30: Exploring Veho: Redefining how Technology is Transforming the CX

Hank Emerson: 00:00:00

But it's really educating the brands and the shippers out there. Like, hey, the delivery experience is a core component to how you retain your very expensive and important customer.

Intro: 00:00:08

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Nick Agnetti: 00:00:27

USA hey everybody, welcome back to Outside the Box with Asendia USA podcast. I am one of your co hosts, Nick Agnetti.

Jason Rowland: 00:00:33

And I am Jason Rowland, the other co host. Excellent. Welcome back.

Hank Emerson: 00:00:36

And we have.

Jason Rowland: 00:00:37

Welcome back.

Nick Agnetti: 00:00:37

Yeah, we have got Hank Emerson here, head of strategic partnerships at Veho. Hank, can you take a minute to introduce yourself? Veho, talk a little bit about what BIHO is, give everybody some updates.

Hank Emerson: 00:00:49

Yeah, happily. And also, first of all, thank you, Nick and Jason and the rest of the Asendia team for inviting me. Super excited to be here.

Like Nick said, my name is Hank Emerson. I'm head of strategic strategic partnerships here at Veho. Veho is really a elevated last mile carrier.

Nick Agnetti: 00:01:03

Okay.

Hank Emerson: 00:01:03

And so what we specialize in is, you know, ensuring that the delivery experience is on par with the products that their customers are receiving. So what we want to do is ensure that you feel like you have, you know, some type of power over your delivery experience.

So this is instruction, handling, photo proof of delivery, geofencing. So we always know where the package is within our network. So chain of custody. Also proof of address, easy access for gate code, door code.

We want to make sure that you feel like a. I'm in, totally know where my package is, when it's about to receive. When I'm about to receive it.

Jason Rowland: 00:01:37

Yeah.

Hank Emerson: 00:01:37

But also flexibility and giving me instruction on how you want to receive that back.

Nick Agnetti: 00:01:42

Interesting. So, okay, is Veho an asset based carrier?

Hank Emerson: 00:01:48

Great question. No, we are not. We do leverage the independent contractor model.

Nick Agnetti: 00:01:51

Okay.

Hank Emerson: 00:01:52

And all that is powered through technology. So about 40% of our headcount is product engineering, data science, and that goes into technology powering our warehouses and our operation.

So each time we get more efficient on the operation. That means that our cost to market can get better. And also the delivery experience. And the SLA also increases.

Another portion of the technology is around the consumer experience. So it's building things like we have perfect placement.

So Jason, if you're about to receive a package, you can actually take a picture of where you want that package.

And then our driver goes to our driver app and our drivers know exactly where to place it and then prove to you that we did it with our photo proof delivery.

Jason Rowland: 00:02:32

Wow, that's cool.

Nick Agnetti: 00:02:33

I mean that's, that's very impressive.

Jason Rowland: 00:02:36

So is it is. I guess from a logistics standpoint, we're talking about a company that makes the final mile portion of the sequence easier.

So this is end user, ease of use things that we're talking about.

So when it comes to end users, they're one of the things I think that they find difficult is logging on to a place, having that loyalty to go back again and again and having that brand loyalty. How does that work for you guys in terms of E commerce?

Because if they can't select you Veo as an option going forward, how does that impact your business and how are you able to get consistency?

Hank Emerson: 00:03:12

Yeah, so it's on know myself and the rest of the revenue organization at Veho to go and talk to these shippers and continue to educate them on how important the delivery experience is with respect to their customer retention and acquisition and reduction of churn. So yes, you, you're right.

Veho is not yet a dropdown selection to be like, I definitely want my package to go through Veho, we, we have aspirations for that to be at some point an option. But it's really educating the, the brands and the shippers out there.

Like, hey, the delivery experience is a core component to how you retain your very expensive and important customer.

Because the product may be great, but if I don't get that on time or it's damaged or it's lost, that actually is going to be a ding on the brand itself.

Jason Rowland: 00:03:58

Sure.

Hank Emerson: 00:03:59

Yeah. So it plays a huge part of our value proposition market.

Nick Agnetti: 00:04:03

Your tech load must be significant working with these other final mile partners to do what you talked about with the perfect placement and some of the other stuff. I mean, and you said what 40% of your headcount is.

Hank Emerson: 00:04:18

Product engineering. Data science is a core component.

Nick Agnetti: 00:04:20

Data science. We've talked all day about AI over here. So you know how that goes. Okay, so let's talk about domestic delivery experience and expectations.

So kind of a phrase that has been going around the last few years is the Amazon effect. Right. You know, so what do you, you know, I want you to touch on that. What is the Amazon effect for the viewers and listeners?

But then also what do you see, you know, in terms of that impact on customers delivery expectations?

Hank Emerson: 00:04:50

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. It's no doubt that the Amazon effect is really, you know, they're kind of Pulling the market to the set of expectations.

So we all shop on Amazon, I'm sure, or most of us do. So we know it gets there fast, we know that gets there reliably. And we also have, you know, there could be delivery windows.

