A successful business puts customers at the heart of its operations. But too many businesses overlook the opportunities to impress their customers during the delivery stage of order fulfillment.
If you want to ensure your customers are happy and order with your company again and again, you need to check out the following four helpful tips.
1. Be Transparent About Your Delivery Options
The journey of delivering goods doesn’t begin the moment the items leave the warehouse. It begins when customers place an order.
If you want to impress your customers and therefore potentially increase your sales, you should present customers with two pieces of information at the order placement stage.
Firstly, you should be upfront about your delivery charges. Some studies show as many as 73% of online customers abandon their carts after being presented with the shipping costs at the last moment.
It can certainly help to offer more delivery options, too, such as next-day delivery in addition to standard mail, but the important thing is being transparent about the costs.
Secondly, customer snobbery is increasing, which means many customers prefer to know who will be shipping their goods before placing an order.
So, let your customers know which courier service you will be using or whether you have your own dedicated fleet.
The more information you can give your customers about your delivery prices and methods, the happier and more loyal they will be.
2. Use Route Planning Software to Achieve Greater Efficiency
One sure way of impressing customers is by delivering goods to customers on time.
That can be challenging when your drivers have to deliver to multiple stops each day; when unforeseen variables can occur. You can ensure optimal efficiency by utilizing logistics route planning software to create optimized routes.
The software uses clever algorithms to factor in variables like distance, speed, and traffic patterns to optimize routes and change them accordingly in real-time.
On average, delivering goods with the help of route planning apps can save couriers at least an hour each day. Furthermore, route planners ensure accurate deliveries.
3. Provide Customers with Order Tracking
With route planning software, dispatchers and drivers are continually kept up-to-date with the status of each order. But if you want to impress your customers, you should ensure they are also in the loop about the statuses of their orders.
Thankfully, it’s easy to send out automatic SMS or email messages informing customers about things like when their orders have been dispatched and when they are expected to arrive.
You can also provide customers with tracking information so they can check the statuses of their orders online at any time.
By giving your customers access to delivery statuses, they don’t have to wait around all day fretting about whether their packages will turn up. But in addition to that, providing customers with order tracking means you show your customers you care.
In turn, that will lead to customer loyalty and satisfaction.
4. Make Sure Your Drivers Provide Excellent Customer Service
Providing excellent customer service is crucial to any successful business. But too many businesses overlook the simple fact that delivery drivers are the only face-to-face contact most customers have with the company.
That means it’s imperative your drivers are trained in how to provide good customer service. They need to be friendly, professional, and helpful. They also need to smile.
If you run your own fleet, make sure all of your drivers are trained well in how to interact with customers and what they need to do to represent your company in the best possible way.
If you use a courier service for your deliveries, make sure you go with a company that has a solid reputation for excellent customer service.