COVID-19 only accelerated a trend that was already in place: the growth of online businesses and product delivery. These days, more and more people want to buy products online from their favorite brands and have those products delivered straight to their doors.
If you want your business to survive and even thrive in the modern economy, you might consider starting an in-house delivery team for your business. With an in-house delivery department, you’ll have greater control over how and what you deliver and be able to guarantee customer satisfaction where it arguably matters most.
Let’s break down how to start an in-house delivery team now.
Build an eCommerce Store
Before you develop your delivery team, you’ll need to build an eCommerce store so your customers can make orders in the first place.
You may already have a digital storefront for your business due to its importance in the modern market. If not, get one soon, and be sure to use a good web design agency or top-tier website builder to make sure that your eCommerce store is attractive and easy to navigate through.
Master Route Planning for Ultimate Efficiency
Your eCommerce store should be built for integration with your delivery service from the ground up. Once that’s done, you can turn to the task of mastering route management and planning.
As you start taking your first deliveries, you’ll notice that it’s easy to lose time, money, and customer satisfaction through inefficient route planning. For instance, poorly planned routes will have your drivers make late deliveries or have to double back to catch the last customer.
You can use route management software to avoid these potential downsides, as well as benefit from a number of advantages including:
- improved customer satisfaction
- faster delivery route completion, allowing you to fit more deliveries into a single business day
- cost savings since you’ll spend less money on extra drivers/time spent delivering a batch of products
Bottom line: try to optimize your route planning to improve your delivery team’s overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness. AI and other software can help with this, as well as boost online sales.
Hire Drivers/Buy More Equipment Gradually
You should also look to scale your delivery team gradually rather than purchase a ton of trucks and equipment or hire a bunch of delivery drivers right off the bat.
In the beginning, you should keep a small team dedicated to deliveries that’s flexible enough to grow with time as your delivery service becomes more popular with your consumer base. Starting off small and buying equipment or hiring drivers gradually will help you save money and avoid developing a massive delivery team that may not pan out based on your niche and how popular delivery ends up being for your business.
Consider Personalizing the Delivery Experience
If your business is small and relies on the repeat ordering of a dedicated consumer base, you can boost customer satisfaction and popularize your delivery team by personalizing the experience.
For example, you might include handwritten notes or bonus gifts with each delivery to make the delivery event a special occurrence in your customers’ days. You should, of course, make sure that your delivery team is well trained in customer satisfaction – each interaction with your customers should be positive and reinforcing for your brand.
By making your company’s delivery experience as pleasurable as possible, your delivery service will be more likely to grow in the future, which is great for your brand.
In the end, starting an in-house delivery team is a great way to boost your income and meet evolving customer needs, particularly in this day of social distancing. Remember to follow the tips above and your delivery team will get off to a great start.