Oftentimes, poor customer experiences are delivered in the name of a good shopping experience. All thanks to delivery professionals undergoing zero background checks. Here are a few anecdotes of such experiences.

Inspired by many true events

• Delivery person arrives at the location.

• As he failed to inform the customer of his arrival, the customer was not available.

• Customer asks for 15 minutes to reach the location.

• The delivery person gets mad, starts arguing and threatens to leave.

• Delivery executive refuses to arrive at the assigned location.

• Tells the customer to meet at another location, far away from the original location.

• Delivery executive starts hurling abuse, threatening not to deliver the order.

• The customer opens the door to receive the food from the delivery person.

• He finds the customer alone and tries to misbehave with her.

• Customer manages to close the door on time.

E-commerce

E-commerce has grown exponentially over the past few years, making the purchase experience for customers smoother, as they can shop from the comfort of their homes. With pandemic coming into play, the industry boomed in a way no one would have expected. It not only proved to be viable but also profitable. It has become the new-gen marketplace.

Even restaurants and eateries teamed up with food delivery platforms and branched into the realm of online ordering.

Delivery professionals are the face of e-commerce companies that partner with them, and they are the first point of contact with customers. This means they should have a mild nature, cool temperament and a pleasant demeanor. But things go for a toss if it is otherwise.

Delivering bad experiences

Businesses are not just about the product, but also about the whole customer experience. The process of delivery has been marred by unforgiving behavior on the part of the delivery personnel. This has always been a concern the industry has grappled with since its advent. Out of all the issues the industry faces, this holds the most significance due to its impact.

TV screens and newspapers frequently display stories about the poor way these delivery professionals conduct themselves. The short anecdotes given above provide a bird’s eye view of the menace. There have been graver incidents that have left the delivery partners trying to save face. There have been instances of unruly behaviors, assaults, misconduct towards female customers, theft and tampering with the food. Likewise, traffic violations are recorded on their behalf either due to a lack of records or due to the time limit they need to meet.

Though having a criminal background makes them more likely to exhibit such unacceptable behaviors, some habitual liars lie about their qualifications or experiences. Even traffic violations are most often committed by serial offenders.

What the delivery partners do

Delivery partners do remove delivery personnel from the job if untoward circumstances occur, but not before having a say about their training efforts. In addition to general conduct, the training instructions emphasize behavior to be observed during unpredictable situations that may occur. But, is training the only determinant of a person's conduct?

Training processes can prove beneficial, but only to a certain extent. Therefore, the question arises, should one only rely on them since the prospective candidates would be the representatives of the company? Would it be wise for businesses to risk customer trust and safety by doing this?

What the delivery partners should do

There always remains a probability of risks related to employing delivery personnel's. But, the appropriate action to take in order to alleviate the risk would be to conduct background checks during each hiring.

1. Validate identity

A background check begins with checking that the delivery personnel are who they claim to be. It involves scrutinizing their address details, examining their government identification cards, and consulting their previous employers for character references. Performing such verifications ensures their identity is validated.

2. Validate Qualification

Many candidates fabricate false educational credentials to enhance their chances of getting hired. Although high qualifications are not a necessity in such cases, they serve as a sign of wisdom and intelligence. So it becomes critical to authenticate their claims.

3. Validate Legality

As part of the identification process, it is necessary to check for past unlawful activity in the candidates. For criminal proceedings, temperament and sentencing information, criminal databases can be checked.

Final thoughts

As the e-commerce industry continues to grow, employers have been hiring intensively. However, there has also been a spike in cases of wrongdoing that put customers at risk. Delivery partners and companies need to be mindful of the fact that customer satisfaction is essential for their success, and they should not compromise their customers' safety or trust. Therefore, it becomes imperative to conduct an extensive background screening process.

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