Over the last few years, the last mile delivery industry has seen tremendous growth in expansion with advanced logistics models to expedite deliveries and satisfy consumers. According to FreightWaves, the heavy bulky last-mile market was reported to be growing at a higher pace than the parcel market at a rate of 12% versus 9%, respectively. In addition, the fast changes in technology and e-commerce markets have placed consumer demands on an increasing expectations scale, with e-retail revenues projected to reach $6.54 trillion dollars by the year of 2022.
However, the truth is the challenge of last mile delivery continues to be a tremendous pain point for many companies. Delays, fluctuation in costs, lack of communication, etc. are all direct results of an inefficient operation, a crucial infrastructure for succeeding a clean last mile experience for customers and carriers.
Let’s face it: Last mile delivery is COMPLEX! It’s the most difficult type to coordinate in logistics, even more for heavy goods White Glove services. Yet, customers just want fast and affordable deliveries- without the slightest mistake. According to an IBM study, it was reported that a customer’s delivery experience holds the power to make or break their relationship with the brand, since they can easily find alternatives from millions of other e-commerce options.
So how can businesses resolve these challenges to ensure a clean last mile experience for the end users, and freight operations?
At Deliveright, we’ve solved through massive amounts of data to analyze valuable insights and produce efficient solutions towards what achieves a clean last mile experience. Our proprietary software Grasshopper, was designed to suit the needs of the growing e-commerce world, allowing direct insight into and control over every step of the delivery process. We decided to share our findings so our customers can learn how to optimize their shipping decisions, with minimized risks of failure.
Real-time Tracking: As more consumers shift to online shopping with more frequent deliveries, this also means higher demand for real time tracking access, with accurate reports on their shipment status. While the traditional heavy goods carriers may provide general updates to indicate the shipment ETA, such vagueness simply isn’t enough to put the customers at ease, and would instead downgrade the company’s trust ratings. What the consumers want are immediate notifications at their fingertips, with precise automated ETA updates so that they’re informed every step of the delivery process to receive their goods at expected windows.
Online Communication: A lot can happen in last-mile deliveries. Traffic jams, damages, reaching the customer, etc. are all natural processes that occur within transportation operations. There’s not enough time to manually call each customer to inform them of every delivery update, nor would they want to rely on phone calls for minimum information reports. At Deliveright, we’ve implemented automated online communication modules that preemptively reach out to the customer, should an issue arise. Automated emails, RoboCalls, delivery notifications on mobile apps, website directories, etc. are much faster, efficient solutions to building a solid CRM that’ll ensure a clean delivery experience for consumers.
Pre-Inspection: Heavy goods, specifically bulky furniture pieces are delicate items that could easily be subjected to failed deliveries, due to errors like damages and missing pieces detected at the destination site. Within Deliveright’s White Glove services, pre-inspection is one of the first important steps in our heavy goods deliveries to secure customer satisfaction by making sure the product being delivered is in an adequate condition. By implementing this single process, it can significantly impact the chances of delivery risks by saving costs, identifying repair needs, preventing product delays, and protecting business reputation for delivering low-quality goods.
End-to-End Visibility: In the past, having real time visibility across an entire supply chain for shipping large products nationwide seemed like an impossible challenge. But at Deliveright, our cloud-based software Grasshopper allows complete E2E fulfillment by enabling delivery operators to control every touchpoint with respect to their freight operations- from route optimization, integrated shipping quotes, warehouse operation, receiving, CRM, payments, and the list goes on! With Grasshopper, you can rest easy knowing that there is an effective solution to bringing your customers a seamless delivery experience, so you can focus on growing your business forward.
If you don’t yet have an account to ship with Deliveright, you can sign up through our Grasshopper platform to book your orders directly. To learn more about our services, visit here.
