Try ordering something online and have it delivered to your home address. I dare you to. At least in Australia.

You’ll be confronted by one of the most common zero moments of uncertainty – “when will my package arrive, how will I possibly take delivery of it”.

It’s likely you’ll might not benefit from the convenience of home delivery in Australia. Instead, after a series of frustrating notifications you’ll be forced to drive to a pick-up center, or worse, a Post Office. This only gets worse as more and more businesses shut down the opportunity for the employee to have products delivered at work (they’ve got a point as small delivery bays designed for mail get filled with boxes packed with everything from undies to wine and surfboards.

The very name the companies serving us go by underscores the basic problem we all face – they are logistics companies. Or something like that. They serve the sender not the receiver even though it is us paying for their services (for the most part). I doubt many of them have ever looked at the challenge of delivery through the lens of the receiver. And the company doing the sending lets their focus slide once the package leaves their despatch bay.

So, rather than randomly appearing on our doorstep only to be confronted by an absent recipient shippers could solve this most basic issue using, dare I say it, email. Or an app. Even a text message. This is a simple service design gap – an assumption on their part and source of uncertainty and dissatisfaction on ours.

Simply put, ask us if we are home electronically, invite us to select a time for delivery, or, even change the delivery address. eCommerce will grow. More satisfied and trusting customers will result. And massive fuel and labor savings for carriers will abound. So simple.

All they need to do is embrace service design and the need to satisfy my customer’s customer.