The 7Cs of Home Delivery – Consumer Choice without Operational Sacrifice

A consumer-driven home delivery system begins and ends with choice.

Your consumers need to feel they’re in control. That they can dictate delivery dates and times to fit into their schedule. And once they do make those selections, they want to be regularly updated on the status of that delivery and be able to reschedule their delivery time based on everyday life challenges.

This is all because we have the world at our fingertips. With your phone, no matter where you are or when it is, you can get what you’re looking for. Chinese food at midnight? No problem. A hand-crafted teddy bear for a just-born niece or nephew? You got it. A standing desk for your new remote working situation? You can have that within 24 hours. Easy.

Consumers demand instant gratification. They don’t want to wait. They not only want what they want immediately, but they want to choose how it’s delivered.

As an operator, you’re among the last line of defense when it comes to customer satisfaction. So you want to do your best to plan appropriately and ensure the customer gets what they want when and how they want it. The problem is, you don’t have just one customer. In a single day, you may have hundreds.

So how do you manage it all? The best home delivery software balances superior customer experience and cost-efficient delivery.

Last month we wrote about the 7Cs: a list of processes and systems you need to master customer-driven home delivery. And each month for the rest of the year, we’re going to take a deep dive into each of those Cs. This month, it’s all about choice.

Why Choice Is Critical in Today’s Home Delivery Operations

First and foremost, consumers should be presented with the same delivery options regardless of whether they’re shopping in-store or online. They should be able to select their preferred delivery method—home delivery or store pickup—and then choose the date and time of delivery. Your business presents them with options that you know you can meet. It’s important not to be too ambitious here—make sure you can follow through on the commitment you’ve made.

More and more consumers are basing purchase decisions on delivery options. So, quite literally, flexibility here means more revenue. According to a recent study posted in Business Wire, globally, 69% of eTailers (retailers selling goods via electronic transactions on the internet) say it is necessary to have the functionally that allows customers to determine when they want their packages delivered. The same study noted that 67% of eTailers want functionality for delivery notification on the day of delivery, and 68% said they want the ability to coordinate delivery directly with the provider.

Let’s face it: your brand can’t afford to overspend on delivery to gain market share. More revenue must mean more profit. And so, whether you’re a brand or a carrier partner, you must be able to provide controlled choice.

How Home Delivery Software Helps You Provide Game-Changing Choice

Advanced home delivery software should continually optimize delivery routes as every new order is taken, ensuring you only offer consumers feasible delivery slots. From there, the system should score these slots based on how cost-effective or CO2-friendly they are.

This empowers you to adjust the price of certain delivery windows to guide buyers toward the most cost-efficient slots, like when a delivery is already planned for the same zip code. This process promotes our first C, choice, which shoppers love. But it’s a controlled choice because, as an operator, you’re directing consumers to the delivery slots that work best for you. Everybody wins. And as a bonus, by allowing shoppers to choose delivery times, you reduce the number of failed deliveries.

A prominent seller of outdoor furniture, increased first-time delivery success from 95.9% to 98.4% after it enabled customer management of deliveries. For an operation completing 100,000 deliveries per year, this same increase would prevent nearly 50 failed deliveries per week.

Don’t risk losing your customers because you don’t present them with the options they crave. Adapt to this new consumer-driven, in-home delivery landscape. You won’t regret it. By integrating advanced home delivery software into your operations, you’ll drive up service levels and customer confidence. All the while, you’re reducing the cost of your delivery operations and putting more money back into your pocket.

Interested to see how our home delivery software, Aptean Home Delivery, can improve your transportation operation? Find out how, now.

Be sure to tune in next month. We’re going to break down our second C: certainty. This is all about how you can ensure the customer’s choice and your promise to fulfill it is, in fact, achievable. And if, in the meantime, you’d like to read a more detailed resource on all the 7 Cs of home delivery, you can download our home delivery ebook.