Enable self-service order tracking and proactive updates
Authors:
Michael Wholohan, Holger Lierse
Changed on:
14 Nov 2025
Problem
The lack of accessible, real-time order status information forces customers to contact support for basic tracking updates, making WISMO (Where Is My Order) inquiries the highest volume driver of customer service contacts.
Without self-service tracking capabilities and proactive communication, retailers face unnecessary support costs, longer wait times, and frustrated customers. This preventable contact volume diverts service resources from higher-value customer interactions.
Example
A specialty apparel retailer's customer service team reported that over 60% of inbound contacts were WISMO inquiries. Customers had no self-service way to check order status beyond generic emails like "your order has shipped." The service team had to manually look up orders across multiple systems to provide updates, with average handle times of 8-10 minutes per inquiry. During peak holiday periods, wait times exceeded 45 minutes as the team was overwhelmed with preventable tracking questions that could have been answered through self-service tools.
Solution Overview
Fluent Order Management acts as the Single Source of Truth for all order and tracking data, enabling retailers to drastically reduce WISMO inquiries by providing customers with proactive, real-time updates and accessible self-service tools.
Fluent achieves this by acting as the unification layer for all data related to real-time order status, fulfilment milestones, and carrier tracking information. This centralised data can then be securely exposed by the Fluent Order Management MCP Server, which acts as the essential message orchestration layer and data bridge. The MCP Server is specifically designed to power external customer-facing systems, including the tracking portal and, critically, AI agents for automated customer service order inquiries, providing a reliable and secure bridge to the core order data. This secure exposure empowers customers and autonomous agents to find answers to their own WISMO questions 24/7 without the need for human intervention.
Complementing this is the use of Configurable Proactive Notifications, where retailers define rules within Fluent to automatically trigger updates via email or SMS based on key order milestones. Finally, the Fluent OMS and Store web applications provide customer service and store teams with a Unified View of the information, ensuring that when human contact is necessary, agents can handle complex issues efficiently.
By implementing Fluent OMS for self-service tracking and proactive updates, retailers can achieve significant operational gains:
- Massive Cost Reduction: The volume of WISMO calls is drastically reduced, as the MCP Server empowers customers and AI agents to access real-time order data autonomously, lowering support overhead.
- Improved Service Efficiency: Service agents are freed up from handling routine tracking inquiries to focus on high-value, complex issues, dramatically improving response times and increasing agent productivity.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Customers feel informed, in control, and receive timely updates directly, whether through a self-service portal or via an AI agent, building long-term loyalty and satisfaction.
