How Does Real-Time Driver Tracking Build Customer Trust
Picture this: You order something online and are informed that it will probably get there today. But now suppose an hour goes by and another and another. You have no idea where the driver is, where they were, or whether they even picked up your order yet
Now contrast that with another scenario where you get an alert that your order is on its way, you can see where the driver was and where they’re going, and you get another notification when the driver is close.
Now which company would you trust more in this scenario? Probably the second one because they were more transparent and communicated better.
For a delivery service company, real-time driver tracking is becoming a necessary tool for the same reason: it builds customer trust
A good delivery tracking app for customers provides the information they need while giving helpful insights to the business as well.
Customers Want More Than Just Speedy Delivery
Customers want a speedy delivery, but they also want to know what is happening with their product. When an order is on the way but the customer does not know when it will get there, that can breed frustration.
Having that notification that the order has been dispatched and is on its way, or giving an estimated time of arrival (ETA) can quell those feelings.
Furthermore, having a delivery tracking app reduces the ambiguity of an order to a much greater extent.
Say you are ordering groceries to make a nice meal for dinner. You don’t want to leave the house before six, but if the ETA is six o’clock, you might not know if the driver will show up before or after that hour. All you have to do is look at the tracking page to see if the driver is closeby or how far off they might be. That can make a world of difference.
Now that we have seen why customers might benefit from a delivery tracking app, let’s look at why companies might benefit as well.
Transparency Makes Businesses Seem More Trustworthy to Customers
A customer who trusts a business will continue to do business with them, so every business should look to improve transparency and customer communication to gain a bigger share of the market.
A delivery tracking app gives a customer the assurance that the business is not just some faceless entity that sends out a driver and a receipt and disappears until the next order. Instead, they offer a personalized experience by giving the customer an estimated time of arrival and updates on when the order was dispatched, when the order is close, and when the order was completed.
That kind of communication might seem mundane, but it can go a long way in encouraging customer retention.
It turns out that when it comes to delivery tracking, a small business can get a lot of bang for its buck. A delivery tracking app for small business can increase the reach and profitability of a much smaller company with fewer resources.
That might be confusing, so let’s take a closer look.
A Small Company Can Use a Delivery Tracking App for Small Business to Do What a Big Company Does
Big logistics companies have the resources to invest in massive customer support departments and track every delivery with pinpoint accuracy. However, those companies are not so common as to be uninteresting. A small business does not have that luxury of a large customer service department or a logistics team that tracks the drivers.
A small company’s delivery man might be doing multiple jobs at once, and the owner does not have time to keep up with all the goings-on in their head. Technology is their friend, and a good delivery tracking app can keep the small company competitive without overworking their staff.
A delivery tracking app for small business makes the experience much more seamless for the customer and much less headache-inducing for the company. Furthermore, fewer employees means that every worker becomes more important, and a delivery tracking app can ease their workload by giving the customers information so the customer service reps do not have to.
Fewer “Where Is My Item?” Calls Will Help a Customer Service Department
There is no doubt that customer service departments get a plethora of calls about the status of an order.
“Has my order left?”Is the driver near?”
“When will it be here?”
Those questions can be tiresome for a customer service rep who has to look up the order in the system and then inform the customer when the next update will be available. Furthermore, the customer still has to look at the tracking page to see where exactly the driver is.
If the customer had the tracking page, then the customer service rep could have more time to handle actually important matters, and the customer would not have to call in the first place.
Better Communication During a Delay Means Fewer Complaints and More Understanding
It seems like every delivery company has an issue with drivers and customers complaining about deliveries being late. It happens, but it is far more likely to happen when the customer is not given an ETA or the driver is not given any support to address the issue.
With real-time tracking, if a delivery driver gets stuck in a traffic jam, the customer can be notified to adjust their expectations.
This communication will make the difference between a customer who understands what happened and a customer who is completely incensed because they had no visibility into what went wrong.
Real-Time Updates Give Businesses Data to Help Them Make Smarter Decisions
Customer-facing decisions are not the only ones that can be improved by a delivery tracking app. A manager can get a good sense of what is happening with their drivers and their delivery routes. That gives a business owner valuable insight into where delays are happening, which drivers or areas are slower than others, and where drivers may have gone to pick up an order.
With that information, a business can make smarter decisions about where and when to send drivers.
In other words, it is not just the customers who benefit from a delivery tracking app, it’s the business as well.
It Increases Accountability Across the Delivery Process
Furthermore, a delivery tracking application can be a helpful tool for enforcing accountability within the business. With an overview of the whole delivery process, managers can ensure that drivers are sticking to the routes designated and be aware of any issues within the supply chain.
But it’s not like they have to keep constant tabs on the drivers, it just means having a single pane of glass where a manager can get a feel for what is going on without asking all the workers.
In conclusion, it really boils down to trust: customer trust. The more a customer feels like they know what will happen with their delivery, the more they will value the business. That translates into more sales, more word-of-mouth advertising, and overall a better reputation. For a small company, it can be the difference between sinking and swimming.
Final Thoughts
A delivery tracking app is useful to a company in that it informs and empowers the customers while giving the business valuable data to improve their services without overburdening the staff.
A delivery tracking app builds customer trust in a new age where customers want to know what is happening behind the scenes. It provides a transparent, trustworthy experience for the customer while also giving the company valuable information about the supply chain. For a smaller company with fewer resources, a delivery tracking app can level the playing field by providing a similar customer experience as a larger company might.
All in all, customers do not want every delivery to be perfect, but they do want them to be timely and communicated.
