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Optimize delivery routes | 11 tips to save costs and create added value for customers
Sebastian Terlunen
See delivery tours as an opportunity! You want to know how you, as a grocer, direct marketer, winemaker or Bread delivery service yours Reduce delivery costs And at the same time that Improve the experience for your customers can? Then take a few minutes for the following post.
Delivery to your customers is an important part of your retail business. Regardless of whether you are a direct agricultural marketer, winemaker, wine retailer, bread delivery service or beverage retailer. Personal contact with local customers is irreplaceable. Therefore, a tour should not only be used to give the customer agricultural products, bread rolls or wine without expensive postage costs to deliver. Rather, the delivery trip is an opportunity to to intensify personal contacts with customers and — ideally — new Establish customer contacts. Here are a few recommendations on what optimal delivery or delivery looks like. For your customers and for yourself! Summarized from feedback from our customers.
As is well known, anticipation is the best joy! And customers are usually looking forward to their ordering or delivery. Announce tours and deliveries in good time. An absolute must for your Delivery service and in the event of a successful delivery.
With Freight pilot Can you specifically select all incoming customers with one click and simply with a Serial email inform. Depending on the type of customer, it can be helpful to announce the tour in the long term. Customers can then be contacted two to three times via a type of “countdown”. This usually increases the anticipation with the customer and the likelihood that you will also meet the customer in person upon delivery.
Do you have a social media Account? Instagram or a Facebook page? Then also announce your tour on your social media account. In the mail, ask your customers to share or like the message. This means that friends from your customers will also see the announcement. The friends often live nearby - a good opportunity for Acquisition of new customers. ;-)
Many retailers, Beverage delivery services, bread services and wine merchant offer a discount for tours with a certain order quantity. The classic. But what if the tour is already planned but there is still some space in the delivery van? Just write back to customers without an order within the vicinity of your tour at short notice. Offer them a discount even with smaller order quantities.
With Freight pilot With one click, you can independently filter all customers without an order who are eligible for the tour that is not yet fully utilized. Write a personalized email to the customer without ordering. Offer them a small incentive in the personalized email. For example, an exclusive discount when ordering at short notice. This gives you even more spontaneous buying incentives that make even better use of your tour.
Or give the respective customer a personal one in the email promo code, which he can enter when ordering from a web shop. Such direct speeches and offers are usually highly successful.
As a holistic ERP software provides Freight pilot Of course also a fully automatic Route optimization on. Tours of any length and with any number of stops can be optimized in real time by our algorithms. Two different planning options are flexibly available to the user:
Planning with fixed delivery areas
With this planning variant, you specify your delivery areas once. The Freight Pilot then plans the optimal one within the respective delivery area tour. Advantage: Fixed delivery areas allow your customers and your Driver regularity and structure. Disadvantage: Your tours are not cost optimal and you are therefore not exhausting the maximum possible savings potential.
Cost-optimal planning
With this planning variant, you achieve the maximum savings potential. Simply release the available vehicles at the start of planning. The Freight pilot Does the rest within seconds. The result: tours that save you maximum travel time and fuel.
The result. You will receive one or more delivery routes without annoying intermediate steps. Only with a Klick! Saving time and money has never been easier. And at the same time the Protecting the environment.
For both planning variants, the Route optimization the following results:
Are the tours from Freight pilot planned, loading lists can then be created immediately for each tour with just one click. Of course, the packing lists are sorted in the order of the stops. And of course, you will also receive the corresponding packing lists.
With just one click, you can then download all delivery notes and invoices for the tour, which can be brought along at the customer's request and cannot be sent by post or email.
After Route optimization thru Freight pilot You might want to look at the results of the automatic route planning — the calculated route plan — again on a digital map. Perhaps for control or for better orientation. Or you want to check which customers have not yet ordered, who are usually on tour.
No problem with Freight pilot! On a digital map, you can see all or just individual routes with the respective stops at a glance. If necessary, you can even change the order of the customers or stops on the tours with one click. On the one hand, this gives you quick control options. On the other hand, the digital map helps you to better estimate the trip (s) and to adjust it more easily if necessary.
Why not simply put your delivery trip (s) in your pocket? With the Driver app of Freight pilot no problem!
Save your tour (s) quickly and easily to your phone. So you have them all addresses, all orders and all related documents of your tour are always at hand on your mobile phone. And of course you'll talk about the app with Google Maps from customer to customer in real time navigates without having to laboriously enter the addresses of your customers.
The best part: Once you've downloaded your tour to your mobile phone or tablet at the beginning, you no longer need an Internet connection. watchword offline capability. If you still have an Internet connection during your delivery, all previous delivery data will be stored in Freight pilot played back.
Freight pilot Calculate based on your entered departure time and the optimized departure time route the expected arrival of each of your customers. This allows you to quickly and easily inform every customer about the planned arrival time.
The advantage for your customer: They can wait for you in a relaxed manner. There is no uncertainty about your arrival. The advantage for you: On average, you get a faster unloading time and a happier customer.
When you get to the customer, you get Driver app of Freight pilot Delivery instructions are displayed, which must be observed during delivery. If necessary, customers can also change their order again upon delivery via the driver app. For example, to record deposit returns or to change order items. You can document the successful delivery of the customer by signing on your mobile phone or with the help of a photo of the storage location.
And if you want, send Freight pilot as soon as you leave the customer the delivery note as an email and PDF via your email address to. Completely digital. Completely automatic. Alternatively, you can print out delivery notes before the tour starts or using a local printer.
In summary, the Driver app of Freight pilot The digital all-rounder for your Delivery tour. You can view the entire tour in full and at any time. All orders, including receipts, are digitally in your pocket. From now on, annoying paper chaos is a thing of the past.
Of course, you can also send requests from your customer on site or notes about your customer in the Driver app capture. As a text or voice message. This way, you'll never forget important information about the customer again.
You can also order further orders directly on site with the customer using the Driver app capture. On your tour, for example, the customer can order more wine right at the door. That's how you can ordering process Release it on the farm or winery while you're still on the road.
For many beverage suppliers and winemakers, the mass of printed invoices A problem on tours.
Many customers still want a printed reckoning received on site. However, something often changes in the order placed by the local customer: Order items are added, are exchanged, deposit is returned or orders are canceled. Pre-printed invoices, which have to be laboriously corrected after the tour in the office and then sent again, are a horror.
Here too is Freight pilot the solution. With a mobile bluetooth printer and a hotspot With your mobile phone, you can without effort Fresh print out your corrected invoice while still in the delivery van. This saves the environment paper and saves you a lot of post-processing time and nerves.
But why print it at all? How delivery notes can Freight pilot also invoices automatically sent by e-mail as PDF ship. It couldn't be more flexible or easier.
As a customer, you usually look forward to an order long in advance: Make unpacking an experience for your customers — and not a dreadful receipt of goods! watchword customer experience upon delivery.
Let's sum up: Delivery to your customers is an important part of your retail business. An important one, if not THE Touchpoint to your customers as part of Point of Sales. Therefore, the delivery should not - as is often the case in practice - be a careless delivery of goods. Rather, the Delivery can be seen as an opportunity to intensify personal contacts with customers. Try to follow our recommendations in the future. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the result.
And the best part: With Fracht pilot Do you get THE ultimate ERP software. This is how you can put the listed tips into practice easily and immediately. From the automatic email notification and automatic Route planning about the Driver app up to automatic creation of delivery notes and invoices. If required, also on site at the customer's site! And that to an unbeatable prize. Rent a FrachtPilot monthly. Cancel anytime.
So what are you waiting for? Easy with FrachtPilot Get started - we are looking forward to you!
