Fragile-Handle With Care!!!
The worst experience any customer can have is to receive something they have ordered arrive at their front door in two pieces when it should have been one; half the size when they didn’t order the crushed version. Of course, everyone feels for a customer like that because others have probably experienced that before. Whether it is groceries, dry goods, or building materials, customers do not enjoy receiving crushed and broken things they ordered. Then there are other companies that use custom boxes for their customers. These companies realize the need for care in shipping their products to a consumer.
This is a new age of packaging. Never before in history have there been so many packages being shipped and delivered.
Packing Materials and Methods
Packaging has a voice of its own. The care that is given to the package is a reflection of the merchandise being shipped that is in the box. Every company is a little different. Some companies are beginning to cut back on certain kinds of packaging since customers have a hard time opening them. However, if a customer sees a package that is strong and sturdy, the customer has more confidence in the company that shipped it, especially if the item sent was expensive.
How the Customer Expeiences Packaging
One look at a package and the packaging speaks volumes beyond the wrapping that covers the item inside. A customer feels more comforted when they open a package and there are those little slips inside the box showing who was responsible for the shipping and their employee number. It says volumes about quality control. On the other hand, so much is being done today robotically it seems fantastic if there is a single trace that the package was at one point in the loading and shipping process touched by human hands.
Paper or Plastic
Packaging all comes down to how much the sender wants to ensure that the package gets to the customer in one piece. Usually, the customer pays for standard packaging. But what about large ticket items? Often delivery employees will see large ticket items ripped, broken, and even disassembled as they come off a truck to be sent onward to the next destination.
UPS says they receive less than 1% of packages in their packaging distribution centers that need to be sent back to the sender. Much of the problem has to do with forklift drivers, or other handlers, that handle the crates of boxes carelessly without the right supervision. Sometimes it is not the packaging but workers attempting to overstuff the limits of what a truck should hold to cut corners on shipping in transit.
No Breaking or Crushing, Please
If this phenomenon of shipping is taken a little further, it is little wonder that so many packages get to customers in the dilapidated condition in which they are received. Somewhere along the supply chain, someone was less responsible for the customer’s goods. The irresponsibility was passed on without note or notice to authority. Is the solution to the packaging problem allowing companies to implement anti-packaging practices?
Custom Customer Boxes
Perhaps one solution is having Wi-fi attached signal controls attached to each package where handlers are held responsible for whatever they handle. The US Post Office has something similar, but it is charged as an insured item. Custom packaging is a new concept, but one that says a lot about the company. For example, Amazon or USPS never let a package out of their warehouses that does not have a custom packaging. These companies see the importance of having a carton custom-made for the customer.
Differences in Packaging Methods
Recently, a friend ordered food from a delivery service and all of the food was separated into hot and cold, fruit and vegetables, dry or frozen, with each of the different kinds placed in different kinds of packaging. Another friend receives food for herself and her son once a week that comes in containers prepared to cook, and all of the food comes with all of the freezer packages to keep the food cool.
Reports and Rebates
Furthermore, the company has clear labeling on each packaging for each day’s food servings on the individual packaging. Other companies may be less cautious about how packaging is treated. A customer has the choice to report such abuse of their purchased items, as some people have done, and receive a big rebate from the company.
