Today, as businesses have gone remote and customers rely on home delivery more than ever, being able to deliver your products on time is more important to businesses than ever before. Whether you are running a small shop catering to the local neighborhood or you have an import and export business and need to ship things all over the world, delivering products is always challenging. Just having the best courier service or having the most advanced stock management system will not solve the problem alone. You need a clear strategy to manage how you are moving goods to customers.
Prioritize
Initially, when the business is slow and you only have a few orders to manage per day, it can seem pointless to prioritize since everything can be managed within the day or even within a single trip to the courier. When you scale up this becomes particularly important. Many businesses are also moving towards automating the delivery system and linking that to their priority management system. You need to segregate and group orders together either by size, location, value, delivery date, or any other metric and set a priority hierarchy. This will help you focus on the important tasks first and make sure you aren’t missing any orders. At the same time, this will also serve as a reference point for everything that needs to be addressed, making the overall process much easier to manage.
Plan
The way you deliver orders and the way you generate sales will set the foundation for the way you plan the business. Especially if you are in manufacturing or you sell products that have a short shelf life, it is very important for the entire process to be in sync with the delivery system. Whether that means you have to rent a shipping container on time or simply ensure that your delivery team knows where they need to be beforehand, planning will help you to optimize everything around the customer. If you want to minimize the costs of delivery and even the cost of operating your business, start planning with the customer in mind. Delivery management software is a great way of incorporating technology into your business to properly manage your deliveries and plan efficiently.
Feedback
Your delivery team and the customers that you are serving are the most accurate sources of feedback. If you want to optimize your operations then you need to look into the common problems that the delivery team is facing and address the most prominent issues from the clients. In some cases, this might mean you have to completely remodel your delivery system, sometimes more than once. Realize that a single solution might not work for everyone so ensure you have the capacity to meet the different needs of different people in different ways.
Order Tracking
With the advances in digital technology, order tracking is now easier than ever. You don’t need to be a big company to afford this; even small companies can find solutions to track their orders. This will help not only your own operations but will increase the quality of service for customers. It gives them a lot more control and enhances their trust in your services. If you can, develop an app for your deliveries or at the very least have a browser-based solution that gives real-time order locations.
Having an in-house delivery system is an expensive proposition and one that a small to medium-scale business will not really benefit from. There are plenty of specialized courier services that can help you deliver your products. Whether you need to move really large items like industrial machinery or extremely delicate items like fresh fruits and vegetables, there is a delivery option that will meet your needs. If you are looking for business growth then consider expanding your reach through delivery services and serving customers in other areas.