Four tracking messages eliminate most 'where is my parcel' enquiries. What to send at each stage, on which channel, and how to avoid turning it into spam.
Key takeaways
- Four messages are enough; more than that reads as spam and drives opt-outs.
- Every message must add information, or it becomes noise.
- A message that enables an action is worth more than one that only informs.
- The channel matters less than the timing, as long as it is a channel the customer reads.
"Where is my parcel" is an enquiry created by absence of information, which makes it almost entirely preventable. Four messages at the right points - dispatched, in transit, arriving today, delivered - remove most of them, provided each one says something new.
The four messages
| Stage | What you say | What it lets the customer do |
|---|---|---|
| Packed and dispatched | Tracking number plus a time range | Know the process started |
| In transit / reached a hub | Location or estimated delivery day | Plan around it |
| Delivering today / courier on the way | A short time window | Change the time or redirect to a point |
| Delivered | Who received it and when | Confirm, or report a problem |
Row three is what actually prevents failed deliveries, and row four is what prevents disputes - especially when it includes the recipient's name, as provided by carriers that publish full proof of delivery.
What not to send
- A message saying "no update" - it creates an enquiry instead of preventing one.
- Every internal carrier status change. Most are meaningless to a customer.
- Duplicate messages from your system and the carrier at the same moment.
- A message at an unreasonable hour - an update at six in the morning is not service.
- A message with no way to respond when something is wrong.
The third is the most common and the easiest to fix: decide who sends what. If the carrier sends an SMS on delivery, you do not need to send another - but you should send yours on dispatch, where they are usually silent.
Which channel?
In Israel, WhatsApp is the channel that gets read. SMS still works and reaches everyone, and email is the channel for records rather than for real-time updates.
What matters to know: a business-initiated WhatsApp message through the official platform requires a pre-approved template, so templates must be prepared before you start rather than on the day you need them. The full implications are covered in WhatsApp inside a CRM.
The practical combination in most stores: WhatsApp for delivery updates, email for the order confirmation and the invoice, and SMS as a fallback for customers without WhatsApp. Whichever you choose, send from one channel per event rather than the same update on two - a customer who receives the identical message twice reads it as a system out of control, not as thoroughness.
How to build it
The foundation is a mapping between the carrier's statuses and yours. Carriers return dozens of internal statuses; you need four. That mapping is the only component requiring real work, and once it is done the rest is timing.
Three decisions to make while building: what happens when a status has not changed for two days (usually one message that explains, rather than silence), what happens when delivery fails (an immediate message with two options), and who receives an internal alert when a parcel is stuck. The internal alert matters as much as the customer-facing ones: a stuck parcel that nobody inside the business sees becomes a complaint rather than a fix.
How to know it is working
Measure two numbers before and after: how many "where is my parcel" enquiries arrived in a month, and first-attempt delivery rate. The first should fall noticeably within a month, and the second should rise slightly - because a customer notified on the delivery day is at home. If neither moves after two months, the messages are probably going out at the wrong time or not arriving at all, and the delivery rate of the messages themselves is worth checking before the wording.
A third metric worth watching is the opt-out rate from your messages. If it rises, you are sending too many or at the wrong time, and the fix is to reduce rather than add.
What to do when something goes wrong
The most important message is the one sent when there is a problem - a delay, a wrong address, a failed delivery. Many businesses go silent at exactly that moment hoping it resolves itself, which is why the customer discovers the problem alone and calls angry.
A message that plainly says what happened, what you are doing, and when they will hear again keeps a customer calm even when the news is bad. It costs one message and saves a conversation, and often a negative review too.
What to write in the message itself
A good tracking message is short and contains four elements: what happened, the order number, the next step, and how to respond if something is wrong. What does not belong in it: a large logo, marketing copy, and a link to the site instead of the information itself.
The common error is sending what is really an advertisement with an update inside it. The customer opens it to find out where their parcel is, and if that is not the first sentence they contact you anyway - and unsubscribe.
What to do when the carrier gives you nothing
Not every carrier supplies frequent statuses, so sometimes there is genuinely nothing to send. In that situation, change the type of message: instead of a location update, send a time-based one - "your order is on its way, expected by Tuesday; if it has not arrived by then, we will chase it".
A time-based message is equivalent to a location update from the customer's point of view, and it requires nothing from the carrier. In stores working with a carrier that passes little information, it is often the only way to provide reasonable service - and exactly what each carrier passes back is worth establishing while choosing them, as covered in choosing a courier for an online store.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
How many messages is too many?
Beyond four or five on an ordinary order, customers start experiencing it as harassment. The simple rule: every message must say something the customer did not already know. A message repeating existing information always subtracts.
What about customers who do not want messages?
You must allow opting out, and it is worth separating delivery updates from marketing mail - most customers want the first and not the second. A blanket opt-out that also cancels delivery updates produces exactly the enquiries you were trying to prevent.
Doesn't the carrier send these anyway?
Some do, so check exactly what they send before adding a layer. The ideal arrangement is a division: they cover delivery, you cover dispatch and anything going wrong - where they are usually silent.
What about an order split across two shipments?
Send an update per shipment and state explicitly that it is one parcel of two. A customer who receives a parcel, finds an item missing, and does not know another shipment is on the way is a near-certain enquiry.
Keep reading
Related service
WhatsApp Cloud API
Templates, a two-way inbox and reminders on the official Meta API.
About the author
Yehonatan Saadia
Freelance automation, web & MVP developer
I'm Yehonatan Saadia, a senior developer who builds business automation, custom websites, and MVPs for small and mid-sized companies across the US, Europe, and Israel. These guides come from real client work, not theory.
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