If you are a restaurant that delivers then you have a tight window to get food to the customer otherwise time decays freshness, profitability and customer satisfaction. The statistics say that 1 in 5 deliveries are missed due to the customer not being contactable when the courier arrives. Missed delivery contributes to huge losses especially for courier carriers and there seems to be some key technology that is missing that could easily improve these statistics.
As the number of online transactions increase, so does the volume of attempted delivery failures and businesses can gain a competitive advantage if they are able to reduce their missed delivery count.
Here are some tips on how to reduce missed deliveries:
Provide a realistic delivery window based on routing
A delivery window between 9am & 5pm just won’t cut it anymore. Calculate the delivery route based on previous data and provide a tighter delivery window estimate then use technology to track the driver so as he approaches send the customer more updates to ensure they are home
Over-communicate
When an order is received, email and SMS the customer. When the driver has been assigned, SMS and email the customer. When the driver has picked up the item, SMS and email the customer so they can now expect a convenient delivery window. When the driver is 5 minutes away, SMS and email the customer. You will need to use a delivery management service to help you communicate the delivery status and then watch your delivery fails decrease!
Use real-time SMS notification technology
Customers are always on their phone but not always on their email. Don’t take the chance and rely on a customer being notified by email. A good delivery management software should allow you to email and SMS the customer in real-time the exact status of the job to ensure a successful delivery.
Provide real-time tracking
One of the primary reasons for failure reported was because customers were not at home for their allotted delivery slots, in spite of being alerted to expect a courier that day. Customers just want the piece of mind to know where there delivery is in real-time so they can plan their day better. The whole point of e-commerce is that it is convenient. Hanging about waiting for a delivery man to come isn’t, which is why consumers take a chance and pop out for a minute, and by the time they return, the delivery man has come and gone. With real-time tracking, you give the consumer a convenient way to continue their lifestyle whilst having access from their mobile to when they should pop back home to accept delivery!
Allow two-way communication between customer and driver
The customer should be notified 5 minutes before arrival. If they are still not there, the driver should be able to call them quickly to ensure delivery. Vice versa, if the customer will be down the road then at least there is a channel of communication available to ensure both parties can locate each other at time of delivery. Sometimes it might just be a simple text message that tells the driver to go around the side gate because the door bell does not work. Enabling this simple form of two-way communication will reduce missed delivery losses each week.
If you’d like to learn more about how to get started with GetSwift’s delivery software, give us a shout or try it out free for 30 Days.
Recent Comments