A confirmation agent spends the day deciding, one call after another, which orders turn into parcels. The way you pay that person decides what they will try to maximise. Pay for every “yes” and you will get plenty of them; pay for every parcel the customer actually pays for at the door and you will get orders that hold. This guide walks through the pay structures COD sellers use, explains why a commission on confirmations alone tends to push refusals up, lists the indicators worth tracking for each agent, sets out a way to review call quality and summarises the legal frame for agents employed in Morocco.
Why the pay plan shows up in your delivery rate
In cash on delivery, revenue exists only once the customer hands money to the courier. Everything before that is cost: the ad that brought the order, the call, the packing, the shipping. An e-commerce expert quoted by Le Matin puts refusal at delivery between 20 and 40% for merchants, along with stock tied up and logistics costs paid twice. Each refused parcel has already consumed the outbound trip and usually pays for the return as well.
The confirmation agent is the last filter before that money is spent. A solid order should leave the warehouse; a doubtful one should be fixed, held or cancelled. That judgement call is exactly what the pay plan rewards or penalises. People respond to what is counted: if the count is “orders confirmed”, the quickest way to raise it is to stop cancelling the doubtful ones. The plan is therefore not an HR detail. It is one of the main levers on your delivery rate, and on your margin.
Four ways to pay confirmation agents
Most teams use one of four structures, or move from one to the next as they grow.
| Structure | What it rewards | Main risk | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed salary only | Presence and steady work | No reason to push further; slow handling | A small team whose owner listens to calls every day |
| Commission per confirmed order | The number of “yes” answers | Hesitant customers get confirmed; refusals climb | Rarely, and only with a quality condition |
| Commission per delivered order | Orders that end in cash | Pay arrives later; the agent feels exposed to courier failures | When the final status of every order is reliable |
| Fixed base plus variable on delivered orders | Security and outcome together | More rules to explain | Most teams past their first hires |
A fixed salary is simple and calm, and it suits a seller who sits next to the agents. Its weakness is that a fast, careful agent earns the same as a slow one, and the gap shows within weeks.
A commission per confirmed order is the most common plan in COD teams because the number is known the same day. It is also the one that does the most damage, for the reasons in the next section.
A commission per delivered order pays for the result you actually bank. It needs a reliable delivery status for each order and a clear rule for failures the agent did not cause.
A mixed plan, with a fixed part that covers the agent’s basic needs and a variable part tied to delivered orders, is where most mature teams end up. The fixed part keeps good agents from leaving after a bad week; the variable part keeps everyone focused on parcels that get paid.
Why a commission on confirmations alone inflates refusals
Picture a customer who hesitates: the price feels high, the delivery date is vague, a cousin saw the same item cheaper. An agent paid per confirmation has every reason to insist until the customer says yes, often just to end the call. Three days later the courier is at the door and the customer refuses. The agent has been paid; the seller pays the shipping both ways, loses the product for a week and burns the ad spend that brought the order.
The warning signs are easy to spot once you look for them:
- the team’s confirmation rate rises while the share of confirmed orders that end up delivered falls;
- one agent’s confirmed orders are refused much more often than a colleague’s on the same products and the same ad campaigns;
- confirmations spike in the last days of the month, just before the commission is counted;
- customers tell the courier they never agreed to the price, or never ordered at all.
The fix is not to ban commissions but to move them. Tie the variable pay to delivered orders, or keep a small amount per confirmation and pay it only when the agent’s delivery rate on confirmed orders reaches the level you set.
Designing a commission on delivered orders
A workable formula fits in one sentence: variable pay = a rate per delivered order × the number of orders the agent confirmed that were delivered and paid during the period. Around that core, a few rules make the difference between a plan agents trust and one they contest every month.
- Close on final statuses. Delivery is known days after confirmation. Count an order in the month its final status is known, and roll orders still in transit to the next month. Write the cut-off rule down and give it to every agent.
- Exclude failures the agent did not cause. A parcel lost by the carrier, an item out of stock after confirmation or a price you changed should not cost the agent anything. Record a reason for every failed delivery so these cases can be removed.
- Add a quality condition. Pay the full rate only if the agent’s delivery rate on confirmed orders reaches a target taken from your own history, and a reduced rate below it. Set the target from data, not from a competitor’s promise.
- Assign orders by turn. If agents choose their orders, the strongest ones pick the easy products and the comparison becomes meaningless. Distribute automatically and compare agents on a similar mix of products and ad sources.
- Pay upsells on delivery. A bonus for adding a second item should be paid only when that order is delivered. An upsell refused at the door costs more than no upsell.
- Show agents their own numbers. Each agent should see, daily or weekly, the same figures you will use to pay them, computed the same way.
To decide how much a delivered order is worth paying for, start from what a refusal costs you: shipping, return, product and ad spend. The COD calculator helps put a figure on it before you set the rate.
