As technology has changed, so have our consumer habits. Our expectations for purchase and delivery have soared, and we’ve been spoilt with a wealth of online click and collect services.

Over the festive period many of us decided to avoid the chaos of the ‘last minute shopper’ and opted to park and pick up our presents along with our Christmas dinner. With this in mind, we asked our mystery shoppers to share their recent experiences to understand whether click and collect services are as convenient as they claim to be.

I received a reminder after a few days as I was not able to pick my item up earlier. This was useful as I had forgotten about it.

Top of the shops

Top of the brands, perhaps unsurprisingly, is click and collect pioneer Argos with, 57.1% of customers awarding a satisfaction rating of 10/10 both to speed of service and ease of collection. They also topped the chart where communication with the customer was concerned, with 85.7% of customers awarding ratings of 9 and 10/10.

An excellent service which I would recommend to others. The order was available to collect on the same day and I received email updates. The collection was very easy as ASDA use their petrol station across the road where it is less. A separate clearly signed counter is available in the kiosk for click and collect and the petrol checkout colleague called someone to come to the counter as I approached.

Time really is money

On average, the companies included in our research took 2.1 days to prepare their customer orders. Interestingly, supermarket retailers Asda and Tesco, found themselves pipping Argos to the top spots at 1.5 and 1.4 days respectively.

Customers found the choice of slots for supermarkets convenient, allowing them to plan around their grocery shopping.

Smooth process gets customer approval!

Where satisfaction scores fall for brands, key themes include a lack of communication and failure to fulfil orders.

I placed my order and had 34 items that I scheduled for collection. I received a confirmation email of my order the day before and I went to collect the items on the scheduled day. Out of the 34 items I ordered I received 5 for collection! […] I rejected the order and had to wait for days for the refund […] Really shoddy service and one I would never use again.

Customers also highlighted hitting long queues as a snag when out picking orders up:

The queue was at least 10 people long with just 2 people serving, eventually more people were drafted in to serve […] Once I was served the customer services assistant took at least 5 minutes to locate my parcel.

However, where brands were celebrated, customers commented on a smooth and simple pick up process.

I sent it to a collection point close to my home address. They sent me a code which I simply typed into the locker and the door opened with my order inside. Very quick and efficient. I will use this service again because I did not have to wait in at home for a delivery.

I received regular email notifications from order receipt to when the item was ready for collection from my local store […] It was a very easy process to collect the item. The staff member also offered to carry the item to the car for me, as it was heavy. Great service from start to finish!

Our findings suggest that customers are happy to wait several days for an item as long as they feel informed and the pick up is simple. As more and more customers move to online shopping and click and collect, are companies really as ready as they need to be to cope with this demand?

To find out more about this project, and our expertise in building CX measurement programmes that deliver a better customer experience, please get in touch with ABa via the details below.

Danielle Sones Experience Director danielle@aba.co.uk / 0161 431 1221

(Source: ABa Pulse, 1st October - 30th November, n= 55)