It’s a tough market for anyone who does their own deliveries. How does a smaller company compete with these tech heavy well-funded companies and how do you offer a better service than they do?
It’s a tough market for anyone who does their own deliveries. It’s an even more difficult market if your direct competition is the large delivery moguls with delivery planning software. How does a smaller company compete with these tech heavy well-funded companies and how do you offer a better service than they do?
There are a few areas where you can probably excel where they don’t:
- The personal experience. One thing customers hate is when a text or email tells them their delivery has been delivered, not a ring of the front door or delivery bay buzzer. Only to find the products standing outside for anyone to claim as their own.
- Deliveries which either arrive unexpectedly, or miss their slot. Quite often delivery drivers don’t understand that customers are busy, expect other deliveries and often plan them to reduce congestion or for other convenience reasons. And, often delivery drivers are ashamed to admit they’ll be late thinking that the customer will be annoyed or irritated. The truth is, customers are humans. They also get stuck in traffic, experience delays etc… Essentially, they just want to know when to expect the delivery so that they can plan for it. Some simple communication solves this problem.
- When something goes wrong, making sure it’s noted and rectified as soon as possible. Every customer has had the experience of the delivery driver saying it wasn’t their problem. Contact customer support. That leads to a long conversation trying to explain what the mishap may have been from the beginning. It feels like the customer is doing all the work to rectify the problem. Wouldn’t it be easier if the driver was acknowledging the problem and rectify it through the actual systems? Or at the very least informing customer services so that they can contact the customer?
How does an SME that doesn’t have millions to invest in platforms deal with this? It’s not actually too difficult. Something like Letsjobit lets your delivery guys plan and optimise their routes with live traffic to ensure they don’t waste time or fuel. Additionally, it links into the company’s Customer Management System so that they’ve got the customer’s details at the touch of a button and can keep customers informed of expected delivery times and delays. Lastly, delivery drivers can add notes to each job which can be seen by the customer services representatives and keep them in the loop of whether the customer needs additional support. It’s easy to integrate and implement with great usability and works on both iOS and Android devices. There’s even a free trial to try it out!