Difficult interview question...

A driver is ready for departing depot and is asking you to authorise them to leave. They are missing 2 parcels one of these is a premium customer that has a before 10.30 delivery. The parcel has been scanned in depot this morning so you know it is here but the driver insists they cannot find it and has to leave or they will get caught in rush hour traffic.

The drive time to their 1st delivery is 45 minutes which will increase if they get stuck in traffic, you also have 8 other drivers who are nearing departure and are all waiting for you.

This driver has done this before and it resulted in you having to take the parcels out yourself adding 2 hours to your day.

Please remember that the parcels are due for delivery today with one before 10.30. What should you do? You do not want to let the customer down as we may lose their future business.

Reply 1

fattyguen

just explain to the customer and take the time out to try and amend this mistake

Reply 2

Zarek

Tricky one under pressure and without full information. Is there any thinking time. My instinct would be to quickly get someone to help look for the parcel and see if it can go out on time. Otherwise let the driver go and contact the customer to let them know of a possible short delay. Oh, and arrange an investigation to understand the cause of the parcel getting mislaid and put in place some actions to prevent it happening again.

Reply 3

Dragon89

Original post by Shinichichim

What did you reply in the end?

DM me

Reply 4

Nick_E92

Original post by Dragon89

DM me

Hi I cannot DM you bud. What was your answer?

Reply 5

the bear

i would contact the customer to apologize for the late delivery & offer them a gift voucher or similar.

Reply 6

NonIndigenous

Original post by Dragon89

The choice is between:
a) letting down 1 'premium customer', and
b) potentially letting down many other 'non-premium customers'

I assume 'non-premium customers' could become 'premium customers' in the future if your relationship with them improves and they have a high enough demand for your services. However, that would be jeopardised if all your other deliveries on the day get delayed, because of this one incident.

I would take option b), and let down the 1 premium customer, inform them of why, and offer some compensation for it. If necessary, take the risk of it adding 2 hours to my day... which would not be a problem for me personally if my employer recognises these kinds of sacrifices (some employers do not give a shet, in which case neither would I, and probably would not want to work there in the first place).
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With problems like this, you have think in terms of something that is called 'opportunity cost', which is a concept in economics that accounts for the potential future value of alternative options available to you, as opposed to just their present value. In other words, there is a potential for your business to build relationships with multiple other customers, but you would have to risk sacrificing one of your premium customers.

It also depends what tolerance your business has for risk. If you really need that premium customer... then you might choose to let the other customers down instead. If your business is suffering cash flow problems, you will probably have a low risk tolerance, because you need the money right now instead of developing stronger relationships with other customers in the future.