Confirming cash on delivery orders before you dispatch them
A cash on delivery order is a promise, not a payment. One confirmation message before dispatch surfaces the two causes of almost every failed delivery: a wrong number and a buyer who has changed their mind.
What the message must contain
The point is to make replying easy and to make the commitment explicit. Four things:
Hi Wanjiku - confirming your order #10432:
2x tyres 195/65 R15, 14,800 total, cash on delivery.
Delivering to: Kilimani, Ngong Road, opposite the mall.
Thursday between 10am and 2pm.
Reply YES to confirm, or tell me what to change.The address in full is the part people skip and the part that catches the most errors. A customer reading their own address back spots a wrong estate immediately; a customer reading "your order is confirmed" spots nothing.
When to send it
Early enough that a change costs nothing, late enough that the answer is still true. For same-day dispatch, immediately. For next-day, the evening before is better than at the moment of packing - it gives them time to answer and you time to react.
Do not send it at 03:00 because that is when the warehouse job runs. Quiet hours in the recipient's timezone are worth building before the first night shift, not after - see timezones.
Decide the no-reply rule in advance
| Order value | No reply after | Do |
|---|---|---|
| Low | A few hours | Dispatch anyway |
| Medium | Same evening | One phone call, then dispatch |
| High | Next morning | Hold until confirmed |
The specific thresholds matter less than having them written down. Undecided is the expensive state: the parcel neither moves nor gets cancelled, and it occupies somebody's attention every day until somebody makes a decision anyway.
What the reply gives you beyond confirmation
- An open conversation. The delivery day's "I'm outside" message now has somewhere to land.
- A working number, proven. Worth more than the one in your database.
- Changes, cheaply. An address correction before dispatch costs nothing; after, it costs a failed delivery.
Questions people actually ask
Does WhatsApp confirmation reduce failed COD deliveries?
It reliably reduces them, because the two main causes - a wrong number and a buyer who changed their mind - are both surfaced before the parcel moves.
What if the customer does not reply to the confirmation?
Decide in advance. For low value, send anyway. For high value, hold and try once by phone. What you must not do is leave it undecided, which is how parcels sit for a week.
Njiwa
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