Fast and reliable delivery service is easier to build than you can imagine. There are management and business tricks that can make your business run smoothly. Want to find out how to increase your delivery speed?
It takes more than just a fast ride to make fast deliveries. You need to organize and manage your delivery hubs properly. Efficiently conducting business and helping customers are important. This article includes tips on how you can guarantee better customer satisfaction through your delivery service.
12 Tips to Make Your Delivery Faster
If you want simple but effective hacks to make your delivery faster, you can simply follow a few of the tips explained below and witness the magic happen!
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Organize the Orders
Organizing orders is critical to having a good delivery system. You should sort out the orders according to the delivery dates. The emergency deliveries should be prioritized and sent early. You should also send out the older parcels first before the new ones.
Organizing the delivery dates will help you avoid defaults. Your reliability to the customer will also increase because of this. Hence, you should create your system and policies of order prioritization.
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Make Internal Processing Simple
Your internal order processing system should be top-notch and simple. A complicated order processing system slows down the workflow. Multiple interfaces make the ordering process tiresome.
You should use fewer and more efficient programs. Try to make sure that the employees are well trained. And stay updated about new programs or upgrades.
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Utilize Modern Technology
You shouldn’t shy away from using modern technology to manage your delivery system. Several helpful software systems and apps can improve it. For example, GPS tracking and route determining apps can inform you about the fastest ways to deliver a product.
You can use electric or specialized bikes for your drivers to reduce delivery time. If this has intrigued you, you can learn more here.
Scanning devices and automatic packaging machines will also help with reducing delivery time.
Real-time tracking software and route management software can help you reroute a driver and keep track of their delivery time.
Route optimization apps can help immensely. They can optimize the best routes according to delivery points and come with added features to minimize time waste. You can use the free tools available online or purchase a subscription to a well-reviewed app.
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Increase Warehouse Efficiency
You can run into slow delivery problems due to inefficient inventory management. The warehouse should be able to send you details about a product within seconds. Nothing is as bad as having slow delivery due to warehouse mismanagement.
You can try using scanning devices and automation as much as possible at the warehouse. This will reduce time significantly. The warehouse should be updated with the location of every item.
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Plan Ahead
You should plan for the big events and festival times. For example, you may receive a large number of orders around big holidays such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day. You should plan at least a few weeks and manage extra drivers and personnel to handle the extra pressure of delivery during that time.
Not planning can cause you to lose extra orders and can even cause an overload of delivery orders. Your clients would also be happy if you can properly handle their delivery requests during peak times. So it’s better to plan for at least a few weeks.
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Fulfill Your Delivery Commitments
You should never fail a committed delivery time. If the expected delivery time is a day, then you should deliver within that time. Organizing and prioritizing your delivery orders should help.
Your brand reputation suffers when a customer is disappointed about the estimated delivery time. Always be transparent and upfront about the possible delivery time. Don’t make promises that you can’t keep.
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Take Driver’s Insights
Drivers have experience on the road and have useful insights about traffic. You can discuss with them traffic congestion during peak times. They’d know which route would be better on a certain day of the week at a specific time.
The drivers who are accustomed to a certain area or neighborhood should be designated to that place. This will reduce the delivery time.
You should also increase communication with your drivers to know which customer is suffering from delayed deliveries so you can reconsider their routes.
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Manage Customs and Paperwork Properly
You should manage the customs ahead of time to reduce delivery time if you are making cross-border deliveries. Some countries provide an online customs system where you can declare and pay the fees for a product online before it leaves or arrives in the country. This can significantly reduce the overall delivery time.
Paperwork can also reduce delivery speed. Make things online so your driver can promptly take signatures and complete the paperwork. Minimize the load as much as possible.
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Use Third Party Delivery Companies
You can use third-party delivery companies for your company. Companies like DHL, UPS, or TNT can deliver faster compared to public delivery companies. But the postal service such as USPS is also quite reliable. You can use these services to ship abroad or across states to reduce delivery time.
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Keep Your Customers in the Loop
Keeping customers in the loop of what is happening with their parcels can give them satisfaction. Some customers get anxious about the state of their parcels and their location. Keeping them informed about the process and stage of delivery can reduce their anxiety. It will also improve your company rating.
Inform the clients with accurate information and make them feel valued. The authenticity of your information and constant communication will improve your brand image.
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Expand Your Delivery Range
You should expand your delivery range and cover more areas once your business expands. Create more delivery hubs so your driver can pick up products from the nearest available spot. Having only one hub increases delivery time due to traveling back and forth.
You can move parcels to a hub closest to their delivery destination. Enabling your shipping and delivery service through the air will also expand your business.
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Allow Multiple Transaction Methods
Having multiple transaction methods can help your customers. Being able to transact through Debit, Credit, PayPal, or mobile wallets will attract more clients. Customers would prefer having the transaction method cater to them.
Make sure that your website and online portals are safe so that customers don’t stress about sharing their account details with you. Hiring the right personnel can also make the customers feel safe.
Conclusion
Attaining delivery speed for your delivery service is not that hard. With a few changes, you can transform your delivery company. Better organization and management go a long way. Hope the tips covered here have given you the necessary inspiration to fix the delivery system of your business!
