end to end customer experience creates moments of delight.