Delivery management software doesn’t just aid your last-mile. Learn how it boosts customer experience and helps you to win them over with your service.
In this new post, you will learn how delivery management software helps maximize customer experience.
You will also see how this new delivery solution lets you use different customer service tactics so you can get a better understanding of:
So if you want to attract, persuade, and satisfy more customers with your delivery, this article is for you.
Let’s get started.
Most of the time, people know exactly what they want to get out of their delivery experience. But sometimes, they don’t.
And then, of course, there are those customers that want more no matter how much you provide.
The fact is a perfect customer doesn’t exist. And it’s impossible to satisfy everyone who walks through your door. It’s pointless to try and consider it.
So, the best thing you can do is give your customers a choice when it comes to how they want you to deliver them their orders.
This lets customers take the driver’s seat when choosing their preferred delivery method and eliminates a lot of the pressure associated with satisfying their demands.
It’s like going into a restaurant and a customer ordering something off the menu. Most people won’t do it. And those that do often have no problem settling for an item that’s on the menu.
After all, delivery is second place to the primary function of your business: selling a stellar product or service to your customers.
Offering multiple delivery options eliminates any shipping concerns, like delivery speed, or cost, or location.
At the same time, you shouldn’t have too many offers on the table. According to the psychology of choice, people are six times more likely to buy from you if there are only six items on offer.
So, try to stay within that margin. Provide customers with options that reflect their typical demands:
The more options you align with customer preferences the more customers you will attract.
Delivery management software like eLogii increases your selection of delivery options because it improves the efficiency of your operations.
When it comes to standard offers like 2-day, 3-day, 4-day, or 5-day delivery, the software lowers cost by raising route density.
The more deliveries you have per route, the less it costs to fulfil orders, and the more enticing it is for customers to use your service.
Free delivery is much harder to achieve.
But optimizing delivery routes and schedules can lower cost to an absolute minimum.
So, even if you deliver more valuable products for free, the profit margin remains intact.
As for speed, there is a clear link between same-day delivery and delivery management software.
Having the ability to monitor operations live, lets you schedule deliveries in real-time and assign them to the nearest drivers.
Finally, the software is extremely flexible.
You can customize deliveries individually, and assign them based on size, volume, type of vehicle, capacity, destination, unique driver requirements, and other parameters specific to the customer’s demand.
Not a lot of customers have used delivery to get goods before the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Even now, that number isn’t much higher. In fact, only 31% of people in the US use third-party delivery services twice a week.
That’s because people don’t place too much trust in delivery.
Outside of Millennials and Gen Z, people still have a psychological imperative to sense things.
In other words, they want to feel, smell, touch or see what they buy.
Sensing changes our perception and gives us reassurance about the unknown.
That’s why customers want to track the status of their order.
If you let customers check the progress of their delivery, you give them the ability to see their order move through space and time.
And this ultimately gives them peace of mind.
Not only that, but greater visibility means greater control. Customers feel on top of the situation.
And what’s even more important, they don’t feel left out of the process which involves them.
It also provides customers with a confirmation.
The delivery has started its journey to the specified destination. Now, all they have to do is wait for it to arrive.
But any delivery track and trace, especially live tracking, requires you to use advanced technology.
Visibility is a keystone feature of delivery management.
Without it, operations managers and dispatchers would remain blind to the dynamics of delivery despite having sophisticated software.
Instead, delivery management tools use geolocation and GPS positioning and tracking to map each agent in the field (via some device on their person or in the vehicle).
Dispatchers then use the dashboard to assign tasks to each deliverer. Each task represents a delivery and is part of the delivery agent’s route and schedule.
Segmenting deliveries individually like this is what allows you to focus on specific orders.
You can use the platform to isolate a task, create a sharable link, and send it to the customer when you confirm their order.
The customer can then track his delivery on the map, and see exactly where it is in the delivery lifecycle.
And the customer has complete oversight of the ETA of his delivery. Based on that information, he can see any major delays that would prevent the delivery from arriving on time.
