Using route optimization software guarantees that every route you give your drivers is 100% accurate and optimized.
The expense-reducing effect of such software is obvious. With more efficient routes, your drivers won’t need to use as much gas to hit all their stops. It also won’t take them as long to complete their routes. You’ll save a lot of money on fuel and payroll.
But did you know that routing optimization software can increase your income as well?
Here’s how:
Retain Your Current Customers
Customer retention is the key to making your business successful. It’s much easier to sell more products to an existing customer than it is to convince a stranger to start using your service.
But how do you make sure that your customers stay your customers? How do you keep them from drifting over to one of your competitors?
You’ve got to keep them happy.
One of the most surefire ways to make a customer unhappy is to force them to wait around for you. That makes customers feel disrespected, like they’re not a priority to you.
So, now the question is how do you show up to all your customers on time?
Final mile delivery software is how. As we already mentioned, it guarantees that every route you give your drivers is the most efficient route possible. Your drivers won’t get lost, and they’ll know the best way to get to all their stops.
Attract More Customers
Producing and distributing print, radio, and television ads is expensive. And after you’ve spent a small fortune on advertising, the results might not even be that effective.
Anyone can ignore an advertisement. When an ad comes on the radio, most people turn the dial to another station. When an ad comes on the TV, most people use it as a chance to go to the bathroom – or, if they have DVR, they just skip right through it.
The most effective marketing method is absolutely free. All you need to do is make a good impression on your customers.
Showing up on time, every time will certainly make a good impression. Your customers will be so impressed that they recommend your service to their friends and family whenever your industry happens to come up in conversation. These personal recommendations are much more persuasive than blatant advertising.
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Thread The Needle
In addition to making your drivers more punctual, route mapping software will help you satisfy each of your customer’s specific needs.
Route optimization is complicated. Just figuring out which roads your drivers must take to get to your customers can be hard enough. Then, you need to take traffic, construction, and weather into account as well.
On top of all that, there’s the fact that your customers don’t have the same availability. Some may be available from 9 to 5, others may only be available in the afternoon, while still others may only be available in the morning.
Trying to manually design a route that considers every single one of these factors is a nightmare. Conflicting time windows makes route optimization especially difficult. It can take hours to do by yourself, and the routes you come up with might not even be accurate.
But there’s no reason to do this by yourself. With route optimization software, you just need to plug in the addresses of your customers and set the acceptable time window for each customer. After that, your route will be ready in less than 30 seconds!
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Give Your Customers A Head’s Up
Customers like knowing exactly when they should expect your driver to arrive. A good route planner will give you multiple options for keeping your customers in the loop.
You can set up geofencing so that a text message is automatically sent to the customer when your driver is 5 miles away (it doesn’t have to be 5 miles – you can set it to whatever distance you want). They’ll appreciate the notice.
A GPS tracking feature is even more customer-friendly, as it would let the customer check in on the status of your driver at their own convenience.
The route scheduling software you invest in should also allow your drivers to add notes to routes. These notes might include the keycode to a gate, or instructions for how to deal with a stop that has more than one entrance (like a hospital or university). That way, if a different driver has to run a particular route, they’ll have all the information they need to avoid delays and make it to every stop on time.
Have Your Cake And Eat It Too
Growing a small business can seem impossible, especially when it comes to adding new members to your team.
It’s a classic catch-22. You need to hire more employees to expand your business, serve more customers, and increase your income. But you need to increase your income in the first place in order to afford the expense of hiring more employees (salaries, benefits, taxes, etc.).
Last mile delivery optimization software solves this problem. More efficient routes lets your drivers visit more customers without having to rush to do so. You can serve more customers without hiring more employees.
Overall, route scheduling software allows you to save time, save gas, and make more money.
Do you have any questions about route optimization software? Let us know in the comments section below.
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