WISMO · Where Is My Order
What is WISMO and why does it stay your biggest category?
WISMO is the question of where the order is. It's rarely a location question and nearly always a certainty question, and that difference determines what you can do about it.
In short
WISMO stands for Where Is My Order and is the collective term for customer questions about the status of an open order: where the parcel is, when it arrives and why it's taking longer than expected. At many webshops it's one of the largest ticket categories, and it's the category most strongly tied to what's on your own site and in your confirmation email.
What the customer is actually asking
Nearly every WISMO question comes from someone who has already seen the tracking link. They know where the parcel is; they don't know what that means. A status like "at sorting centre" or "shipment registered" doesn't answer the question someone is asking.
The question splits into three parts, and a good answer covers all three. Where is it, when will it be there, and what happens if that turns out wrong. Answer only the first and the second arrives a day later anyway.
- Location
- Where the parcel is now. This is usually already in the tracking link and is the part the customer already has.
- Expectation
- When it arrives, as a date and not a status. This is the part carrier statuses rarely give.
- What they can do
- What the customer can do if it's wrong: wait, contact you, or arrange something at the pickup point themselves. Without this it stays a notification.
Why a tracking link still produces tickets
The link sends the customer to the carrier, and the carrier writes for itself. "Shipment registered" means at most carriers that the label was created and the parcel is still in your warehouse. To a customer that reads as in transit, and three days later that's an angry message.
So translate the carrier status into your own words before showing it. Don't pass on the status code, but say what it means for this customer and what day to expect.
When do you message proactively, and when is that noise?
Proactive messaging is the most-cited remedy for WISMO and the most often misapplied. A message at every carrier scan isn't service. It teaches the customer your messages mean nothing, and then they also don't read the one that matters.
Message at the moments the expectation changes. A delay against the promised day, a failed delivery, a parcel diverted to a pickup point. Those are the three moments a customer otherwise contacts you themselves.
Where you actually reduce WISMO
The category originates before the parcel leaves. A delivery time stated differently on the product page than in the checkout, a confirmation email without an expected delivery day, a shipping page saying only that you deliver within 1 to 5 working days: each of those three makes the customer do sums, and someone doing sums eventually asks.
The cheapest intervention is nearly always a concrete day in the confirmation email instead of a range. A customer who reads "Thursday" asks nothing until Thursday. A customer who reads "1 to 5 working days" asks on day two.
Where it goes wrong
Repeating the tracking link as an answer
The customer already has that link. Sending it again reads as not having read their message, and the conversation continues with a second message angrier than the first.
Passing on carrier statuses verbatim
"Shipment registered" and "in transit" are the carrier's internal terms. Translate them into a day and an expectation, otherwise you only relocate the confusion.
Messaging at every scan
That's not service but notification noise, and it costs you the attention you need at the moment something does go wrong.
Treating WISMO as a customer service problem
The category originates in your checkout, your confirmation email and your warehouse. Answering faster changes nothing about how often the question is asked.
Reducing WISMO in four steps
Count which day after ordering the questions arrive
If the peak is on day two, your promised delivery time is unclear. If it's on the promised day itself, your logistics don't match your promise.
Put a concrete day in your confirmation email
Not a range of working days. A day the customer can expect something, even if you set that day generously.
Translate the carrier status into your own words
On your order status page and in your replies. "Ready with us, going out tonight" is an answer; "registered" is a code.
Message only when the expectation changes
Delay, failed delivery, diversion to a pickup point. Nothing else.
What to do this week
Take last month's WISMO questions and note for each how many days after the order they arrived. That distribution points at the cause without further searching. A peak before the promised day means your promise is unclear; a peak after means you're not meeting it. Those are two different problems with two different owners.
What this looks like in a system
In Cuego, on a WISMO question the agent pulls the order and the current carrier status, and answers with the expected day instead of the status code. If it detects a delay against the promise, that's flagged before the customer asks. In the analytics you see WISMO as its own category with days-since-order attached, so you can tell whether your promise or your execution is the problem.
Where is my orderRelated terms
Self-service
Self-service is letting the customer arrange themselves what would otherwise be a conversation. It only works when it takes less effort than firing off an email.
Read onCustomer data
Customer data is everything you know about a customer. During a conversation only a small part of it counts, and that part has to be there within a second.
Read onContact ratio
Contact ratio is the number of customer questions per order. It's the only number you can't improve by working faster.
Read on