Your business is important to you, and chances are, you’ve tried doing everything in-house. After all, you want to ensure only the highest quality for your customers.
However, the more your business grows, the more of a challenge it is to maintain a top-tier service. You may realize that you are investing more and more of your internal IT resources to coordinate complex delivery logistics and manage your own fleet. Or headcount related to manually managing delivery operations like routing and dispatching may be climbing. If this is the case, it may be time to consider using a delivery management platform.
With a delivery management system, you’re free from arduous tasks like route optimization, delivery tracking, and last-minute inventory fixes—you can focus instead on running your business and know that deliveries are in tip-top shape.
Let’s take a deeper dive.
What is delivery management?
Delivery management software handles the delivery of goods from your company to your customers. The purpose is to optimize the process to keep delivery operations running efficiently, on time, and with care.
For instance, solutions like Bringg combine last mile delivery, fulfillment, and returns, allowing your business to expand its capacity and increase its efficiency.
Why is delivery management important?
Delivery technology doesn’t just get goods to the right place at the right time, its implications are much farther-reaching.
Why is delivery management an important part of your business plan?
- Higher customer satisfaction and retention: Faster, more accurate deliveries make happy customers. Plus, if a delivery management system can help expand your service area, you may end up with more customers.
- Increased profits: While there’s an upfront cost to delivery management, a positive ROI is more likely, as there’s no need to spend money on dispatchers to manually map routes.
- Efficiency: With route optimization, you can reduce delays and excess trips, bringing the customers what they want, faster, while minimizing fuel costs.
- Competitive advantage: Delivery management lets you set your business apart with reliable delivery and exceptional customer service.
- More data and insights: With reporting and analytics, data management platforms give you insight into customer behavior, market trends, and delivery performance. You can use this data to improve your service and better your business.
8 benefits of delivery management software
It’s clear delivery management can save time, money, and effort, but let’s take a look at some of the main benefits—beyond just handling deliveries for customers.
- Optimize routes for utmost efficiency
Route optimization uses technology to identify and assign the most efficient route from point A to point B, factoring in variables like traffic patterns and delivery locations. This means that not only will you or an employee avoid mapping out routes, but you’ll also save on fuel costs, reduce wear on your vehicles, and even lower your carbon footprint.
Bringg’s route planning, for example, lets you automate dispatch and routing operations while still having control of how routes are mapped, based on criteria like time on site, delivery volume, package weight, and more.
Image of Bringg’s route optimization feature, showing multiple orders, driver schedules, and locations on a map. Source
- Stay on top of fleet maintenance
Effectively managing your fleet of vehicles requires oversight of maintenance, driver schedules, and overall performance. Delivery management platforms make it easy to keep track of all these moving parts, even allowing you to automate tasks like schedule creation.
When you use software to track where your vehicles are at a given time, check fuel usage, and monitor any required maintenance, you’ll reduce manual time spent trying to hunt down information. You’ll also likely reduce maintenance costs because you’ll be able to solve issues as soon as they arise, rather than waiting until it’s too late and much more costly.
You can even use some delivery management systems to replace or augment your own fleet. Bringg, for example, offers multiple delivery options including the use of your own drivers for white glove deliveries or partnering with an external delivery provider—whether that means carriers, third-party logistics, or independent gig workers.
- Increase customer communication
The ability to stay in touch with customers throughout the delivery process is paramount to providing an exceptional customer experience. A delivery management system like Bringg makes it possible to share real-time updates with customers. This means they’re always in the know about the status of their deliveries, including tracking numbers, estimated arrivals, and how to make a return.
Image of Bringg’s return tracking and feedback interface, including a menu allowing the customer to choose how to make a return, and a map showing estimated arrival time. Source
Not only does this help customers stay informed, but it can also set your business apart from others. Proactive, real-time communication manages customer expectations, lowers the chance of questions or issues, and enhances trust in your company. Over time, this can lead to strong customer retention as well as business growth via word-of-mouth from your satisfied customers.
- Improve your inventory management
Many Delivery Management Platforms can integrate with inventory management software, enabling you to handle inventory and order fulfillment alongside delivery. Keeping track of inventory in real time allows you to avoid stock issues (whether overstocking or understocking) to ensure products are available when the customer makes an order.
Aside from simply making it easier to track everything in one place, using a delivery management system with your inventory software lets you view data that can help you forecast order demand, choose optimal locations to hold your inventory, and even reduce costs by consolidating stock locations or carrying less inventory when low sales are forecast.
- Make data-driven decisions
Data provided by delivery management software can offer valuable insight into your company’s delivery performance. With data ranging from driver performance metrics to customer feedback to delivery efficiency trends, you have plenty of information to help you uncover areas for improvement or optimization.
For example, customer feedback may frequently include notes about environmentally friendly packaging. You could then decide to pilot a strategy addressing these requests and determine if it impacts customer satisfaction and increases business.
Or, you might find out that market conditions are changing, affording you a chance to pivot as needed before there are any negative impacts on your business. For instance, if you discover that customers are ordering more frequently, you can immediately increase inventory and drivers to ensure you can meet demand.
- Reduce risks
Using software to manage delivery for your business doesn’t just increase efficiency, it can prevent future issues and reduce risks to your business.
For instance, real-time delivery tracking allows you to monitor traffic situations for delays or accidents, so your drivers can deviate to a more efficient route. Automated alerting helps dispatchers quickly identify and take action on delayed deliveries..
A delivery management platform will also allow you to establish driver actions to ensure compliance with local laws, such as requiring ID or signature for specific types of deliveries. Driver actions also help to manage the chain of custody of the goods being delivered, through real-time tracking during the delivery process and proof of delivery via signature or photo when the delivery is complete. Building these actions into the delivery driver’s workflow ensure that steps won’t be forgotten and your business will be in compliance.
Being proactive in this way can head off customer dissatisfaction and damage to your brand that can come with late deliveries or incorrect delivery updates.
- Scale and flex your business as demand fluctuates
Your business isn’t one-size-fits-all, so why should your delivery service management be? You want a delivery management system that can scale with your business and adapt as demands change.
If your business is in any way seasonal, you likely experience peaks and valleys in customer demand. This means you may have different delivery requirements at different times of the year. An effective system can help by forecasting demand so you can have the right amount of inventory on hand or build up your fleet.
Bringg, for instance, uses machine learning so you can better manage your inventory. Plus, during busy times, route optimization can make it easier to execute many deliveries efficiently.
Using a system like Bringg that provides third-party delivery options helps you scale, too. You can access additional drivers without needing to hire, nor worry about laying off or furloughing excess drivers when business levels off.
- Stay in compliance with regulations
Delivery software can monitor compliance with driving regulations, keep track of vehicle maintenance schedules and registration, and notify you of any changes in environmental standards. This is particularly helpful for businesses operating internationally — helping you maintain compliance throughout diverse regions with differing regulations.
Not only does this take manual effort off your plate, but it also helps you avoid fines or penalties. You can rest assured your delivery practices are legal and position yourself to your customers as a trustworthy business.
Conclusion
With the right delivery management system, you can see increased profits, higher customer satisfaction, and improved business decisions. It can even help you reduce risks like late deliveries or being out of compliance with regulations.
If you’re in the market to add delivery management software to your company, Bringg has you covered. Check out what Bringg offers today and get on the road to increased delivery efficiency.
