Lessons From H&M, RH, & Wayfair About Empowering Customer-Facing Teams

Last month, multiple sessions at Home Delivery World USA revealed a clear message: the people delivering your service define your brand.

Whether in your fleet or a partner’s uniform, frontline teams shape customer perceptions daily. As Dhruv Ravishankar, Senior Manager of Global Transportation & Delivery for Wayfair, put it:

“Every failed first delivery is a failure on cost, experience, and brand trust.”

Executing the delivery isn’t the full job. Frontline teams must understand the weight of the moment. To the customer, that delivery or interaction is the brand. If your internal or outsourced delivery teams don’t grasp that, you leave the customer experience to chance.

Delivery Teams Represent Your Brand. Do They Know It?

Matthew Smith, Senior Director of Home Delivery for Restoration Hardware, drives consistent standards across regions. During Home Delivery World, he explained that technology should reduce complexity so leaders can focus on what sets the brand apart, like a spotless liftgate or a professional appearance.

But here’s the gap: Do the delivery people see themselves as the face of the brand?

If delivery teams don’t understand why details like presentation, tone, and follow-through matter to the customer and how those moments reinforce the brand, even the best SOPs will fall flat. Execution will become mechanical, and the experience will start to break down.

Outsourced Or In-House — The Customer Still Blames You

Customers don’t care who employs the driver. They remember the experience. Whether it’s your team or a third-party partner, the outcome reflects on your brand, and your operations team is still on the hook for consistency.

That’s why metrics only matter if they align with the customer's feelings, because that’s what defines success. Or, as Eric Price, Senior Director of Transportation & Delivery for MillerKnoll, put it:

“A perfect order isn’t 95% on 12 metrics. It’s 100% on the one that matters to the customer.”

Consistency at that level requires deliberate effort:

• RH trains every location to the same standard, even if they’re not yet fulfilling deliveries, to eliminate regional variability.
• Sundays equips its outsourced partners with playbooks and live support to protect service quality.
• Wayfair uses AI to coach drivers and manage real-time issues, keeping delivery standards intact across a distributed network.

The method varies, but the principle is the same: the customer sees one brand. Your systems and partners need to align with your standards and level of care, regardless of who’s on the ground.

Empowering Customer-Facing Teams Requires More Than Technical Skills

Most organizations train frontline teams on mechanics, such as scanning, lifting, assembling, or routing. But technical skills aren't enough when your brand depends on the person in the truck.

Customer-facing teams also need what many call power skills, including judgment, time management, communication, and empathy. These skills help delivery professionals manage tense conversations, handle delays professionally, and make customers feel seen instead of just serviced.

At Home Delivery World, attendees learned that Canada Goose understands the importance of combining operational precision with human-centered delivery. Their logistics leaders emphasize upstream forecasting and use data to get the right product to the right store. But they’re just as focused on what happens at the moment of delivery. Whether it’s a same-day courier in a tourism district or a scheduled handoff at a flagship location, the expectation is a frictionless, brand-right experience.

Without power skills, even a technically perfect delivery can miss the mark. The task gets done, but the interaction might feel cold or stressful. And when customer expectations are high, that kind of miss erodes trust quickly.

Conversely, teams with strong communication, time management, and empathy consistently outperform on metrics like CSAT and first-attempt delivery success. When they understand why those numbers matter, accountability follows.

Consistency Requires Frontline Teams That Understand The Stakes

As Jim Clark of Clarks White Glove Delivery said during the conference, “It’s easy to be good in one location. It’s hard to be good in every location.”

CSAT Isn’t Just A Score For Operations Leaders. It’s A Signal.

When CSAT drops, you feel it in customer complaints, missed delivery windows, turnover, and eroding trust. The challenge can’t be focused solely on setting expectations. Top ops leaders build teams to meet those expectations across every region, shift, and partner relationship.

Your Delivery Team Is The Face Of Your Brand… And They Better Know It

That’s why leading ops teams are investing in training that helps frontline employees understand the business, see the customer’s perspective, and handle challenges on the fly. And they’re making that shift without disrupting daily workflows or service levels.

It’s time to get your delivery team thinking like brand ambassadors, not just completing tasks.