What Does it Take to Run Last Mile Operations at Meesho? Vishal Raykhere Senior Manager — Fulfillment & Experience reveals the path to ultimate customer satisfaction
Last-mile operations refer to the last leg of logistics and the most important one at that. One of the most complex and intricate operations for any e-commerce platform, it refers to the movement of products from a transportation hub to the final delivery destination and plays a huge role in building brand loyalty among customers and maintaining a great Net Promoter Score (NPS).
This service has been a key factor for all e-commerce businesses across the globe, with consumer behaviour suggesting time and again that they are highly likely to look for alternatives whenever last-mile deliveries come short of satisfying their needs. At Meesho particularly, Making Entrepreneurs Successful is our north star, which means that a poor customer experience which may result in our entrepreneurs losing their business is not an option for us.
The importance of this function is further highlighted by the fact that according to a report on start-up funding trends published by McKinsey and Company in May 2020, venture capitalists across the globe are investing more on last-mile delivery services than any other field.
Two of the biggest parameters in last-mile delivery are cost-efficiency and customer experience, and the latter includes speed, timeliness, and accuracy. So, at Meesho, our focus has been to create a network that creates a perfect balance of both speed and cost, and we are constantly perfecting this system.
Sr Manager — Operations — Fulfillment & Experience at Meesho, Vishal Raykhere, explains how his team ensures a great customer experience during last-mile delivery operations:
My team and I work with a third-party logistics partner who manages last-mile operations at Meesho.
This translates to an extremely high level of communication, regular check-ins, and staying on top of all developments at all times. Moreover, last-mile operations are extremely complex and there are some key aspects that come into play when we are tackling them.
Cost and Coverage
For any typical e-commerce shipment delivery, about 40% cost goes towards last-mile delivery. This would include the communication and commute costs incurred by delivery persons and the rental costs of last-mile centres, and these only go up when new parameters such as rescheduling are introduced.
Last-Mile Delivery at Meesho, spread across the country, features 27,000 pin codes in approximately 2,400 cities and counting. Therefore, monitoring the shipment movement across these pin codes also becomes equally challenging. For instance, one part of the country may be experiencing heavy rainfall, while another part may be facing floods, and yet another part may have heavy governmental regulations related to COVID-19. We are all simultaneously keeping track of all that.
By hearting your routes
Because the coverage is so large, planning has to be done with extreme caution as well, especially since we rely on third-party logistics for last-mile delivery.
We need to communicate the exact pin codes of origin and destination along with relevant details about the shipment to ensure that they are optimally utilising manpower. Our projection to the minutest level is necessary for last-mile delivery operations.
Imagine we have projected 80 shipments from a certain pin code on a day. Typically it requires two delivery persons, but if the load goes up to 200, there is suddenly a shortage of three delivery persons. There is really nothing we can do to fix that instantly, which is why proper planning is the backbone of last-mile operations.
Meesho has a lot of customers in Tier — III and Tier- IV cities, and an issue we face is that many addresses are not clearly defined. A lot of our customers from rural areas are not your typical online shoppers. There have been times where they logged in incorrect pin codes for their locality and oftentimes their houses are not numbered either. This deeply hindrances our job of delivering.
In this scenario, we often directly reach out to the entrepreneurs to get the correct address from them and ensure that the product is delivered as quickly as possible.
Prioritising customers always
Another challenge we face is having to reschedule deliveries as per customer requirement. If the customer is not available to pick up the product even though it has reached their doorsteps, we need to reschedule and ensure that it is delivered during a time they are in fact available.
This can be a logistical nightmare, and making this happen in the near future that fits their schedule is a complex process that involves a whole lot of coordination with the logistics partner in the last mile centre.
On the flip side, customers would reach out with complaints about fake delivery attempts made by delivery persons, which Meesho has been able to tackle to a large extent through data analytics. We look at parameters such as call-bridge adherence — wherein we examine records of any calls made by the delivery person who has arrived at the location — and first-attempt conversations — which looks at how many times the delivery person has delivered in the first attempt historically, and this has helped us bring down this problem effectively.
COVID-related challenges
Considering the safety concerns brought about by Coronavirus, we have been extremely cautious. From daily health check-ups for delivery personnel to contactless deliveries, we have implemented five steps to ensure the safety of our end customers. You can read all about it here.
From March to May, when all non-essential deliveries were banned or restricted based on red zones, orange zones, and green zones, our job had become extremely challenging. Our serviceability had to be managed in a way that took into consideration how essentials could be delivered in red zones and how to tackle the local rules and restrictions when delivering at a particular location in India, etc.
While Meesho customised the entrepreneur experience based on whether they are placing the order for a red zone, an orange zone or a green zone, it has been a particularly difficult challenge to do this since every day the zones fall under different criteria. The only way to ensure entrepreneur satisfaction at this point was to keep them in the loop.
Starting with the shipment of their products to their arrival at the hub and further being taken for delivery, we provided order tracking facilities to our entrepreneurs. Even if there is a delay in shipments we try to be as transparent as possible.
Our job is extremely pivotal to the growth of the company because we are the final bridge between the customer and Meesho. Being polite, being punctual go hand in hand with last-mile delivery, because ultimately the lasting impression of the company will be built based on the delivery person’s interactions with the customer.
Looking at the future of Meesho’s last-mile delivery is exciting for us. We are hoping to innovate better technology and incorporate geotagging and geofencing to improve the end customers’ experience and to help us identify ways to optimise our resources. We are excited about it.
VP-Fulfillment Ashutosh Srivastava takes us on a ride through Meesho’s fulfilment journey
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