At this year’s Manifest conference, leaders from across the logistics industry came together to share best practices, highlight where things are moving next, and hear from the innovators bringing change to the field. Of course, Veho was all over the conference, and we were especially pleased to have CEO and co-founder Itamur Zur on the plenary stage talking about “The Customer Journey.”
Joining Zur on the panel was HelloFresh's Elena Bernardo (a Veho partner), Mars's Patrick McIntyre, and CNBC's David Spiegel as they discussed technology's role in empowering partners and improving logistics.
The panel agreed that one of the critical factors for carriers and brands is focusing on creating the customer experience. When customers—not just cost-per-package—become the center of a brand’s operations, it leads to the kind of experiences bringing joy to the customer, connecting them closer to the brand, and leading to them repurchasing or subscribing and building long-term relationships.
Bernardo also shared how Veho makes a difference for Hello Fresh’s customers with our customer-obsessed operational excellence and technology, leading to better service overall, and it’s part of why Hello Fresh loves working with Veho.
Elsewhere at Manifest, the Veho onsite booth hosted truckloads of people as we shared the data behind how we help businesses provide better customer experiences and how we effortlessly scale up to meet any brand’s needs, even during peak shipping times, while providing consistent, transparent pricing and without any surcharges.
As a leader in the industry, Zur was in high demand at the conference, also finding time to chat with Supply Chain Brain editor Robert Bowman. Zur discussed the importance of solving retail returns for brands and how to turn them into a cost-center and profit driver.
Returns have become one of the tricky parts of e-commerce, and Zur highlighted the importance for brands of making the process easy for customers. He emphasized that when brands make customers go through the laborious process of printing labels, bringing items to physical locations, and other hurdles, it creates a negative experience with the e-tailer, driving customers away from the brand in the future or even preventing them from purchasing in the first place.
Previously, brands have considered returns problematic because of thin profit margins and the macroeconomic situation. Zur returned to the importance of customer experience and the value it creates for brands. “It’s a question of how to do it in a way that’s economical, elevates the customer experience, and builds long-term loyalty to the brand,” he said. “That’s where the profit is.”
As Zur noted, the acquisition cost for a new customer could be six times as expensive as servicing an existing one. When customers have many options of where to shop for similar items, they opt for the brands making the overall experience smoother, from checkout to the delivery to the potential return.
