How to Use On-Time Delivery Metrics to Boost Customer Satisfaction

Measuring your on-time delivery metrics is crucial for your business success. Timely deliveries build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business. Conversely, failing to meet delivery deadlines can lead to customer loss.

Many customers may stop buying from a retailer after one late delivery. Moreover, a significant majority would consider abandoning a retailer. This inclination tends to occur after experiencing two or three delayed deliveries.

Understanding how to monitor and enhance on-time delivery metrics is important to win back customers. Equally important is the ability to improve these metrics for sustained business success.

What Does the On-Time Delivery (OTD) Rate Mean?

The on-time delivery metric is a crucial measure for e-commerce and other delivery businesses. It helps them assess their ability to deliver a customer's order by the promised delivery date. To calculate the on-time delivery rate, you divide the total number of timely delivered orders by the overall number of deliveries.

Most companies calculate on-time delivery within a specific time frame. It is usually five days before the scheduled delivery date. For instance, if something is supposed to be delivered by October 1, it's considered on time if it arrives between September 27 and October 1. Anything arriving after October 1 is considered late.

The Significance of On-Time Delivery Metrics

On-time delivery metrics are important. They play a crucial role in keeping customers coming back. When you meet your delivery promises, customers are satisfied. They are also more likely to make repeat purchases. Yet, if you fall behind on deliveries, you may lose their business.

These essential metrics are also helpful for identifying inefficiencies or bottlenecks in your fulfillment or delivery processes. If you notice a decline in your on-time delivery performance, it usually indicates other problems in your business that need addressing.

Common reasons for poor on-time delivery include:

1. Issues with Inventory Management: If you can't track your inventory well, customers might order products you don't have. In such cases, you must order from your supplier, leading to potential order cancellations.
2. Challenges in Order Fulfillment: After a customer places an order, the fulfillment process begins. It involves picking items, packaging, and labeling for delivery. If your product organization is lacking or if packaging and labeling are inefficient, the order may not go out on time to meet the expected delivery date.
3. Problems in the Delivery Process: Even if packages are prepared and out for delivery on the scheduled date, missing due dates suggest delivery issues. This may be due to imbalanced workloads for drivers, longer-than-expected transit times, or poorly planned delivery routes. 

Calculating Your On-Time Delivery Metrics

To figure out your on-time delivery rate, simply gather the total number of deliveries and the count of delayed ones. Plug these figures into our on-time delivery calculator to determine your rate.

For instance, if you had 5 delayed deliveries out of 100 total deliveries in a week, your on-time delivery metric would be 95%.

Enhancing Your On-Time Delivery Metrics

You can improve your delivery metrics and make your customers happier by:

1. Define a target for on-time delivery: Create an internal objective for your rate of timely deliveries and utilize it as a standard for assessing future performance. Keep track of progress using a scorecard and reward employees when they achieve the goal. Team incentives can significantly boost performance, potentially by up to 44%.
2. Engage with your staff: Interview your employees as they have valuable insights. They can identify the root causes of bottlenecks slowing down operations and suggest process improvements.
3. Enhance inventory management: Invest in inventory-management software to prevent stock-outs. Organize inventory better to make products and their variations (sizes and colors) easier to locate. Consider using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for overall supply chain management and optimization.
4. Optimize order picking processes: Move away from single-order picking, where employees focus on one order at a time, leading to extensive warehouse searches. While this is a common method, it's also time-consuming. Explore alternative picking methods such as batch picking (multi-order picking), zone picking, or cluster picking to reduce fulfillment times.
5. Minimize packaging: The more packing involved in an order, the longer it takes to complete. Enhance your supply-chain efficiency by reducing unnecessary packaging. Avoid using multiple boxes if items can fit in one larger box, and refrain from excessive protective wrapping.
6. Use route optimization software for efficient deliveries: eLogii can automatically calculate the most efficient routes, helping drivers reduce mileage, cut duplicate routes, and reach their destinations faster. Additionally, the platform offers workload balancing so that your drivers receive deliveries at the same rate. Enhancing your on-time delivery metrics is achievable by implementing optimized routes and well-balanced workloads.
   
   

   

How Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust Enhanced its On-Time Delivery and Improved Customer Experience with eLogii

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, among the largest NHS providers, faced issues with their old route system, including barcode scanning problems during blood sample pickups and reliance on Google Maps for routing. Seeking a solution, they chose eLogii, a user-friendly system, that brings about significant efficiency improvements, and reduction in human error. It also helped to decrease report generation time and a 99% scanning accuracy. This showcases how eLogii transformed the delivery process.

#1 Issue: challenges with their previous route optimization system, particularly in unreliable barcode scanning during critical blood sample pickups

#2 Issue: the routing functionality and real-time tracking needed to be improved.

eLogii solved NHS' delivery issues

Meeting time windows is essential for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust given the time-sensitive nature of their services. eLogii plays a crucial role in planning by effortlessly considering all relevant factors. This gives the team confidence in meeting and exceeding service level agreements (SLAs). The solution provides visibility into potential challenges in meeting specific time windows and adapts to various service durations at different locations.

Additionally, eLogii's driver app, accessible on iOS and Android, equips drivers with a powerful tool. This tool includes barcode scanning, turn-by-turn navigation, and exception handling, streamlining the pickup process. This efficient system significantly reduces errors and saves valuable time for the trust.

The app's user-friendly design ensures quick and efficient driver training. Clear instructions at specific locations cut human error and contribute to improved on-time delivery metrics, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Why Enhancing Your On-Time Delivery Metrics with eLogii is Beneficial

The timeliness of deliveries can significantly impact your business. This is especially true with high on-time delivery rates fostering growth and low rates risking client loss and revenue decline. To elevate your service level, enhance your delivery efficiency with eLogii. 

Save time on route planning to ensure timely departures. Reduce transit time by providing drivers with optimized routes through their mobile devices. Even more so, mitigate customer complaints with Real-time Order Tracking, allowing them to track the expected arrival of their deliveries. Book a demo and see what eLogii can do for you.