What Makes a Great Delivery Experience? Key Elements To Include in Delivery Process

Consumer demands have been reshaping the last mile delivery industry in the recent past. The push to resolve last-mile delivery inefficiencies still remains one of the biggest demands of the customers. But it is a great challenge for most businesses. 

Providing an exceptional delivery experience is no more an option for delivery businesses. It is something necessary in order to simply survive in the cut-throat competition.

Before you ask, “what makes a great delivery experience?”, let us straightway get into it in this blog. 

What Makes a Great Delivery Experience?

Customer loyalty should be the ultimate goal for delivery services. While an ordinary delivery is just forgettable, a great delivery experience assures customer satisfaction. Such an outstanding delivery experience can be achieved by following three factors – timely delivery, unharmed product, and no extra shipping charges. Let us understand these factors in detail.

1. Timely delivery

Your delivery team needs to put extra effort in order to perform deliveries on time. Otherwise, if you inform your customers about late delivery, they may not feel so good. The reason is that they might have a plan to go out of the station or be unavailable to collect the parcel. Hence, on-time delivery should be made by any means to increase the delivery experience.

2. Leaving no communication gaps

During the transit, you need to make sure that customers and drivers are connected. So customers can reach out to drivers easily. Similarly, drivers can also ask customers in case they have difficulty finding the delivery stop. You can even adopt an order tracking system for customers to get delivery updates.

3. Carefully delivering goods & product

As soon as your product is dispatched from the warehouse, it would be your job to hand over the package unharmed. Because buyers will expect their product will be in its original shape. Therefore, you need to take utmost care of the product until you hand it over to them.

Apart from these factors, delivery services must consider key factors like delivery costs and on-demand delivery. Offering free delivery options can attract more customers and meet the growing demand for quick deliveries.

In-house Delivery Service vs. Third-party Delivery

In-house delivery drivers have the advantage of being more dedicated to your brand’s reputation than third-party delivery services. Some of the biggest last mile delivery businesses have turned unrealistic expectations into achievable results. By doing this, they have set the bar too high for local businesses.

According to a consumer behavior report, more than 85% of consumers who visit the Amazon site agree that they prefer to order products from Amazon for the ease and efficiency of delivery compared to other e-commerce sites.

In an aggressive business climate where customers can receive same-day delivery or next-day delivery, local businesses have to find a way to meet these expectations in order to survive. 

You might think it is impossible to compete with delivery giants with a modest budget. But you must know that a smooth delivery experience is not just about on-time deliveries.

Delivering on time is just one aspect. There are many other things you can do to improve customer experience by handling your own delivery drivers. 

Optimizing delivery routes with the help of route optimization software is one of them. 

Significance of Great Delivery Experience

Modern customers expect on-demand delivery from sellers, and it is up to the delivery team to meet their expectations. For that, business owners need to step up to keep their customers and hold their current position in the market. 

So, whatever you are into, if you provide delivery service, you need to deliver packages on time. It is also recommended to hire a courier service or switch to a completely autonomous process. If you choose the latter, your job will be half done as the system will auto-assign tasks and guide drivers. 

Below is why it is significant to delivery businesses. 

• Delivering goods on time will make customers satisfied and convert them into repeat buyers. 
• But, in case you fail to provide a great delivery experience for customers, your client may not want to return again.
• Also, if you are delivering packages days after the actual delivery day, your business may take a hit. This is because your client will be frustrated to wait for several days.
• Great delivery makes sense because you will not only please your clients but also streamline the entire delivery process. 
• If the delivery agent is out to hand over the document, it needs to be legally admissible and, therefore, you need an excellent delivery service.  
• Delivery packages also come with an expiration date and, so, you must deliver them within a strict time window.

What Aspects Does a Great Delivery Experience Include?

