Struggling With Deliveries? Here Are 7 Great Tips for Choosing A Delivery Software

Important tips for choosing a delivery management software‍

Running a business is a Sisyphean process in general, but shipping introduces a new set of challenges where customers are expecting the delivery “yesterday”. The critical delivery times, managing the couriers, assigning work to drivers and a variety of tasks that as a shipping carrier, we must manage and execute with great precision.

This is exactly the reason why it’s important to incorporate a delivery software which will allow you to manage deliveries in a competitive market and most importantly – to meet tight deadlines. Just a reminder, if a customer isn’t satisfied with a service because of shipping delays for example, not only will they stop working with the company, but they may also write a negative review online, which can damage your business’s reputation.

If you as well have decided to streamline the delivery operations in the business and to incorporate a delivery management system, we’re here to share all the tips for choosing the best one.

Shall we begin?‍

Route planning feature for couriers / drivers‍

The route planning feature of the delivery management software allows to organize and plan delivery routes for couriers, therefore saving many hours spent on Excel sheets or maps. In fact, the itinerary of each courier is planned according to shipping addresses all in one place, including an estimated time of arrival, coordinated delivery time windows with the customers, while taking into account time-sensitive shipments. We will just note that this is a way to track the couriers’ work, so it’s very important to have this option.

‍A convenient and a simple delivery app for couriers‍

We must remember that couriers are on the road every day – on scooters, trucks, etc., so the user experience is very important, especially for drivers and couriers who are making the deliveries. The recommendation is to try a demo version before purchasing the delivery app, and to focus on the user experience, such as the number of clicks it takes to reach the work arrangement, the customer and so on.

‍Being able to generate reports from the delivery system‍

At the end of the day, every department in an organization has to be efficient, productive, and profitable. Therefore, in order to measure performance and make wise business decisions, we need customizable reports. With that being said, find out which types of reports a delivery management system can generate, such as: average delivery times, an average number of deliveries made by couriers in a day and so on. For example, we can check the average number of deliveries and realize that we need to hire more couriers in order to relieve the workload and improve the service.

‍Customer support availability‍

Carefully examine the type of customer support the company provides. Is there a customer support representative who immediately responds when a customer is facing issues? How soon does the company promise to start taking care of the issue from the moment of initial contact, etc.? It should be noted that when becoming familiar with a delivery system, any malfunction can result in delivery delays and cause issues with providing customer support.

‍SMS communication and automation features to coordinate deliveries‍

You probably don’t want to get phone calls from customers all day long asking "when will my package arrive?" or "I didn’t get my package", so it’s very important to choose a delivery system with an SMS communication feature which will allow you to send text messages to customers in order to coordinate delivery time windows or to send updates if there may be shipping delays.

‍Shipping zones‍

Make sure to check if it’s possible to concentrate deliveries in certain areas for a courier or a driver to optimize the delivery mechanism, save labor costs and improve the supply chain system.‍

Adaptable and user-friendly delivery system‍

Finally, check the user experience of the delivery management system, whether it is easy to create work arrangements for drivers and to perform various actions in general. Another point is to check if the delivery software includes features that will make your job easier and whether it will be possible to develop helpful custom plugins. It’s  important to understand that every business is dynamic and needs software that can be flexible and adapt to changes. Needless to say, make sure to check in advance that all these features will be built-in to your new delivery management system.