McConnell's Fine Ice Creams Scoops Up Success with Self-Service Order Editing
During their busiest summer season, premium ice cream maker McConnell's Fine Ice Creams was losing both money and valuable time to a surprisingly simple problem: address changes. With every missed address update costing them 100% of the order value in reshipment fees for their perishable products, they knew they needed a better solution. The company, known for its artisanal frozen treats sold nationwide through their website, nine scoop shops, and major retailers like Whole Foods and Sprouts, was managing support tickets that required complex manual workarounds. After implementing Cleverific's Customer Portal for self-service order editing in March, they discovered the sweet spot between operational efficiency and exceptional customer experience. This positioned them perfectly for their phenomenally successful National Ice Cream Day sale.
Sarah Rose, Marketing Director at McConnell's, recalls the frustration of their previous process. "We were getting multiple emails and calls about people wanting to change their address after checkout," she explains. The problem was particularly acute because of how their Shopify store integrated with their third-party logistics provider. When customers needed to update shipping information after an order had been placed, the McConnell's team faced a multi-step process: editing the address in Shopify for customer visibility, emailing their 3PL customer service representative to change it on their end, then waiting for confirmation from the 3PL team that the change was complete. With their 3PL based in Wisconsin operating on Central Time, a simple address change could stretch across multiple business days if the request came in late afternoon.
McConnell's was fielding three to five address change emails daily, with Mondays through Wednesdays being especially busy as weekend orders came in. For a lean team at a growing ice cream company, every hour spent on manual address changes meant less time for the work that actually grows the business.
The unique challenge of CPG frozen products
The stakes were particularly high for McConnell's because, unlike typical ecommerce products, ice cream shipments cannot be returned and reshipped. As a CPG company dealing with perishable frozen goods, every shipping error has significant consequences. "If we didn't catch that address change in time and the order would ship out, then the customer would be upset, and we would end up reshipping that order to them and losing out on that sale," Sarah notes.
With an average order value of $62 and shipping costs for frozen goods already cutting into margins, every missed address change meant writing off the entire order value. This includes both product cost and shipping. For CPG brands shipping perishable goods, these aren't just returns that can be restocked; they're complete losses. McConnell's was essentially paying double. They paid once for the original shipment that couldn't be recovered, and again for the replacement order.
“Giving customers the power to make changes to their order is crucial. It’s not just about reducing our workload – it’s about creating the kind of experience that builds brand loyalty.”
Sarah had tried multiple solutions before finding Cleverific. She implemented AddressGuard to validate addresses, removed all autofill settings on their website, and tried various workarounds. "We tried to solve it many times, many ways," she explains. But the root problem persisted – most address errors were happening on the customer's end through Apple Pay, Shop Pay, or browser autofill features that McConnell's couldn't control. The AddressGuard app "made a little bit of a difference, but Cleverific is definitely the option that has had the most impact, like noticeable impact."
Sweet relief with self-service solutions
When Sarah discovered Cleverific's Customer Portal, the implementation was remarkably smooth, taking just minutes to set up without any coding required. Laura from Cleverific's team helped configure the system to work seamlessly with McConnell's unique requirements, including their complex 3PL integration.
The solution was elegantly simple: customers now have a 15-minute window after checkout to make changes themselves through self-service order editing. They receive a link in their order confirmation email or can access the self-service editing interface directly from their order status page, allowing them to make changes after an order has been placed. No phone calls, no emails, no waiting for business hours, just instant problem resolution where customers edit their own orders.
The results were immediate and impressive. While Sarah hasn't calculated exact figures, she estimates that address change requests dropped by at least 65%, even during their busy summer season when order volumes spike. What previously took anywhere from one to three hours to resolve each change request, especially when dealing with time zone differences with their 3PL, now required zero intervention from the McConnell's team.
“The impact goes beyond metrics. When customers can instantly fix their own mistakes without waiting for business hours or explaining the problem to support, that frustration just disappears.”
Beyond time savings: The customer experience dividend
By empowering customers to fix their own mistakes immediately, McConnell's has eliminated a major friction point. The feature has become especially valuable for addressing the common issue of payment processors like Apple Pay defaulting to billing addresses instead of intended shipping addresses. This was a problem that had plagued their customers despite McConnell's best efforts to prevent it.
The financial impact extends beyond just time savings. By catching address changes within the 15-minute window, McConnell's has significantly reduced the number of orders they need to reship at their own expense. Each saved reshipment preserves the full $62 order value that would have been completely unrecoverable. This is a critical improvement for a CPG business where perishable products mean zero salvage value on shipping errors. Unlike apparel or electronics retailers who can restock returned items, every McConnell's shipping mistake means a total loss.
Looking ahead: Expanding self-service capabilities
The success with Customer Portal has McConnell's working with Cleverific to implement additional features, including upselling capabilities that maintain their four-pint minimum order requirement while offering customers the ability to add discounted items to their orders.
"I would definitely recommend it," Sarah affirms. "The fact that Cleverific's tool empowers customers to be able to do those things is huge."
For McConnell's Fine Ice Creams, Cleverific's Customer Portal has proven that empowering customers with self-service order editing doesn't mean sacrificing quality or personal touch. Instead, it means freeing up resources to focus on what matters most: crafting exceptional ice cream and building lasting customer relationships. With plans to expand further into Orange County and San Diego, the ability to let customers instantly fix their own order issues has become crucial. It's how they maintain the high-touch experience their customers expect, whether they're ordering online at midnight or visiting a scoop shop on a sunny afternoon.
Self-service order editing saves CPG brands thousands. Avoid reshipment costs on perishable orders.
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