Essential steps to move your business online & start a delivery service today

Nowadays everyone wants to order all kinds of products online and have them delivered directly to their home. The first step towards moving your business online is to let your customers know that you are open for deliveries. You must have drivers and delivery vehicles ready to deliver the products to your customers. Then you must keep track of all your orders through real-time tracking and ensure that your delivery agents deliver the orders on time.

Let customers know you are open for delivery

Online presence

To build online presence social media platforms are the best option. Make an Instagram business page or Facebook business page which gives potential customers an easy way to find you online through search engines, and will help in increasing traffic to your website. Through social media, customers can share information about your business to their friends.  Also mention your price list or menu, delivery information, and post it on your social media pages.

Build an e-commerce platform

Once you establish your social media pages, then you can develop a landing page with an e-commerce platform. Squarespace, Shopify, or Wix are the major online store vendors. You need to create an online ordering form that is easily understandable and provides the user with a clear idea of everything they are getting. Google forms are a great choice, to begin with designing a menu.

Communication channels

Direct communication channels with customers like customer support help your customers to reach out easily and ask questions. You must have a phone number and email. You can also read messages directly over social media. As customers always look for a quick response, whatever is the communication channel, make sure that you always provide a quick response to your customers.

Set up a delivery workflow

Optimal delivery strategy

It is important to choose which delivery strategy is suitable for your business. If your business has same-day deliveries, then you must set up a cutoff time to make sure the orders are delivered on time.  If you can do next day delivery then you can pack more orders per route which requires fewer drivers and more profits. Also if the scheduling is planned several days in advance, it enhances the number of orders a single driver can serve. This can be done easily if you use powerful route optimization software like Deliforce.

Keep customer data organized

Always keep your customer’s data protected and organized as it is one of the most important assets for your business growth. Keep updated with the phone numbers, email ids, and delivery addresses of your customers. This information can be used for email marketing purposes. Also, you can track the information of your customer's previous orders and favorite food, this helps you in conducting digital marketing campaigns.

Choose vehicle type based on packages

Depending on the size of the packages, you can use motorcycles or bikes for small packages, and for big packages, you can use cars/trucks. Ensure to set up a maximum service distance from your store. If everything is ready to be delivered, then you need to manage the delivery routes to attain high efficiency.

Taking payment from customers

Add drivers

To add drivers, you need to create an excel spreadsheet with your driver's names. Add each driver’s details as required, and save your driver's list. Adding driver details can also be done manually, by going to Administration then Drivers, and then Add Driver.

Set up real-time order tracking

You have the option to turn real-time order tracking on and off based on your preferences. Go to the Administration menu and select settings, then you can select order tracking. Click to enable the real-time order tracking checkbox. There is also a checkbox for SMS notifications and a checkbox for email notifications. Make sure that both checkboxes are ticked if you want to send both SMS and emails.

Import orders with customer contact details

To deliver orders on a particular day, create an excel spreadsheet with orders, also include customer email addresses, phone numbers, so that it will be possible to send the realtime order tracking notifications. Then go to Import Orders and upload them in your Excel spreadsheet. When you finish the import, you will see your order list and also the order locations on the map. You can click on details to add the contact information of the users so that real-time notifications can be sent.

Planning routes

First, you need to select the date on which the deliveries take place, then click on Plan Routes. Then make adjustments as required in the Planning Settings box and then click on Plan routes. After a few seconds, your routes will be visible on the map and sent to each driver. If you have orders for a week, then you can create a schedule for multiple days at a time.

Conclusion
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, as everyone is looking to move their business online, it is essential to have an efficient delivery tracking and delivery management system with all the updated features. Deliforce is the best delivery tracking and management system in Bangalore which offers effective solutions in delivering products to the customers on the scheduled date and time.