Several thoughtful decisions need to be made in order to provide a good customer experience, and efficient delivery management software can help you achieve this. Here are some aspects that you should consider for a great delivery experience:

1. Understand Customer Pain Points

As a business, it is your responsibility to understand the needs and pain points of your customers. You need to make it easier for your customers to reach you and your products to reach them as well.

If you are unable to grasp their problems, you will not be able to provide the right solutions to your customers, eventually losing them to your competitors.

2. Be More Solution-oriented

A business must always be solution-oriented. If by providing a particular service, you are not simplifying things for your customers, you are not really helping them.

Understanding the pain points will help you come up with multiple solutions. You can then choose the most optimal solution that will suit your customers best.

3. Provide End-to-end Solution

Being involved at every stage of the selling process will allow you to offer a more customized service to your customers.

Providing end-to-end solutions will help you retain customers. If you miss out on that opportunity, there will always be a competitor to welcome your customers.

4. Take Control of the Buying Experience

Working on the points mentioned above will automatically allow you to take more control of the buying experience for your customers.

But taking control also means offering visibility to your customers, making communication clear, and receiving feedback on a constant basis to improve your services.

By conducting customer satisfaction surveys can help you gather valuable insights and identify areas for improvement. By addressing repeated concerns highlighted in negative customer feedback, you can refine your delivery operations and ensure a positive customer experience.

Triggers To Avoid Poor Delivery Experience

Poor delivery experience has a direct negative impact on the overall customer experience.

1. Delayed Deliveries

Let’s say you make the best doughnuts in your city. But how do you convince your customers to buy your doughnuts if you are unable to deliver freshly baked doughnuts consistently? Delayed delivery shows poor control over the logistics process.

2. Damaged Package

Many eCommerce customers experience this problem. They receive a damaged package and make it a point not to order from the same eCommerce store ever again. It shows how much one mistake, even if it is not of your own, can hurt your brand image and revenue.

3. Package Misplaced

Training your drivers to deliver the products at the right place or address is your responsibility. Provide the necessary training and make your drivers more accountable for the deliveries they fulfill to reduce this issue.

4. No Communication or Visibility

Establish customer communications channels like SMS and email notifications between the delivery driver and the customer. Keeping the customers informed with real-time information about the package reduces the load of customer service executives in the office.

Major Elements For Offering a Great Delivery Experience

1. Automated Route Planning and Optimization

On-demand delivery relies heavily on speed and time. As a delivery business working to provide on-time deliveries, you must integrate smart technology for the purpose of automating your delivery operations.

Planning, optimization, and dispatching are key aspects that must be automated for speedy deliveries. It helps you get more out of delivery routes without scaling up your delivery resources.

Automating these processes can help you save up a lot of time and resources while allowing you to focus on tasks that need immediate attention.

2. Digital Proof of Delivery

If a package goes missing, your driver has a way to prove that delivery was fulfilled successfully and helps you avoid fraudulent loss claims. The proof can be recorded through a mobile app by capturing images, signatures, or adding notes.

Digital proof of delivery is an important document for representing the completion of the chain of custody and making sure that the package is delivered in the right place. It is a required tool for improving reporting and accountability.

3. Alternative Delivery Options

Covid-19 has pushed businesses to go a few steps beyond their conventional methods of selling and delivery. Businesses are required to facilitate multiple contactless delivery channels to ensure the products reach their customers on time.

The need to offer contactless delivery options has given rise to delivery trends like click-and-collect, in-store pickup, and curbside pickup & delivery. These models can be optimized according to the on-demand deliveries when combined with a smooth planning and logistics process.

4. Delivery Driver Visibility

Real-time delivery tracking offers transparency to customers and keeps them informed about their delivery status. Make sure your customers are updated with real-time information regarding their packages. It is easy to do that by improving delivery visibility and order tracking.

Having a transparent delivery process allows customers to see their order and delivery in progress. It is a great way to ensure accurate delivery times, improve trust, and meet customer expectations.

