Goodbye to delivery status calls: ETA updates improve your customer experience

Traditionally your customer will place an order, they’ll get a call or some form of notification about the delivery day and then they wait.  If they are lucky they will have been given a defined time window but then what happens?

Meanwhile your driver is out on the road and let’s be honest, delays do happen. There might be traffic delays, diversions, an issue with the vehicle or a missed delivery drop.  As a result the plan for the day starts to unravel and estimated delivery times can become unreliable.

If you run a paperless process there will be a lot of phone calls in and out of the transport office as you have no real time visibility of what’s going on out on the road.  But there is an easier way!

If you introduce a digital solution such as ours you will always be able to see what’s going on out on the road at any given moment.  Our fleet management driver app enables you to keep track of driver movements and our electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) functionality enables to you see what drops are being completed where and when.

If something does go wrong, you have the information you need to make a call to your customer, updating them about the status of their delivery.  A proactive approach to customer experience will deliver great results when compared to a reactive one where customers are always having to chase you.

All Podfather core system users get access to our real-time driver ETA notification suite where you can build customised, branded notifications to send to your customers telling them what’s being delivered when.  That’s pretty darn good on its own but we recently introduced live delivery tracking links as standard for core product users.  That means your customers can click on the link provided in their ETA notification and see where their delivery is and/or what drop number they are in the driver’s sequence. 

Our customers love it, as the number of incoming calls is significantly reduced, and our customers’ customers love it as they get a way to obtain accurate delivery status information without having to pick up the phone.

ETA notifications and live tracking are just two elements of the route optimisation and ePOD solution that we have to offer.  With Podfather you can plan your routes, capture vehicle defect checks, track drivers, issue customer notifications, capture ePOD and report on fleet performance with ease.  You get real time visibility and full time accountability for everything going on across your operation.  If that’s something you’d like to find out more about then give us a call today. Our experienced sales team will want to find out more about your operation and the daily challenges you face. By understanding your need for change we can help you make it a reality.

Podfather specialises in the development, delivery and support of route optimisation and electronic proof of delivery technology.  We are a UK-based team, located in Edinburgh, and we are passionate about what we do.  We work with companies of all shapes and sizes, from industry giants such as Tarmac and Breedon to well-known names such as Rexel and ODDBOX and everything else in between.  It doesn’t matter what you are delivering but if you have a multi drop distribution operation and are looking to make changes then we can help.  Our solution includes the following as standard:

• Route planning and optimisation
• Vehicle checks
• Customer ETA notifications
• Driver tracking
• electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD)
• Reporting

Together we can help you improve cashflow, reduce empty running across your fleet, improve delivery performance and get costs under control.