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Attaining customer satisfaction is inevitably the primary goal for boosting your business. But customers don’t like unreliable botched shipment deliveries.
Last-mile delivery has many challenges and it may be frustrating to deal with them. Furthermore, last-mile delivery mistakes can elicit negative customer responses, leading to negative reviews.
This article will cover the tips you can use to boost your last-mile delivery services, which will impress your online customers.
Let Your Customers Choose a Delivery Window
Customers know how urgently they need their goods delivered when they make orders. Thus, it’s vital if you let them choose the delivery dates that work best for them.
In addition, letting your customers know the delivery windows on your website puts them in charge of the delivery.
This is essential because it assures you as well as the customer that there will be someone at the address to receive the package when it’s out for delivery.
Provide the Customers With Real-Time Driver Tracking
One of the major problems that your logistics could face is misplaced or missing items in the last-mile delivery.
You can resolve this by setting up a reliable tracking system before your goods leave the warehouse.
The tracking system will enable you to keep tabs on orders for effective placement through the supply chain. You will also get insights into the time it takes for a package to reach a customer and how your supply chain is performing.
Optimize and Automate the Route Planning
You need to invest heavily in a system that optimizes the transportation schedules constantly.
The systems will help you pick new orders, determine the serviceability of your resources, and assess if the additional orders can reach the customers within the requested delivery window.
Last-mile delivery can do great with delivery management software.
Partner With a 3PL
Your company needs to have an order fulfillment partner.
A third-party logistics vendor (3PL) is the party you will ship your products to, after which they will store them in a warehouse that serves a specific region of your customers.
Alternatively, you can use a package-receiving service provider like Stowfly. They have over 1000 partner stores across the world. It is a system that ensures the online shopping packages get to a secure local storage facility in a specific customer region. The customers can pick them up later when convenient and avoid missed packages.
Centralize Your Logistics Data
Delayed orders can easily cause an overrun for your company. It can significantly affect your customer experience and operational efficiency.
A centralized logistics data for your last-mile delivery lets you put everything on one dashboard to improve your last-mile delivery systems.
Some of the data you can put on the dashboard includes deadlines and inventory availability.
A centralized last-mile logistics data is also a great way to get insight into your business. You can easily spot inefficiencies, giving you the upper hand to make decisions on how to deal with them.
Monitor Your Drivers’ Performances
Keeping tabs on the drivers’ performance is another excellent way to improve your last-mile delivery.
If you notice unsafe drivers, get rid of them as soon as possible because they can negatively impact the company’s expenses.
A driver’s performance is not dependent on their punctuality, turnaround time, and the number of deliveries alone. You also have to focus on their efficiency and safety as all these factors impact the job.
Invest in Automatic Delivery Status Update
An automatic delivery status update will alert the customers of any delays in the delivery. When customers have information about their packages, it helps improve their expectations.
Late delivery is a horrible mistake.
It becomes worse if the delivery is delayed and the customer does not know about it. Failure to communicate the changes in delivery times may prompt your customers to purchase from other companies.
Final Thought
Your brand’s survival is not dependent on your products; the delivery part matters a lot.
Last-mile delivery is vital to your business, and your customer relationships greatly depend on it.
The customer has to be satisfied from the purchase point to the final delivery of the brand. Remember, customers can always find better, faster, cheaper options online and try to stand out.
So do your best to retain your customers with a near-flawless last-mile delivery experience!