Supply Chain Visibility & Your Brand

Amazon made national news recently when an Atlanta-area family found a snake in their package. While the snake itself was deemed non-venomous, the family has requested that Amazon pay the almost $500 they spent on a wildlife removal company to come and remove the unwanted critter from their home. Supply Chain visibility would have helped.It’s hard to know at what point in Amazon’s supply chain the snake stowed away. From the time the package left the fulfillment center, to the time it was injected in the local postal service, to the time the package was delivered by carrier to the consumer, the unwanted critter could’ve slithered in there at any time.

From the consumer’s perspective though, all blame lays with Amazon. As Amazon was the brand they ordered from, in their minds, Amazon personally took the box the whole way through the process, and was therefore responsible for the final mile delivery of the package to their home. They were also responsible for anything that happened to — or entered — the package along the way.

Your Brand & the eCommerce Generation

In the eCommerce generation, most of the time the only face-to-face experience a customer can have with your company is the final mile delivery company you use.

That one experience can determine the feelings the consumer is left with at the end of the purchase experience: Was the package delivered on time? Was the box damaged? Was the carrier-friendly? (Was there a snake in it?)

How do you find out if the final mile experience you want your customer to have is what they’re having?

Introducing the eTrac Business Intelligence Tool

By using one integration point for all carriers, data that flows through eTrac is aggregated to provide logistics partners with supply chain visibility through their last mile deliveries and carriers. The amount of data that this tool can provide you is endless, but a few of the possibilities include:

• On-time deliveries — You can see where you’re final mile deliveries aren’t making it on time, and who is not getting them there.
• Bitmap signatures received — See who is getting the required signatures for packages and who is not.
• Required status message compliance – when you require your agents to update you multiple times on the order status, like when the freight is received, when it’s out for delivery, etc.
• The physical location of where the delivery scan was made — specifically in the cases where a delivery scan happens at a different location than where the delivery was intended to be completed.
• Over, Short and Damage situations (or OS&D) — when packages are received in excess, packages missing or damaged items.

Every eTrac customer receives access to a dashboard customized to the KPI’s they desire. As long the information is inputted into your operating system, eTrac can aggregate the data and form it into a report.

 

In addition to the standard dashboards, the reporting tool allows users to stay in control of their data by:

• Creating custom built components and dashboards within the tool.
• Data mining and predictive analysis to find trends and create predictions.
• Drive your business with data-driven decisions.

Supply Chain & Branding

Monitoring your carriers and their actions affects more than your supply chain: it affects your brand.

With the new eTrac reporting tool, your previously covert supply chain is now visible. You’re able to see how your customers are perceiving your brand and to quickly adapt your supply chain to better serve your customers and their needs, improving their brand loyalty and your bottom line.

Interested in learning more about how the eTrac Reporting Tool can improve your supply chain visibility? Contact us today.