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Your company delivers orders every week, but you’ve noticed or you have a feeling that you’re losing money? The chances are that your delivery operations have to be improved and that you’re not optimizing them. In fact, this problem is common, with many companies losing money when they fail to optimize their delivery operations.
Route optimization, live tracking, full offline mode—there are many things that could assist you in saving money and time in the delivery process. The following are the four key factors that might be causing you to lose money and the solutions you have to automate your delivery process.
#1 Downtime
One of the struggles eCommerce businesses frequently experience with their deliveries is downtime. As your drivers are not always reachable, it’s not always easy for you to keep track of your deliveries. Besides, when drivers go to areas with no cellular connection, it becomes difficult to access their app. Your productivity can be greatly affected by this and here is why:
Your customers, not knowing when their order will be delivered, might start calling you to get updates on their deliveries. Further, if there is a delay, customers will probably call you asking why the driver is still not there, and you might not even be able to give them a precise estimate.
Downtime will not only cause a considerable waste of time, but it will also impact the delivery experience of your customers. If your drivers cannot access certain features of the software, such as the route planner, they might be late in their deliveries. If a package is damaged, they won’t be able to take a photo of it in the app or to get proof of delivery.
What can you do to minimize downtime?
Some delivery software will allow you to track and chat with your drivers in real-time so that you always know where they are and how many deliveries they still have to do. This option will allow you to make sure all your operations are going smoothly and to be informed of any incident.
If your drivers miss a delivery, or if an item is damaged or missing, you will get the information right away and be able to take action quickly. Anytime they enter new information into the app, you can see it.
Sometimes drivers will be in an area with no Wi-Fi, so you should make sure to choose a delivery software that offers a full offline mode. With this option, your drivers will still be able to use the app to get proof of delivery, snap in photos, and look up their routes.
#2 Lots of inbound calls
Do you receive a considerable number of inbound calls from angry customers who want to know when their package will be delivered? If this is true, it is very likely that it costs you time and greatly impacts your productivity. This is some precious time that we bet you would love to spend on improving other parts of your operations.
Customers call you because they have no clue of when their package will be delivered and feel like they are stuck at home until it arrives. They don’t want to miss the package they have been waiting for but, they get more and more annoyed as time goes by and your driver is still not there.
If, for some reason, your driver is late and has missed the delivery window, your customers who might have been waiting for hours will get increasingly annoyed, and it’s only fair for them to be upset.
What can you do to reduce inbound calls?
Most delivery software offers the option of live tracking for your customers. Allowing them to track their package in real-time will significantly reduce the inbound calls you receive from them by up to 85%.
Since they are aware of when their package will be delivered, your customers will be able to plan their day and won’t be calling you to get a better estimate of delivery time.
#3 No route builder or optimization
What kinds of tools do you use to build your routes? If you’re using Google Maps, Excel, or even paper, the chances are high that organizing your operations is pretty challenging and time-consuming. In fact, you might be wasting hours of your time each day doing a task that competitors who use delivery software can do in 2 min.
Besides, humans are not perfect and make mistakes. You might pay close attention to what you’re doing but it is still likely that you will miss something. Those mistakes also cost you time and money.
What can you do to optimize routes?
Delivery software are equipped with an intelligent route builder that uses real-time data. Those route builders can optimize dispatch in a few clicks and update as the delivery progresses.
Therefore, if there is some traffic, the route builder will update your routes in real time to make sure your drivers always take the fastest route to dispatch. If you used to spend hours building those routes, it will literally take you few seconds with good delivery software. This will greatly reduce road time and will allow you to increase daily deliveries amounts. It will also lower overtime and therefore save you extra money.
#4 Poor customer satisfaction
As an eCommerce business, you probably know how important the customer’s delivery experience is and how a bad delivery experience can impact your reputation. Your customers might love your products, but if the delivery service was disappointing, they might hold a bad opinion of your service.
If your customers are unhappy with your service, they might not return and might even talk badly about your brand, which can have a huge impact on your reputation.
If your customers have to be home for 5 hours not knowing exactly when they will be delivered, it might really annoy them and as previously stated, they might call you to know when the driver will arrive at their place. Also, if your driver is late for some reason the chances are they will not be happy at all.
What can I do to offer a better delivery experience?
You need to be very transparent with your customers and share as much information as you can with them. As we previously mentioned, a delivery software with a live tracking option that provides live updates is one of best tools for ensuring your customers don’t have to worry about their delivery.
Besides, your drivers are less likely to ring and get no answer because customers are in the garden, taking a shower, or listening to some music forcing them to attempt a second delivery. Customers will be ready to receive their package and sign a proof of delivery. They will also have the option to communicate directly with you with the SMS/Email system and send instructions to the driver.
They will certainly appreciate your transparency and will feel like you truly value their time. They are more likely to reward your professionalism with a good review and will certainly return.
Do you have a better idea of what could cause you to lose money? Would you like to learn more about how delivery software could improve your daily operations?
At Cigo we are constantly on the lookout for new ideas to automate your deliveries and new features are added to our software every month. We understand our customers’ challenges, we know their industries and their needs and we make sure to optimize our software based on those needs. If you would like to learn more about our delivery software.
