Lost Shipment Handling SOP
Lost shipments are high-emotion incidents that can quickly become churn. This SOP helps teams resolve quickly, preserve trust, and control replacement and claims cost.
Where merchants get exposed
- Proof-of-delivery verification is inconsistent, delaying resolution and enabling fraud.
- Replacement and refund decisions vary by agent without a shared decision matrix.
- Carrier claim opportunities are missed due to poor documentation and late filing.
Implementation checklist
- Confirm delivery status using carrier scan history and photo proof.
- Run customer-side verification steps before escalating to carrier.
- Escalate to carrier with a complete, standardised evidence packet.
- Apply replace/refund decision matrix based on order value and delay threshold.
- Provide proactive timeline updates to the customer until case closure.
- Track carrier loss rates by lane and packaging type for prevention insights.
- Feed trend findings into carrier selection and packaging strategy reviews.
KPI scorecard to track
- • Lost shipment incident rate
- • Resolution lead time
- • Replacement and refund cost per incident
- • Carrier claim recovery rate
- • Post-resolution CSAT
5-day execution sprint
- Day 1: Publish verification checklist and replace/refund decision matrix.
- Day 2: Deploy proactive customer communication templates.
- Day 3: Standardise the carrier claim submission packet.
- Day 4: Add incident and outcome tracking to the ops dashboard.
- Day 5: Review the first loss cohort and tune the resolution policy.