Customers want more convenience from each delivery.
In fact, it’s among the top three things customers value in a quality experience, according to a survey from 2020.
You may think an average customer wants his order delivered fast. But what he wants, even more, is to choose when his delivery arrives.
Letting customers choose the time and date of the delivery solves a major pain.
Allowing them to select the most convenient time means they can plan their time hassle-free.
And they no longer have to worry about missing their order when it arrives.
Custom ETAs remove another concern customers and companies have with home delivery. It minimizes the chance of returns.
Doing so keeps costs down and maintains a solid customer experience level.
But the problem with this is planning and scheduling those deliveries.
It’s a very complicated process to let customers choose the exact time when their delivery will arrive.
However, you can let them choose the time of day when that can happen.
For example, you can divide the day into three parts (mornings, afternoons, and evenings). With a 4-5 hour slot for each time of day.
Then all you have to do is use delivery management software to plan and schedule deliveries around those times.
The software also connects with other apps, such as order management systems.
This enables it to label each new delivery based on the customer’s preference.
Once all of the orders have been created, the dispatcher can drag and drop each task (or use bulk CSV upload) to group them.
Then it’s up to the system to automatically assign them to among drivers, schedules, and routes.
Even when customers can handpick the time of arrival of the delivery, it doesn’t guarantee they won’t forget about it.
That’s why you need to remind them about it.
Sending notifications before the drop-off is a great way to ensure customers never miss a delivery.
A quick SMS and email reminders 24-hours before arrival or on the selected way is a simple way you can achieve this.
For a truly memorable experience, you can send another notification one hour before drop-off.
But doing this manually is difficult. So, you will need to find a more efficient solution.
Most modern delivery management systems are SaaS solutions.
And usually, the companies that make them are adopting the cloud-first approach to delivery logistics.
Cloud technology makes the entire tool an open system.
Users can manage and customize the various features based on their needs and requirements, like creating automatic notifications.
You can then simply go to the notifications panel, edit properties (text and timestamps), and set it as the default version for all delivery tasks.
You can also choose to send notifications via SMS, email, or both.
In turn, this automates all alerts, so the system sends them according to your parameters without the need for manual interference.
Of course, you can manually edit the notification for each task. In case it’s a special or custom order.
Good communication is the key to customer service. It’s what creates trust between the brand and the customer.
And when it comes to communicating with your customers, it’s not your company that does the talking. It’s your workforce.
So, it stands to reason that empowering drivers to talk to your customers is what helps build and nurture quality relationships.
Despite what you might think, customers don’t get their first impression when they interact with your brand.
First impressions only happen through personal interaction.
That starts with your customer service. But not even they get to meet your customers in person.
The only people who truly get to talk to your customers are your delivery agents. The people who finish the lifecycle of each delivery at drop-off. The only ones who can really build trust.
So, it’s critical to equip drivers with all the tools to establish a good rapport with your customers.
Giving them the ability to talk to your customers directly before delivery can help you win them over.
Let’s say a driver has just completed a delivery.
He is ready to move to the next address on his route. But before he starts the engine, takes out his phone and checks the information about that next delivery.
A driver can know who the customer is before he reaches his destination. He can also contact that person via message, and say:
| Hi John, Your delivery is 15 minutes away. See you soon! Mark from delivery |
It’s that simple.
But a genuine gesture of care like this can open the door to your customer for your brand.
And once it’s open, it is easy to build a relationship that will retain that customer for a long time.
Most delivery management solutions have two interconnected parts: a dashboard and a phone app.
The dashboard is the core of the software.
Route planners, operations managers, and dispatch use it to plan and schedule deliveries.
And since it can connect with other apps, all teams can use it to communicate internally with each other.
The second component is the delivery app.
Also known as the driver app, it’s what lets teams on the ground access relevant data about deliveries and communicate with teams at the office.
These types of apps are what your drivers can use to communicate with customers directly.
