What is WISMO, and why should you care about it?

What is WISMO?

If you work in e-commerce, you may’ve heard the term ‘WISMO’ thrown around. But what does it mean? And why does it matter? WISMO is an acronym for ‘Where is my order?’ Typically, it’s used as an umbrella term for inbound customer inquiries. WISMO requests can be received in a variety of ways: calls, emails, social media, chatbots, live chat, and SMS.

WISMO is something that affects all e-commerce retailers. Yet, these seemingly insignificant calls can become problematic if not managed correctly.

Carrier data

Firstly, for global brands, it can be hard to give a customer a straight answer. Once an order leaves a warehouse, the retailer often loses track of its location. Carriers often use internal data tagging that can be hard for customer service representatives to access. And, if they can, it is often difficult to interpret. Each carrier uses thousands of different data statuses. When a company uses several carriers around the world, tracking and interpreting this becomes almost impossible.

High costs

Additionally, managing WISMO calls can also be very costly. That’s because WISMO calls can take a huge amount of time for your customer services team. This time could be better spent. Clearly, reducing preventable inquiries will give your team more time to deal with specialist queries. In fact, it can also mean that the team becomes less costly for the business.

Tackling WISMO

So, how do you do it? Well, you should start by setting clear expectations throughout the entire sales journey. At checkout, predict a date that they can expect their order to arrive. Then, send proactive emails to let them know when it’s left the warehouse. Deliver event-triggered emails if any issues arise, such as a delay. Provide an all-in-one tracking page, also known as an order status page. This tool allows customers to monitor the progress of their order in real-time, without having to call you. You can use these proactive communications to send engaged traffic back to your site. Also, you should use customer data to personalize these interactions. Add recommended products based on their search or purchase history. Or, link to valuable content based on their basket. Above all, be present throughout the journey. Your customer has made a decision to buy from you. Now is a great time to encourage them to do it again.Examples of a branded all in one tracking page

Reduce WISMO with parcelLab

But, how do you enable proactive, branded communication throughout the customer journey? Well, our solution will allow you to take control of your Operations Experience. That means your brand will be able to ensure the same high quality experience throughout all operational processes. This includes checkout, shipping, returns and more. Put simply, we take care of data so you don’t have to. We’ve integrated with hundreds of carriers, and this gives us invaluable access to shipping data. This knowledge has made us best placed to clean and harmonize your shipping data. We turn it into outstanding customer experiences.

Getting started

So, if your business is trying to reduce WISMO, we can help. To get a better understanding of how our solution works, it would be helpful to take a look at our platform page. Or, if you’d rather have a specific discussion about how we can support your business, I would recommend a demo. Additionally, if you’re keen to understand more about how taking control of Operations Experience can add value to your brand and customers, check out our latest research.