Top 10 home delivery logistics challenges - how to overcome using home delivery software

As customer expectations evolve, businesses will need to deploy robust home delivery management software to keep up with different delivery types.

Online delivery, on-time in-full deliveries, delivery experience, delayed delivery, good delivery, bad delivery, customized delivery, same-day deliveries, first-attempt delivery and estimated time of delivery, if you are in any way connected to the world of logistics you cannot ignore these terms. Not anymore. In the past few years, there has been a rapid rise in the rank of the word ‘delivery.’

Customer expectations and their purchasing behavior evolved at a rapid pace, especially after the e-commerce boom. Businesses like Amazon started delivering on these expectations making them expect the same from other retailers. From fast and express deliveries, today, same-day deliveries have become the new normal. Savvy businesses quickly realized that to thrive in the modern economy, they need to keep customers at the heart of the delivery experience. Hence, anything and everything related to delivery took the center stage. But delivering goods was never this complex.

To achieve the goal of providing customers with a superior delivery experience, delivery businesses need to optimize and improve a plethora of supply chain and logistics processes. They need to improve last-mile operations, bring in advanced routing capabilities, meet elastic demands, improve visibility of end-to-end logistics operations, and boost productivity.

The time has never been so ripe to implement a modern home delivery software that will take into consideration all these aspects and empower logistics stakeholders to meet customer expectations and stay profitable. This is especially true for a home delivery services company. But when it comes to investing in a home delivery management software businesses need to be resourceful and smart. Here are a few must-have capabilities of home delivery management systems.

Once a store receives an order, it assigns the delivery to a driver. The driver receives the order, and the order is updated to the store and customer through a mobile app. The delivery update is made once the package has been received by the end customer. Although the process sounds simple, it becomes really complex when we consider the volume of orders and the various locations it needs to be delivered. Add a layer of personalization for customers, who choose what time and day they want the order and things become even more complicated. And that's why enterprises are increasingly leveraging the latest technologies to optimize routes, automate dispatch-check and other processes along with using real-time tracking and alerts to ensure end-to-end visibility in delivery management.

Once a store receives an order, it assigns the delivery of it to a driver. The driver collects the order for delivery, the same is updated to the store and the customer through the app. The delivery update is made once the package has been received by the end customer.

Although the process sounds simple, it becomes complex when we consider order volume and the various locations it needs to be delivered. Add a layer of personalization for customers, who choose what time and day they want the order and things become even more complicated. And that's why enterprises are increasingly leveraging the latest technologies to optimize routes, automate dispatch-check and other processes along with using real-time tracking and alerts to ensure end-to-end visibility in delivery management.

Intelligent Dispatch

Determining the least-cost and the best routes between delivery destinations, from one depot to a set of geographically dispersed customers such as stores, warehouses, customer homes among others is not easy to achieve.

Home delivery management systems improve fleet utilization and significantly reduce cost per miles by optimizing route planning through intelligent routing algorithms. The software generates highly efficient optimized routes by considering multiple factors like service time, parcel weight, capacity of fleet, traffic patterns, and multi-part shipments into consideration. It also improves address accuracy, especially for countries that do not have street-level addresses by cleansing and geocoding customer locations.

Last-mile Optimization

With ever-evolving customer expectations, efficiently managing logistics between warehouses and customers’ front door becomes a challenge, especially with fast order fulfillment needs and smaller order volumes.

Home delivery software solutions empowered by home delivery apps help delivery drivers with an intuitive and powerful mobile application through which senior delivery stakeholders can manage job allocation, routing, delivery sequence and also facilitate real-time communication with customers. This application lets the delivery drivers capture odometer readings, fuel consumption and additional expenses incurred during a trip to get a holistic view of delivery efficiency.

Rapid Scalability

Scaling deliveries during peak business seasons often get the better out of businesses. During festivities like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, there are sudden demand spikes that in-house delivery teams fail to satisfy.

Modern home delivery routing software quickly outsources delivery tasks and onboard new delivery drivers to scale operations by leveraging crowdsourcing capabilities. Crowdsourcing allows businesses to onboard delivery executives based on cost, proximity, performance, and urgency of delivery.

Enhancing Customer Experience

Ensuring transparent and flexible deliveries for customers becomes a daunting task if the right tools are not used. ETA accuracy is equally important when it comes to making deliveries delightful.

Advanced home delivery scheduling software ensures that customers are informed at every step and deliver a predictable, superior and consistent customer experience with proactive alerts and notifications. It provides customers with a track and trace experience that retain, engage and delight customers. A delivery management system allows customers to change the delivery location and time according to her convenience. These changes are quickly captured and integrated into the delivery workflow and stakeholders are informed accordingly.

Another key element of a delivery management system is its ability to directly establish a relationship with a brand by making the involvement of 3PLs invisible. A delivery management system is powered by intelligent chatbots that leverage natural language processing (NLP) technology to understand customer queries better and accordingly provide responses. These queries may include special delivery instructions, location or a place reschedule request, questions regarding returns and more.

Keeping these capabilities in mind will help businesses choose the right home delivery app that ensures high levels of customization, faster ROIs and enhanced customer experience.

FarEye’s delivery management software and home delivery app has empowered hundreds of businesses from various industries to reduce logistics costs, improve logistics visibility, and deliver delightful customer experiences.