Introduction

As Utah’s beloved pro basketball team, the Utah Jazz benefits from a passionate fan base. Courtside, it’s easy to feel connected to the team and the players. Delivering that same connection in an online store takes a whole lot more effort, but it’s an ideal that the Utah Jazz ecommerce team is committed to achieve.

With an attractive online store and exclusive gear, the Utah Jazz consistently delivered a seamless shopping experience. But when packages left the warehouse, both the team and the customer lost visibility into the status of an order.

Lack of transparency frustrates customers and slows down the team.

When customers wanted an update on their order, they’d often reach out to customer support to get an update. “We had to tell customers that we have no info about their orders aside from that we dropped off the package at USPS and to please check their tracking number,” says Parker Bushnell, Director of Purchasing and Analytics. It took a lot of time to keep customers in the loop. The team was often exchanging four or five emails with each customer and spending upwards of 30 hours per week answering customer inquiries about order status.

When orders got lost, stolen, or damaged, the team had to point customers to the carrier for a resolution. But handing off customers to the carrier left both customers and the team feeling frustrated.

Dropping the ball after customers make a purchase just wasn’t an option. “We hold ourselves to a high bar because we’re constantly competing against world-class ecommerce retailers like Amazon that have taught customers to expect a top-notch experience,” Bushnell explains.

What the team really needed was an easy way to give customers full transparency and solve issue quickly and easily without overloading their team. It seemed like an insurmountable problem.

The Utah Jazz changes the game with package protection and tracking.

When the Utah Jazz ecommerce team heard how Route could help them provide full customer transparency and a quick and seamless issue resolution process, they jumped at the opportunity. With Route Track and Protect, they’ve been able to give customers unprecedented transparency on their orders even after they leave the warehouse. With package protection, customers have peace of mind that if something goes wrong, they’re covered. Plus, customers love how quickly they can resolve issues when something goes wrong.

Since package protection is so easy to use, and only costs a few cents per order, it’s a very popular product. “Based on total units generated, Route is the #1 item that we sell, and the customer experience has been exceptional since we launched with Route. Because we can help our customers know where their packages are eight steps away and protect their orders, we’ve been able to break into the upper echelon of outstanding customer experiences,” says Bushnell.

In addition to providing customers with an outstanding experience, customer support tickets have decreased by about 75%, saving the team 10-20 hours per week on customer support, or about $20k in additional labor. With package tracking that proactively resolves customer questions about order status, and a streamlined process for issue resolution, they’ve been able to trim customer support conversations from four or five emails down to one or zero back-and-forth communications.

“It has been game-changing to give customers reassurance about their package at any moment — and to help give them confidence that the gear is going to be there for Timmy’s birthday. That feeling of relief is really impactful for the customer experience.”

Instead of trying to keep customers in the loop about the status of their orders, the team can now focus on improving processes, pick locations, and quality assurance.

"Route is going to make your life so much easier!"

To other merchants who are considering Route, Bushnell’s advice is: “Just do it! Route is going to make your life so much easier — the customer experience is outstanding and there’s no effort on my end. The ease of access and the stellar customer experience have been so beneficial. Bottom line, we can’t see ourselves doing business without Route moving forward.”