So what Veho is trying to do or is doing is basically trying to mirror that experience for brands that don't sell on Amazon.

Nick Agnetti: 00:05:17

Okay, all right, great.

Jason Rowland: 00:05:19

So a lot of that is customer experience. Right? So this is really the crux of what we're trying to get down to there.

So how much does that final delivery, customer satisfaction play a role in that customer retention and that returns process? How much?

Hank Emerson: 00:05:34

Yeah, we can see, I mean we've seen repurchase rates of over 41% in some cohorts when we've done a study of using a, their legacy carrier in a market, splitting it in half and then using Veho and then did what are the repurchase rates? So we've seen a 41% increase in a particular case study in that exact example. Also this core concept around net promoter score.

So how does the end customer view the brand with respect to delivery experience? So we did a very similar study and we saw the increase of 8 points in the NPS score when using a vhub delivery.

So just think about all the forward communications around delivery, giving some type of optionality. If you want to know where every package is during that stage of the life cycle delivery, great, you have that option.

If you don't, you can opt out of it, that's fine. It's up to you. You have the power to be informed of how often you want to be about your own delivery.

So that is really what we're bringing to market and it has huge impact on purchase rates, nps, so how the customer views the brand. But also let's not forget about every single time that we get the initial delivery. Correct.

That is a major reduction of where my package calls into call center, you know, refunds damage claims. If we eradicate that, that starts to be really actually bottom line savings to the business. Not just in the, in the reduction of per parcel price.

Nick Agnetti: 00:06:48

Those are hard costs.

Hank Emerson: 00:06:49

These are hard costs in their material.

Nick Agnetti: 00:06:52

All right, so Hank, talk to us a little bit about what separates Veho from others in the market that maybe are similarly modeled to you. And then what would be an ideal ICP for Veho? You know what's a great client for Veho?

Hank Emerson: 00:07:06

I think that the technology stack that we built bar and on is I think just some of the most impressive technology both on the operation side, maybe you don't see them as the end consumer, but it really helps drive our service level.

Jason Rowland: 00:07:17

So.

Hank Emerson: 00:07:18

So each again, I'll talk about it. You know, investing in that area to ensure that we get that first delivery correct on a 99% successful rate. That's really paramount. But there's also.

We care deeply around partnering with our shippers being transparent. You get a care team. Like, it's not just like, you know, packages come into our network and maybe we'll talk to you every once in a while.

No, we take a very partnership approach, saying, okay, shipper, how can we work together to ensure that your customer is getting a product they love in a delivery experience that they love? So that's a very. I think that's also quite unique. There's a lot of pressure out there on pricing.

You know, race to the bottom, and you hear about these really super cheap rates. We are cost competitive because we run a sharp operation, but we're not gonna race to the bottom.

We do deliver real value in the marketplace, and we do that with high customer, you know, experience on time rates. And then also we think there's value there. So we're just not gonna do this race at the bottom.

We're gonna keep our core competency and we're gonna work together on ensuring the customer has a great living space.

Nick Agnetti: 00:08:18

Excellent. Not only do you think there's value there, but obviously there's shippers out there that see the value in it too.

Hank Emerson: 00:08:24

Absolutely.

Nick Agnetti: 00:08:25

Otherwise you wouldn't be here.

Hank Emerson: 00:08:26

And we grew the business last year 100%. And it's not like we were not moving volume last year or the year before. So we grew the business 100%. But this is done in a disciplined manner.

We're not going to go out there and just spend a bunch of money willy nilly. I mean, this is done a partnership. Our shippers, do they want us to go to this next market? How can we stand it up efficiently?

How can we make sure the team's in place to make sure that that market is successful day one of launch? So we do this with discipline. We do it with customer focus in mind. And then also making sure that the shippers have a seat at our table.

You know, we listen to them. If they tell, Veho, we want you to go to San Diego, great. You know, what does that look like? Who else wants us to go to San Diego?

And then we all kind of work together to make sure that we hit that timeline in a manner to which is beneficial to them.

Nick Agnetti: 00:09:10

You mentioned Standing up facilities or entering new markets not being asset based? Yes, I think just piquing my own interest. What does that mean when you say you're launching a new market?

Hank Emerson: 00:09:19

Yeah, so it depends on the model. Sometimes we do have long term leases in markets within facilities and then sometimes we do leverage the three PL partnerships as well.

Nick Agnetti: 00:09:28

Okay.

Hank Emerson: 00:09:28

So that gives us flexibility. There are partners that we work with that we trust. We know that we can stand up a site, we can deploy our technology.

We've got workers, we always have a site lead that's a BHO employee. I mean there's, there's aspects to us that we can be nimble to do this to make sure that our service is not degraded at all. That is just.

We are not going to do it if we start, you know, coming close to risking our service level.

Nick Agnetti: 00:09:49

So an advanced tech stack, customer care stack and then you're cross docking the material, your client material to then be handed off to a final mile vendor.

