A van out for three cases
Your terms say a minimum order value for free delivery, and a carriage charge below it. In practice the charge is added now and then. A regular rings for three cases, the office does not want to argue, so it goes free. A rep has told a new customer the minimum does not apply to them for the first few months, and that was a year ago. The web shop applies the rule, but orders by phone and email do not.
On a busy run, those small drops take as long as the big ones. You can feel that some runs cost more than they earn, but you cannot say which orders caused it.
Why the terms slip
The rule is simple on paper. The problem is that it is applied by a person, at the moment of keying, with a customer on the phone. Exceptions are agreed by reps and not recorded, so the office cannot tell a genuine exception from a customer pushing their luck. And there is no easy way to offer the customer a choice, such as adding a case to reach the minimum, so the only options feel like refusing or giving in.
- Terms are held in a document, not against the customer account.
- Rep-agreed exceptions have no end date.
- The web shop, phone and email apply different rules.
- Nobody sees how many charges were waived last month.
What waiving costs
Each small drop uses van time, driver time and picking time for very little margin. Runs are extended by stops that should have been combined with the customer's next order. Customers who do meet the minimum are, in effect, paying for those who do not. And when you try to tighten up, customers point to all the times it was not enforced.
Office staff pay a price too. Being the person who has to decide, mid-call, whether to charge a long-standing customer for carriage is uncomfortable, and different people decide differently. Customers notice that, and learn who to ask for.
The order rules we put in
- Each customer account holds its delivery terms: minimum value, carriage charge, free delivery days, and any agreed exception with an end date and the name of who agreed it.
- Every order, from any channel, is checked against those terms when it is entered.
- If the order is below the minimum, the customer is told straight away and offered choices: add lines to reach it (with suggestions from their usual range), combine with their next scheduled delivery, or accept the carriage charge.
- Staff can waive a charge with a reason, and each waiver is logged.
- A monthly report lists orders below minimum, waivers by person and by customer, and exceptions about to expire.
| Today | With the rules | |
|---|---|---|
| Where terms live | Terms document | On each account |
| Small order by phone | Waived to avoid a row | Customer offered a choice |
| Rep exceptions | Open-ended | Dated and named |
| Visibility | None | Monthly waiver report |
How it changes the conversations
Customers are given options rather than a charge out of nowhere, which most accept. Office staff stop having to make judgement calls on the phone, because the rule and the choices are on the screen. Sales managers can see which customers regularly order below the minimum and talk to them about ordering patterns. And the transport planner gets fewer tiny drops.
Could this be your terms?
- You have a minimum drop value on paper that is rarely applied.
- Reps grant exceptions nobody tracks.
- Small orders appear on long runs.
- Phone and web orders are treated differently.
- You cannot say how much carriage you waived last month.