Track Shipments: Monitor for Tracking Exceptions
Set up filters and widgets to spot tracking gaps and delayed updates
In This Article
In a perfect world, every shipment would move smoothly from pickup to delivery. In reality, some packages get picked up by the carrier but are never scanned again, with no updates for days. Stalled shipments create uncertainty for both you and your customers. That’s why it’s important to proactively monitor for shipments that are in transit but no longer receiving tracking updates.
In this article, we’ll show you how to use Postsale’s tools to identify these shipments so that you can take appropriate action and maintain a smooth post-purchase experience:
- We'll create a filter to identify shipments that have received no tracking updates in 7 days or more
- We'll add a widget to the Dashboard that shows the number of orders in your new filter
Real-World Example
A few days after shipping an order, a customer reached out, letting us know that their order has not arrived. We tracked the shipment and saw that the last tracking update was from ten days ago, with no movement since. We would like a way to automatically catch shipments that haven’t moved in several days so we can follow up with the carrier and keep our customers in the loop.
Before We Begin
This article assumes you’re already working with shipped orders and that you have some experience using the Postsale Dashboard and creating filters.
Filter Orders In Transit with No Updates
To help identify orders that may be lost, let's make a filter that finds orders that show as In Transit by the carrier, but have had no tracking updates for 7 days or more. Here's how:
Procedure: Select All Orders > Open Advanced Search
- Select All Orders in the Orders Menu.
Selecting All Orders ensures that no criteria have already been added to your search.
- Click the Advanced Search button in the Search Bar.
The Advanced Search pop-up opens.
Show Shipment in Transit
Let's specify that we want to filter orders that show as being In Transit by the carrier:
- Type Label Tracking Status into the Field drop-down and select it from the available options.
- Leave the Operator as Equals. Then, select In Transit from the Value drop-down.
- Click the Add button to add the criterion to the search.
The criterion is added to the search.
No Updates for Seven Days or More
In addition to being In Transit, we want to see shipments that also have had no shipment status updates in a week or more.
- Type Label Latest into the Field drop-down and select Label Latest Tracking Event Date from the drop-down menu.
- Select Is Older Than Days from the Operator drop-down menu.
- Enter 7 as the number of days.
Keep in mind that you can enter any number of days that works for your workflow.
- Click the Add button to add the criterion to the search.
The search criterion is added and your filter should now look like this:
Save Your Filter
- Click Save As.
- (Optional) Click the magnifying glass icon and select an icon for this Filter.
The icon will be displayed next to the Filter in the Orders Menu.
- Enter a name for the filter. Then, click Save.
Your search is saved as a Filter in the Orders Menu. Select the Filter to view any orders that are In Transit, but have had no tracking updates for more than 7 days.
Add a Widget to the Dashboard
Add a widget to the Dashboard so that you can see the total number of orders in your new filter at a glance. This is a quick and easy way to monitor for shipments that may have gotten lost in transit.
Learn more about adding widgets and personalizing your Dashboard.
- Open the Dashboard by clicking Dashboard in the Main Menu.
- Click the gear icon to open the Dashboard Settings.
- Select Add Widget.
- Select the # Orders widget from the list of available widgets.
The new widget is added to the bottom of the Dashboard. You can grab a corner of the widget to resize it or drag and drop the widget to move it.
- Click Save Layout to save your changes.
- Expand the widget options menu in the newly added widget.
- Select Settings (the wrench icon) from the menu to open the widget's available settings.
- Give the widget a Title. This is the title used to identify the widget in the Dashboard.
- Select the filter you created in the previous section from the Filter drop-down menu so that the number of orders meeting the filters search criteria is displayed in the widget.
- Click Save.
The widget is updated and displays the new title and the number of orders in your new filter. You can view widget in the Dashboard at any time to quickly monitor if any orders may be lost in transit.
