Last mile delivery is one of the most important components of your business. Your existing customer base, your potential for growth, and your profits quickly decrease without this crucial service. But last mile delivery isn’t only useful for getting your products into customers’ hands; it can also be a powerful tool your business can leverage in order to expand.
Using last mile delivery service can help grow your business by ensuring your deliveries are cost-effective, logistically correct, reliable and professional, and updated in real-time. This improves your customer relationships, brand image, and bottom line.
Keep reading to learn how to use last mile delivery to expand your business and increase not only your profit margins but your customer base as well.
How Last Mile Delivery Services Can Help You Grow Your Business
There are a number of ways last mile delivery services can help you expand your business, such as by streamlining the delivery process, creating a scalable delivery foundation that can grow with your business, and more. We’ll go into detail for each of these in the sections below.
Cost Effective Deliveries and Service
Hiring delivery drivers on an as-needed basis can hurt your bottom line and budget projections, as each driver or service may charge different rates or vary inefficiency or customer service. But using your own workforce as delivery drivers costs you precious time and resources.
Hiring a last mile delivery service saves your company money by charging flat rate fees based on delivery volume or delivery frequency. For example, you may be able to pay per delivery if your company only needs this service intermittently; alternatively, companies that often need delivery services may be able to pay a flat rate per day for all their delivery needs.
Additionally, the reliability, efficiency, and professional customer service that comes with a last mile delivery service prevent surprise costs associated with refunds, late deliveries, returns, route repetition, and upset customers.
Correct Logistical Delivery Details
There are a number of logistical details that go into last mile delivery, including the size of the delivery items and vehicle, the number and order of the stops, and the punctuality of the deliveries.
One of the first logistical details to take care of is ensuring the delivery vehicles are able to safely hold and transport all of your products. If a delivery vehicle is too small and needs to make multiple trips in order to deliver all of your products, it reduces efficiency and negatively affects your company’s image.
It similarly reflects negatively on you if a vehicle isn’t able to safely hold your products, resulting in damaged products upon delivery. It may also result in customers requesting refunds and potentially using a competitor the next time they need a similar service or product.
Within the food industry, specifically, efficient and prompt delivery is especially important. When customers order food from a restaurant or executive chef, they expect their food to be delivered quickly enough that it’s still warm. Too-small delivery vehicles, careless handling, and late service can all ruin a meal that you may have carefully prepared.
Reliable and Professional Delivery Service
One of the greatest advantages to using a last mile delivery service is a reliable and professional driver workforce. Drivers are trained in customer service and dressed in an appropriate manner consistent with your brand image.
The presentation and demeanor of delivery drivers are especially important if your business caters to high-end clients with high-cost products. Ensuring your brand image is maintained is crucial in these situations; drivers can either support this image or tarnish it. Drivers that are rude to customers, sloppily dressed, or late can harm your corporate relationships and image, potentially depriving you of future business and referrals.
But with a last mile delivery service, you can coordinate with the service to ensure the way the drivers are dressed is in line with your corporate image. Additionally, you’ll be able to brief the service and their drivers on any specific customer service requirements you have.
Consistent Tracking Technology and Updates
Many crowdsourced delivery services don’t offer tracking services with real-time updates for both companies and customers. Conversely, a reputable last mile delivery service will have a website or application that provides tracking and delivery updates.
Such websites and apps provide a transparent, easy-to-use, and intuitive interface so that either the customer or company personnel can look up where a delivery is at any given moment. This will also allow each party to see if delivery is ahead of schedule, on time, or delayed.
While certainly crucial, this is also an added layer of convenience. It reassures customers that their delivery is making steady progress and heading to them on time. Similarly, companies are able to more closely manage drivers to ensure they are providing the best service possible.
Finding The Right Last Mile Delivery Service For Your Business
Research is the most important step to finding the right last mile delivery service for your business. Customer reviews are one of the most reliable ways to gauge how well a company fulfills its delivery promises; demos and free trials are another great way to see how well a delivery service fits with your brand.
Fulflld is a last mile delivery service dedicated to quality, with a customer mission first mindset that drives our dedication to your company’s satisfaction and growth. Our approach to last mile delivery combines specialty in-house drivers and logistics experts, an intuitive dashboard with real-time updates, and experience with leading national brands.
Request a free trial today or chat with our experts to see if Fulflld is the best last mile delivery service for your company.
