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BY ADEDOYIN GIWA
Ecommerce platforms are meeting disruptive and dynamic needs of customers with distribution networks that ensure products are delivered at different locations and doorsteps with ease and speed. A crucial link in the chain is the services of delivery associates/agents who beat huddles to ensure customer expectations are duly met.
The travails of these associates are mostly lost on customers who after placing their orders are expectant of package delivery within the allotted time. Micheal Eze, a delivery associate at Jumia, gave snippets into what an average delivery agent has to overcome to get that product at the right location and at the right time.
Eze begins his day at the last mile hub where he receives all the planned deliveries for the day. Despite his experience and familiarity with several routes, some orders take him to uncharted axis and territories. “I have to rely on the Jumia delivery app to guide me through deliveries to each customer,” the van dispatcher explained.
”The job comes with its challenges. For instance, at a customer’s point of delivery, a customer tells you he or she has canceled. Also, customers’ delivery time clashes; a customer is telling you to come by 2pm and another is also telling you to come by 2pm.”
With no possible way of being in different places at a time, agents like Eze deploy persuasive communications skills to manage the expectations of their customers. Coupled with the need to navigate traffic rigor in a state like Lagos, they eventually find a way to deliver happiness to all their customers at their most convenient time.
For Eze, he derives satisfaction when he’s able to deliver packages to his customers after all the troubles. He also finds a way to manage stress and cool off pressure of the day’s work before heading home. “As a delivery associate, I find it exciting delivering happiness to my customers. My day ends when I’ve been able to deliver most of my packages. And I go to my favourite bar to refresh before heading home to my family.”
*Adedoyin Giwa is Associate Consultant at PR REDLINE.