The indicators to track for each agent
A handful of indicators, always computed the same way and over the same period, is enough to run a confirmation team.
| Indicator | How to calculate it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Orders handled | Orders assigned to the agent and processed in the period | Workload and pace |
| Reach rate | Customers actually reached ÷ orders handled | Call timing and persistence |
| Confirmation rate | Orders confirmed ÷ orders handled | Persuasion, but easy to inflate |
| Delivery rate on confirmed orders | Orders delivered and paid ÷ orders confirmed, on final statuses | How solid the agent’s “yes” is |
| Delivered per order handled | Orders delivered and paid ÷ orders handled | The single figure that combines both |
| Time to first call | Median delay between the order and the first attempt | Speed while the customer still remembers buying |
| Data-related failures | Failed deliveries due to a wrong address or phone ÷ orders confirmed | Care in checking details |
| Cancellation reasons | Share of each reason among cancelled orders | Where the losses really come from |
Rank agents on delivered per order handled; use the other indicators to explain the ranking. An agent with a high confirmation rate and a weak delivery rate needs coaching on how to handle doubts, not a higher target. An agent with a low reach rate may simply be calling at the wrong hours. Read the figures by agent, by product and by ad source, and wait until an agent has handled enough orders before drawing conclusions: on a small batch, one bad day moves everything.
Reviewing call quality
Numbers say how many orders an agent confirmed, not how. A weekly review of a sample of calls, or of WhatsApp exchanges, for each agent fills the gap. Include confirmed orders that were later refused: they teach more than the successful ones.
A short grid keeps reviews consistent:
- the agent checked who is speaking and who will receive the parcel;
- product, size and colour were repeated back to the customer;
- the full amount, delivery included, was said aloud;
- the address was completed with a landmark;
- the delivery delay was given honestly, without a promise the carrier cannot keep;
- doubts were answered rather than talked over;
- no gift, discount or free return was promised without authorisation.
Use the quality score as a condition for the variable pay, not as a separate commission, and have two reviewers score the same calls from time to time so the grid means the same thing for everyone. Give feedback within the week, with the recording.
Recording calls means processing personal data under law 09-08. The CNDP states that all processing must be declared to it beforehand, apart from listed exceptions, and its forms ask for proof that the people concerned were informed. In practice: tell customers at the start of the call that it may be recorded, and tell agents in writing what the recordings are used for and how long they are kept.
Employing agents in Morocco: minimum wage, Labour Code and CNSS
Agents hired as employees fall under the Labour Code, law 65-99. The legal minimum wage is set by decree under articles 345 and 356 of law 65-99. The current one, decree 2.25.983, was adopted by the government in December 2025 and, as Hespress reported, brings the minimum to 17.92 dirhams per hour in non-agricultural activities from 1 January 2026; the official text of the decree is published on the Ministry of Justice portal. Check the amount every January, since it has been revised several years in a row.
Commissions do not replace that floor. Whatever the split between fixed and variable pay, what an employee earns for the hours worked cannot fall below the legal minimum. The safest design is a fixed part that already reaches it for the scheduled hours, with the commission on top.
On the social security side, the employer is affiliated with the CNSS and registers each employee. Declaring employees through the DAMANCOM platform is mandatory under law 84.17. The CNSS contribution base covers all remuneration received, and its list explicitly includes bonuses and gratuities: commissions belong on the payslip and in the declaration, not in an envelope. Paying contributions late costs 3% of the contributions for the first month, plus more for each following month. The CNSS also asks each registered employee to check that the salaries actually received are declared every month, so an undeclared commission tends to surface.
Some sellers work with agents who call from home as auto-entrepreneurs. That status has its own ceiling: 200,000 MAD of annual revenue for services. The status should match how the work is really organised; an accountant can confirm the right choice for your team. This section is a summary, not legal advice.
A routine that keeps the plan honest
- Every day, agents see their handled, reached and confirmed orders, and the team lead clears the queue of orders not yet called.
- Every week, the lead reads the indicators by agent, listens to the sample of calls and gives feedback.
- At month end, the commission is computed on orders with a final status; the rest rolls over.
- Every quarter, rates and targets are checked against the margin per delivered order.
- Every January, the fixed pay is compared with the new legal minimum.
For the confirmation call itself, from timing to the script, see our guide on raising the confirmation rate.
Running the confirmation team with Cashod
Cashod includes a call center where agents confirm COD orders by phone, and it can also confirm orders over WhatsApp, including with an AI agent. Cashod tracks returned parcels, and each carrier’s delivery and return fees are set per city in it (see returns), which links each refusal to what it actually cost. One Cashod account can manage several stores, a common setup for teams that confirm for more than one shop; see the page for call centers.
Whatever the tool, the rule stays the same: pay for the parcels that get paid, measure each agent on delivered orders, listen to the calls, and keep the payroll declared.
