Reasons to Use Multi Drop Route Planner Software – Customer Satisfaction

The high street is being used less and less by shoppers due to the rise in popularity of the internet and the convenience of being able to browse and shop from the comfort of your own home. This behavioural change brings with it a need for retailers to respond accordingly and meet the changing expectations of their customers, including those relating to delivery. For the retailer this means making an increased number of deliveries to a larger number of locations.

In order to successfully meet customer expectations it is essential that deliveries are carried out efficiently and in the manner promised. The alternative can mean customers that, at best, do not return and, at worst, the retailer earns a bad reputation through poor reviews, and this can influence the actions of future customers.

In order to avoid the risk of this happening, organisations turn to multi drop planner software to ensure that a good service can always be provided whilst managing transport costs in line with targets. This is achieved through:

Enhance Planning and Decision Making

Companies that offer deliveries all over the country will need to be able to plan routes carefully to ensure that they can meet their customer’s delivery expectations.

At first hand a planner can argue that it is not an efficient use of a delivery driver’s time to criss-cross a town to make deliveries. However, if there are a large number of deliveries with ‘narrow’ time windows this criss-crossing might be unavoidable. Route planning software can report on the cost implications of high volumes of time window deliveries assisting managers to strike the revenue-cost balance in offering deliveries with time windows.

Certainty for Employees and Customers

Making use of multi drop planner software means that you will be in a position to offer your clients and employees a more qualified level of certainty regarding the actual delivery time. For employees fielding calls from customers it means they will be able to answer queries successfully with a high level of certainty by allowing them to (a) view the planned ETA and (b) compare the actual track of the delivery vehicle and compare to the plan.

Interfacing to 3^rd Party Software

Multi drop route planner software is highly versatile and, by linking it to other supply chain software, can work to improve the entire order-to-delivery process. For example, by automatically transferring data from the route planning software in pick order or loading order into the warehousing system may well speed up internal processes.

By linking to a GPS navigation system, as another example, it is possible to conduct plan versus actual analysis exporting cost data to financial reporting software. Furthermore, by exposing both the plan and the vehicle track to the CRM system enables customer service advisors to deal with delivery related enquiries at first point of contact.