“Always deliver more than expected.”
- Larry Page, Co-founder of Google
We are spoiled customers.
It’s not our fault, and it’s not a bad thing! Exceptional prices, promotions, and customer service teams have exponentially raised our expectations to new heights. The effect is a domino one. What impresses us as everyday brick-and-mortar and e-commerce shoppers has translated to trucking and routing. We expect quality service because our customers do. If we don’t receive it, well then — on to the next.
There is no one-step process for creating an outstanding customer experience — no matter what all the customer service quotes say. Instead, being a pioneer in our industry today means orchestrating a robust, well-structured operation around customers with multiple moving parts. Here’s how.
Support drivers with fleet management solutions
Commercial drivers are often the sole face of your business. A smiling, at-ease driver reflects far better on your company than an overworked, rushed driver. What helps drivers feel at ease and supported?
With an ever-increasing amount of administrative responsibilities, many drivers long for the days when driving was their primary focus. Fortunately, there’s still a way to ensure that. A user-friendly driver workflow application can help drivers sufficiently manage their trips better by electronically breaking down their tasks on a stop-by-stop and task-by-task basis. A comprehensive experience shouldn’t simply break down tasks, but make them quick and easy to accomplish with electronic functionalities and seamless back-office communication. This way, drivers can complete their duties with the click of a few buttons.
Add in efficiency with route optimization tools
While drivers are your front-end customer service representatives, your back-office teams play a crucial role in the customer experience. They are vital to helping your operation evolve. If you were a television show, your back-office teams would be the ones communicating with the actors, reviewing what viewers are saying, analyzing your ratings, and so on. They see things from all angles.
To help your business grow most effectively, your teams in the back office need tools that can help them do that. With modern, data-centric technology and tools focused on route optimization, they can turn your historical transportation data into actionable insights for your operation, gauging your company’s strengths and weaknesses for a continuously improving customer experience. What customer wouldn’t want to keep doing business with a great company that keeps getting better?
Streamline last-mile delivery processes for increased customer satisfaction
Just how important is customer service in the customer experience? Well — unsurprisingly — super important. A recent report from Microsoft found that 96% of customers prioritized customer service in their loyalty to a brand. What’s more eye-opening is this statistic includes responses from around the globe, so we can conclusively say that good customer service is a universal language.
Like any of us, customers want to feel seen, heard, and taken care of. In addition to utilizing enhanced last-mile dispatch and routing software solutions that help your teams and drivers deliver to customers in an efficient and timely manner, you should pay special attention to what customers are saying about your business. Focusing on customer complaints is imperative, but so is paying particular attention to positive customer feedback. By prioritizing both, you can turn bad reviews into good ones and further delight happy customers, fortifying continued loyalty on both ends.
We have never valued convenience more than we do right now — and our care for comfort has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. We love our curbside pickups and contactless deliveries, and we aren’t turning around.
What convenience looks like in our industry depends on each beneficiary group. For our customers, convenience most often translates into order visibility. No customer wants to be on the phone for minutes to hours-on-end checking on their order status — and your operation is also too busy to deal with those repetitive, time-consuming calls. Luckily, you can provide customers with consistent status updates into their entire order lifecycle, from the first to the last mile, with enhanced delivery tracking.
Whatever your business solutions may be, orchestrating a stand-out supply chain operation begins and ends with the people you rely on — from your teams to your customers.
For more on creating an exemplary customer journey, check out this blog post.