And it works like most other apps you have on your phone.
All you have to do is download it (via Google Play or Apple Store), install it, log in, and it’s ready for use.
Inside, there are limited functions compared to the delivery management platform.
On the other hand, it has some features necessary for your drivers.
Among those features are: electronic proof of delivery, access to customer data, and basic messaging system drivers can use to talk to customers.
Besides this, it can also contain questionnaires, delivery forms, ratings, and anything else you might need filling out during drop-off.
And that can be very useful when you want to get to know what customers think about your delivery.
Listen to your customers. In any delivery operation, regardless of the industry, this is the key to providing a quality customer experience.
Be it restaurants, dark kitchens, field service operations, or pharmacy delivery, it’s the best, and usually, the only way to get to know what customers think.
Gathering feedback from customers can tell you a lot about your operations, as well. You can find out:
Collecting this kind of data is critical when you want to create an offer based on actual customer demand.
But that also means there will be too much information to process manually at some point. And that’s when technology can step in.
As mentioned earlier, equipping drivers with delivery apps lets them automate the process of collecting data in the field.
You can digitize the entire process using barcodes, QR codes, digital signatures, or any other type of confirmation and proof of successful delivery.
But it’s critical when you get feedback, as well.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
It’s not very appealing to stand in front of your door, filling out a questionnaire about your delivery experience. It’s also very time consuming to do by hand.
It’s much easier and faster to use technology.
It also helps remove a lot of the concerns customers usually have with filling out these kinds of forms.
All you have to do is craft a quality customer survey and upload it to the delivery management software.
With a delivery app at their side, drivers can collect and store feedback electronically by handing customers their tablets or phones, or sharing it with them over the internet.
The speed and easy use make it convenient for customers to tell you what they think about their experience.
And that’s the first step to developing a truly personalized service.
Collecting vital information about customers can shape your delivery. It provides valuable insights into customer requirements.
And one such emerging requirement is personalization.
Creating a personalized delivery experience for each individual customer is crucial to survival in the age of empowered customers.
And it all starts with “Hello John” and big data.
Big data is playing a major part in managing delivery operations these days. So much in fact, that it’s among the top delivery management trends.
Processing large amounts of data helps you better understand the people that use your delivery.
It allows you to get a sense of:
Finding out this information and using it to build a personal experience allows your delivery to cater to the needs of each customer individually.
And when you create a service around a single person, it makes that person feel special.
This automatically raises your chance of attracting and persuading more customers to use your delivery.
Not to mention, it helps retain them much longer.
But processing large amounts of data requires technology.
And delivery management software can help with that, as well.
As mentioned, delivery management software uses cloud computing.
Operating on the cloud makes this type of solution highly flexible and integrates with other systems.
But it also makes it capable of merging with other emerging technologies as well.
This includes big data.
Processing data and combining it with your delivery helps create a personalized experience.
Initially, this can help you personalize notifications, give drivers access to customer information, or shape the delivery offer.
But as you collect more data using the software, you get to know more about the preferences of each customer.
From there, you can start customizing recurring deliveries to fit each individual.
For example, you can assign specific drivers to customers that give them five-star ratings.
You can learn if the customer prefers the order to arrive at their office or home address. Or how fast they want it to arrive and at what time of the day.
You can even stock the vehicles of those drivers with extra products they can upsell to customers on the spot.
Thanks to delivery management software, you can boost customer experience not just for one customer or all of them, but for all of them individually.
And that’s what providing stellar customer service is all about.
Now, it’s up to you.
What do you think about delivery management software?
Can it help you improve customer service? Increase satisfaction? Meet expectations?
We have everything you need to start improving your delivery.
In this article, we reveal how delivery management software can help you to win more customers, handle more orders, and make more money.
What is electronic proof of delivery (ePOD)? How does this software work? How does it improve logistics operations? And why do you need it?
Check out this post if you want to learn advanced strategies, tips, and tactics you can use with route planning software to improve delivery...
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