When your business relies on getting goods to customers on time without breaking the bank, choosing delivery software that is perfect for your business can make all the difference in the world.
Business is tough enough, never mind figuring out how to deliver goods AND a top-notch customer experience to clients across multiple locations and with multiple drivers.
Choosing the right delivery software for your business can help you reduce your operating expenses, make life easier for your dispatchers and your team, and most importantly, leave a lasting impression on your customers helping turn them from first-time buyers into repeat customers and raving fans.
If that’s your aim, choosing delivery software that can answer these five simple questions will ensure you are on the right
1. Is it Easy to Use?
Ensure the software you choose makes onboarding your team a breeze, is user-friendly and simple to configure. It should also be a platform with a well-documented API that is compatible with multiple platforms, systems and devices in your business.
When you request a demo watch that the software seems intuitive and user-friendly so there is no steep learning curve for your team or your customers!
The route and delivery planning functionality should make it a breeze for your team to plan their day’s deliveries and the dashboard should provide great reports and important data in order to quickly respond to customer calls regarding their delivery.
As with any software, ensure that the vendor performs frequent upgrades and maintenance and is available to assist you if there is a need to troubleshoot.
2. Does it Affect Your Bottom Line?
Dovetailing off the point above, your software should do your work for you!
Besides being easy to use, how does it reduce the amount of time it takes to plan a route? Can it account for multiple deliveries, across multiple drivers and all be planned with the click of a button or two?
How does the software help mitigate the types of problems that plague delivery services? Does it allow you to bulk upload order destinations? Validate addresses for you to eliminate work and mistakes? Help you communicate with drivers, clients and other dispatch locations?
Regular use of the software should lower operating expenses and eliminate work, fattening up your margins in the meantime. When choosing the right delivery software, make sure to ask the hard questions about how the software will return on the investment made in it and that you feel comfortable that the software can deliver on its promises.
3. Does it Help Keep Drivers Happy?
Making your drivers efficient through perfect route planning and helping them thrill your customers should be another hallmark of your business’s delivery software solution.
Imagine a platform that helps you communicate with drivers, makes it simple for them to access clients and order-specific information, upload proof of delivery photos and even gain reviews?
What would it mean for morale, your quality of service and driver retention if you could bonus your drivers based on positive reviews and real feedback from clients?
Keeping drivers happy means consistent, quality service for your customers. That drives (pun intended!) repeat business, lowers your labour costs around hiring and training and can help provide traction for your business within your industry.
4. Does it Thrill Your Customers?
Sure, every business loves reducing costs and eliminating inefficiencies, but what really skyrockets growth is getting raving reviews from customers and differentiating your company from the other delivery service providers. Being seen as credible, cutting edge and committed to providing a great customer experience can set your company apart from your competition for good!
Gone are the days that customers can make your client wait in a delivery window that’s hours long.
Great delivery software can provide your customers with the ability to track their order from dispatch right to their door, watch the delivery in progress in real-time and get an up to the minute ETA.
Delivery software for the furniture or appliance industry should help the client get prepared for your driver, reducing their time to make the delivery, keeping you on schedule and thrilling customers at every stop down the delivery line.
When the delivery is done, your software should allow important feedback to flow. When it’s constructive and needs to be addressed by the company – it should easily flow to the right people in your company.
When your customer wants to rave with a five-star review, it should seamlessly take them online to tell the world why your company is great.
5. Can it Scale with You?
The business landscape is always changing. That’s why the ideal delivery software for your company should ebb and flow as you do.
The last thing you need is to invest in software that can’t grow, scale and adapt to your ever-changing business landscape.
Have a down season or lull? Your software should make it simple to adjust routes, reduce driver’s and not ding you when you do.
Need to scale-up and add more drivers, stops and routes, even just for a day or two? The same thing applies. Your delivery software should allow you the flexibility to grow without breaking the bank, being bound by your contract or limitations due to functionality.
Having one central dispatch is great, but what if you need to add more locations and decentralize your dispatch across multiple locations as you grow? The ideal delivery software solution should be able to grow and change as your business does.
When you are choosing the right delivery software for your business, make sure it can answer these five questions. Remember, your software should serve you, so you can serve your team, drivers and customers better, not have you serve it.
The right delivery software should be all about delivering goods to clients, great customer service and dollars back to the bottom line.
Don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions of your next delivery service platform to ensure it’s right for you.
Meet CIGO
CIGO is a best-in-class, cloud-based platform that increases deliveries, service calls and pick-ups for your business, scales as you need it, and provides a state-of-the-art, “last mile” delivery experience that will thrill your customers.
CIGO simplifies complex delivery and route planning, empowers more effective client-facing and team-based communication and helps retain drivers and significantly reduce operating expenses.
Driven by innovation, an unwavering commitment to customer service, honesty and trust, CIGO delivers the best, most flexible delivery tracking software in the industry.
