Top features to look for in a Delivery Management System

Thinking of transforming your last mile fulfilment? In the age of Amazon, the delivery experience needs to be at par with your customer expectations. As per latest recent research, at least 20-25% of consumers are willing to pay significant premiums for a same-day delivery. If that is the audience we are looking to cater to, one that is already expecting crisp delivery times, organizations need to invest in a comprehensive Delivery Management System, one that is highly agile and responsive.

Modern delivery logistics software platforms should be designed to build more engagement throughout the delivery cycle - through instant communication and visibility with delivery staff and transparency over orders, features that help with efficiency of the operations to deliver better customer experience.

How can an organization benefit from a good Delivery Management Software? Efficiency and productivity are the two important factors that impact an organization’s competitive edge. By deploying a good Delivery Management App, an organization can influence both these factors to achieve operational excellence. Apart from an improved Customer Happiness Score, there are several other tangible benefits of going for an overhaul with your delivery system:

A good Delivery Management System results in:

• • More number of pickups per day
• • Reduction in overall delivery costs
• • Faster turnaround time with on-time delivery
• • Improved accountability, increased utilization and productivity
• • Real time tracking and instant alerts
• • Clean, verified address lists
• • Business continuity due to lesser technical disruptions
• • Lower on-boarding costs and enhanced adoption

A technology upgrade to your delivery logistics is sure to lead to a string of benefits along with increased customer loyalty. But how does an organization choose a good Delivery Management Software to deliver a great on-demand experience?

Let’s take a look at the important components of a desirable Delivery Software:

1. Intelligent Order Management

This is the most critical aspect of a successful on-demand delivery. Once the order comes in, the next important question is how it should be assigned to complete the SLA in time? This depends on multiple factors. Earlier, organizations would assign the tasks manually, which needed a lot of effort coordinating with the team. In a Delivery Management Solution, this part is automated with the delivery scheduling software.

A Delivery Management Software provides the operational teams with an interface to schedule pick-ups and deliveries. Taking into account all the granular details, the scheduling algorithm assigns the job to the most suitable resource. The automated scheduling and route optimization not just saves critical time but also provides end-to-end visibility into the dispatch module.

1. 2. Adaptive Design

The Delivery Management Software you choose should be versatile with its design. Why is this important? Because business needs can change from time to time. Variable scenarios impact the final delivery in the field. It could be a new feature you would like to add to make your SLA more efficient. Or it could be any other change in the system to improve your operational output. Your Delivery Management Software should be capable to accommodate new functionalities on the fly to support any alignment with business needs.

1. 3. Mobile First

The success of a delivery depends on how well-informed your delivery person is. Does he have all the system details and customer information to complete the delivery without any challenges?

A good Delivery Management Software should provide a smooth mobile interface to the delivery personnel providing them access to all the key data regarding a particular order - it could be customer data, preferred time slots, route information, any specific instructions related to the delivery, delivery verification details, or payment information. For eg, many times a customer asks for a card on payment option but is unable to pay because the delivery agent couldn’t carry the card machine due to unavailability. The customer is forced to make a payment using an alternative method for which he or she might not be ready. Here the customer sentiment is affected and there is a communication gap which must be addressed for future deliveries of such kind.

In short, the more informed your delivery person is, the better equipped he is to deliver the order aligned with delivery details leading to an efficient delivery outcome.

1. 4. Real-Time Updates

Smartphones with GPS have revolutionized the entire process of traceability making real-time updates a necessary norm. Push notifications have altered customer expectations. Customers want to be involved in tracking their order delivery at all times. A good Delivery Management Software must provide customers the option to track their deliveries at every stage along with any alerts required. Providing access to delivery person’s location is also essential so that the customers know where he has reached and can guide him if need be.

For organizations, this live delivery tracking helps in getting a lot of critical information like tracking the fleet, viewing the route taken, analyzing pick-up/drop timings. All these insights bring more transparency to build leaner delivery operations. Also, delivery route planning software helps to get optimized routes, which adds to the delivery efficiency.

1. 5. Seamless Integration

The Delivery Management Software you choose should integrate with your existing enterprise system without too much complication. Seamless integration is critical because it helps you augment your existing system with any new features that you may wish to include in the long term. The Delivery Management Software must be easy to integrate, hassle free as well as flexible so that companies can accommodate any modular changes to meet their business needs. If there is any new feature or functionality that needs to be included, a Delivery Management Software should enable it without having to think twice. In a way, a Delivery Management Software should be proactive for any predictive changes.

1. 6. Analytical Reports

Living in the age of data, we cannot be isolated from it. Today, every action can be measured in terms of data. How does this help companies? Data provides valuable insights into the behavior of both customers and field agents. For eg, a delivery management system can provide a dashboard of routes with heat maps to zero down on the most optimized route for delivery. This is just the tip of the iceberg to what data makes possible. With the help of data, companies can identify what’s working, what are the bottlenecks and accordingly take data-driven decisions to improve the efficiency of their on-demand delivery experience.

A Delivery Management System that addresses all the above key points is a good start to on-board on a journey of transforming your delivery logistics and achieve process excellence.