The customer experience can be further improved by allowing direct communication with delivery personnel. In addition to improving customer experience, it will also reduce the load of customer executives. 

5. Quick Route Dispatch to Multiple Drivers

Planning and optimizing multiple routes for multiple drivers simultaneously. But it is quite useless if you are not able to quickly dispatch to your multiple drivers.

Quick route dispatch helps managers or dispatchers send out routes to respective drivers in an instant. It doesn’t require your drivers to come to the depot to receive their delivery tasks. Managers can simply send the routes using email, text or via driver app.

Quick route dispatch is extremely important in cases where there are urgent changes to the route. It allows dispatchers to quickly make the adjustments and dispatch the routes to the drivers in a few seconds. 

6. Train Your Delivery Drivers

Not all drivers are experienced or well-prepared to face the challenges on their delivery routes. Each driver that delivers packages to the customers must be given the requisite training for driving safely, delivering the package properly, customer service, and looking out for themselves.

The drivers must be trained for the processes specific to your business. Ensure that they are also given access to and trained efficiently for all the delivery technologies and tools they are required to use for making successful deliveries. 

7. Pre-plan Delivery Routes

The best thing about automating planning and optimization is that it allows you to instantly plan same-day deliveries. For next-day deliveries or deliveries in the next week or next month, you can easily pre-plan.

Pre-planning delivery routes will help you prepare for any uncertainties. Delivery drivers can be clear about their future tasks. The dispatchers can save a lot of back office time, and delivery drivers can plan ahead if they have their tasks for the future scheduled in the calendar.

Pre-planned routes help delivery businesses be more efficient by providing a really good customer experience. Work towards accurately pre-planned routes and, you will achieve efficiency and improved customer satisfaction.

How Does Upper Route Planner Help in Creating a Good In-house Delivery Experience?

Upper is an effective route planning and optimization software for a team of multiple dispatchers and drivers. It has helped several delivery businesses achieve greatness and offer an excellent in-house delivery experience. This is how Upper does it:

1. Cuts Down Planning Time

With functionalities like Excel Import, quick and easy route optimization, and one-click driver dispatch, this route optimization software cuts downtime on planning delivery routes.

Dispatchers can save hours of planning time every week while still being able to generate the most accurate, optimized routes for their drivers.

2. Reduces Back Office Load

When you automate tasks like route planning, optimization, route dispatch, and generating daily reports, it reduces the back office load and saves hours on a daily basis.

It allows managers and dispatchers to focus on other pressing matters that need immediate attention. Saving time and resources is the way to be more efficient as a delivery business.

3. Saves Time on The Road

When your drivers receive accurately optimized routes, it becomes quick and easy for your in-house delivery team to reach the destination on time.

Upper not only saves back office time but also helps you save time on the road by offering the best routes that are optimized considering constraints like time windows, service time, and other driving preferences.

4. Proof of Delivery

Proof of delivery is just as important for in-house delivery services as it is for an e-commerce giant. It helps you offer a positive delivery experience to your customers.

Proof of delivery not only improves customer’s experience with your brand, but it also improves accountability and reliability on the driver’s part.

5. Generates Reports and Analytics

Upper helps dispatchers and admins create daily, weekly, and monthly reports for each delivery operation. These reports can help you realize your improvement areas for providing a stellar customer experience.

Regular reports and analytics is a must for any kind of delivery business. It is important to keep a record of how your team has been performing and how many successful deliveries you have achieved as a business. 

Start Providing an Exceptional Delivery Experience Today

Delivery of packages is no more an added substitute to the main product. Delivery is now a vital part of the main product and this is the future of on-demand delivery. With so many customers constantly demanding delivery, it is becoming difficult for even the third-party delivery companies to handle it.

In this case, to handle delivery on your own is the best option. It gives you a better chance to provide a customized experience for your customers, be more accountable for your services, and have a chance of making a positive impact by offering an exceptional customer experience.