You might have heard the term contactless delivery more often these days. The year 2020 was not good for the business, and many were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way the company used to interact with the customers. With the increased focus on the social distancing measure, it was hard for the delivery business to cope with the delivery processes.
Due to this pandemic and the physical distancing measure, the contactless or no contact delivery took over the traditional brick and mortar methodology. The home delivery business found it hard to cater to their customers. And with heightened health and hygiene concerns, the demand for no contact delivery has continued to balloon.
We have a fair amount of customers who are into the home delivery business, and some of them joined our family just after the pandemic struck their delivery operations. We are proud to say that we have successfully helped them get back on track with the contactless deliveries. We at Zeo Route Planner always try to help our customers with the best, and we always try to introduce those features in the app, which can ease the process of delivery systems.
Let’s look at what contactless delivery is and how Zeo Route Planner can help you achieve it.
What does contactless delivery mean
To keep it very simple, no contact delivery or contactless delivery is a process in which you deliver goods to your customers without physically exchanging the items with them. It may seem strange to hear at once, but all of the delivery business operates like this only. For example, if you order food from Swiggy, Zomato, or Uber Eats, the delivery person leaves your food at your door and rings the bell for you to pick it up.
While the concept is simple, it presents challenges that home delivery businesses discover and navigate in real-time. The major problems which our customers told they were facing are as follows:
- Typically it was hard for the customers to find out if their delivery is completed or not.
- Drivers sometimes used to leave the packages at the wrong place or address.
- Customers reported that their package was missing or in bad condition when they opened it.
If you are into the delivery business, you would know how it feels when a customer calls you that the delivery is no made or they are not happy with the condition they received their package. It is tough to re-deliver the goods, and it also harms your relationship with the customer.
Each of these scenarios is pretty common when it comes to contactless delivery. Luckily, we at Zeo Route Planner have helped our customers achieve contactless deliveries, and they have raised their profits amidst the pandemic, delivering goods to the customers safely.
How can Zeo Route Planner help you with contactless delivery
A system of no contact delivery takes a bit of planning. You have to train your drivers how to leave the package at the customer’s door and approve that the customer gets the parcel as soon as they drop it. Also, you have to make sure that your customers receive all the important notifications for their goods.
We will be looking at what Zeo Route Planner offers and how these features can help you achieve no contact or contactless delivery for your business.
Customer notifications
Communication with your customer is vital. Since contactless delivery means there is no physical transfer of packages, your drivers need to be able to communicate with customers about where their order will be dropped off or picked up.
Customer notifications sent from your delivery management software can help you solve this issue. Applications like Zeo Route Planner send out automated messages in the form of SMS, email, or both, which allows the customers to know when their package is arriving or where had it been dropped.
Zeo Route Planner allows you to keep your customers informed about their delivery. Also, along with their delivery message, they get a link to the Zeo Route Planner dashboard to see the delivery driver’s live location and packages.
Easy to use driver app
Since you are sending your drivers out to perform contactless delivery, you should provide them with an app with all the necessary information for the delivery. Above all, those instructions should be easily accessible to the drivers.
A dedicated app gives drivers access to that information and a ton of convenient features to make deliveries easy. With the Zeo Route Planner driver app’s help, your drivers will have access to the best in the class features, which they can use to complete their deliveries. (Zeo Route Planner is available in both Android and iOS platform)
With the Zeo Route Planner driver app’s help, your drivers get easy access to the optimized delivery route. They also get all the delivery instructions at their fingertips and modify the routes and delivery instructions if something comes at the last moment. They also get the best proof of delivery integrated into the app, and as soon as they complete any delivery its gets updated to our web app, and you or your dispatcher can track it in real-time.
Additional details for delivery
When you move towards contactless delivery, there is an immediate need for delivery notes for your drivers. Customer sometimes has their preferences on how the package should be delivered. The ability to leave messages and delivery instructions help to avoid any confusion or frustration for your drivers.
These notes might be anything from door numbers to buzzer numbers or any special instruction. Your delivery management software should provide you the option to add those specific instructions so that your delivery driver can know the exact place to leave the parcel.
With Zeo Route Planner’s help, you can get the option to add additional delivery instructions in the app, and those notes are taken into account by the app. You can add customers’ details, secondary cell numbers, or any request by the customer. With these features’ help, you can deliver the parcel to your customers safely and provide them a good customer experience.
Proof of Delivery
Proof of Delivery became a significant issue when everyone moved towards contactless deliveries because delivery drivers used to take signatures on papers traditionally. Zeo Route Planner provides you electronic POD in which you get the option to take a digital signature or photo capture as proof of delivery.
Since contactless deliveries taking digital signatures on a smartphone were not possible, our photo capture POD helped drivers complete the delivery and provide customers a good experience. With Zeo Route Planner’s photo capture, the delivery drivers can take the photo of the place where they left the package.
With photo capture proof of delivery, the drivers can complete all the deliveries quickly and easily. Your customers will also get their packages on time without the fear of physical interaction with your drivers.
Final thoughts
As we move toward a post-pandemic world, several industries see a stickiness to the trend of no contact delivery, especially sectors that deal with food and products like meal prep, food delivery, and grocery. According to Statista, the online food delivery segment in the United States is expected to grow to $24 billion by 2023. Online ordering and home delivery are becoming the new normal, and businesses need to adapt to that reality.
Since the vaccines are now out, health and safety measures will likely continue throughout 2021, with delivery businesses focusing on protecting their drivers and their customers. Due to this, it will include a focus on no contact delivery and increased sanitization measures.
We now think you might currently understand what contactless delivery is, its benefits, use cases, and market trends. The best way to get started with no contact delivery for your business or increase your effectiveness with no contact delivery is to start using tools that properly equip your drivers.
Zeo Route Planner allows your delivery teams to access the tools they need to make no-contact delivery seamless. Whether it is customer notifications, photo capture, or access to a mobile driver app, Zeo Route Planner sets your team up for success in the delivery business.