Hank Emerson: 00:09:57

Yeah, the crosstalk is it's, it doesn't come pre sort so it comes in. We do have sort automation in some facilities. Know we've got a sort motion that happens but then you're right.

Then it goes out to our last mile stations from a hub. Yeah, that's right.

Nick Agnetti: 00:10:10

Okay.

Jason Rowland: 00:10:10

Yeah.

So, so so much of of my world right from the regulatory compliance and the legal side revolves around protection of data and privacy and that kind of thing.

So I imagine when you have final mile recipients who are taking pictures of their front door, pictures of their back door and uploading it into view and saying hey, I want that, you know, I have my back door. What, what kind of things do you guys hurdles do you have to in terms of your data protection and that kind of thing.

Are there any hurdles you guys have to jump through for that?

Hank Emerson: 00:10:34

It's a great question. Ye privacy addendums. We work with each of our shippers to understand and we are very, very take security extremely seriously.

So we've got a data security team making sure that all of our certs are in order. And then we have data privacy addendum. Sometimes that we need to look at the shipper's data privacy addendum.

We follow the absolute legal law, you know, guidelines but we also work with the shippers to ensure that we're trying to do whatever they want as well. Compliance and security is another thing that we're just not flexible.

Jason Rowland: 00:11:05

Great. So people feel comfortable using.

Nick Agnetti: 00:11:06

I wish Jason was a little more flexible in the compliance and security aspect of our business. But yeah, pretty Rigid with the redlining, but okay, so. So we're gonna, we're gonna land this plane here.

Hank Emerson: 00:11:17

Okay.

Nick Agnetti: 00:11:17

So, okay,: 2025

Hank Emerson: 00:11:26

There's so much. What a time to be in our market. I mean, I never really thought that I would say that. You know, I like it. It's the parcel.

Intro: 00:11:31

I.

Hank Emerson: 00:11:32

think it's going to happen in: 2026

I think the customer experience and what they're going to drive for the carriers and also the other different partners in the ecosystem, like platforms and the like, they want more information and flexibility. Like, we just rolled out Flex Save. This is giving a delivery window. So it's not necessarily day specific.

You do have a service that says you inject our facility on a Monday, some of those packages will deliver Tuesday. That's great. That's day specific.

Then there's a deferred option where there is, okay, we're not to exceed five days delivery, but you may, it may be the second, it may be the fifth. Well, now we want to offer the brands a delivery window. So like, do you want that to be three days? Do you want that to be two days?

And then now gives the customer some flexibility and the brand some flexibility on when they ship out that package, how it hits our network. Can we still meet that customer experience and promise? So I think that's one thing.

I also think that, like this whole concept of lockers, like we just saw FedEx buy in post for $9.5 billion. Is it going to change the consumer behavior where people will actually go and utilize lockers more often? I think so. That's an interesting thing.

g to be a lot that happens in: 2026

And I think the core is like, if you just do right by the customer, they're really going to guide you into some pretty interesting and innovative solutions.

Nick Agnetti: 00:13:00

I love it. So, two things. One, I do want to just because for listeners and viewers, go back to the icp, like, what is an ideal customer profile for Veho?

Hank Emerson: 00:13:10

Yeah, so we primarily service E commerce shippers and brands.

So someone that is E commerce oriented and then also someone that cares about the delivery experience, someone that really thinks about delivery not just as a cost item, but says no, there's value here and there's also this relationship with our customers through the delivery experience that's important to us. We are a perfect partner.

Nick Agnetti: 00:13:32

And what about more metric based, you know, segmentation? So do you have like small shippers, medium shippers, large? Are you only working with enterprise level businesses?

Hank Emerson: 00:13:41

It's a great question. So no, we work the gamut. And that's, and that's kind of new for us. Primarily we were with enterprise large shippers that could fill a truck.

We have now grown our capabilities.

My, like the way that I think about it is no matter the size or how many packages you move in a week, you deserve, your customers deserve a Veho delivery. So small, medium side businesses, we are making a huge push into offering our services to that market.

Healthcare, you know, prescription drugs are important. They're sensitive, they're timely. We, we are a perfect partner for that and we can do it. Yeah.

Jason Rowland: 00:14:15

h you nothing but the best in: 2026

So it's a topic that Nick and I haven't really gotten into before.

Hank Emerson: 00:14:25

No.

Jason Rowland: 00:14:25

So it's great that there's companies like you out there that are, that are taking care of a problem like that. It's great.

Nick Agnetti: 00:14:30

And Nick, if there's anything you want to tell our millions of viewers, please go ahead and do it now.

Hank Emerson: 00:14:34

Just that I had a super fun time.

Nick Agnetti: 00:14:36

Okay.

Hank Emerson: 00:14:36

I think the world of Asendia and your team. So thank you for, thank you for that.

Nick Agnetti: 00:14:39

Awesome. Thanks for being on.

Jason Rowland: 00:14:40

Thank you.

Outro: 00:14:40

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