How to Avoid Customer Dissatisfaction: Using Route Planning Software to Deliver Customer Satisfaction Every Time

Customers are your greatest asset. Keeping them happy means business growth, increased sales, customer recommendations and retention. Your customers—and their satisfaction levels—dictate your future business success.

It's so important to keep your customers at the heart of your operation. In everything you do, your goal should be customer satisfaction.

The key to achieving that is simple: give customers what they need precisely when they need it.

Though the answer is simple, we don't have to tell you, the process of achieving it is a little more complex.

The transportation department plays a significant role in meeting customer demand and ensuring customer satisfaction. But operations are becoming more complex, and transportation costs are rising—so now more than ever, you have to figure out how to do more with less.

The power of being able to do that comes directly from how you plan your routes.

And advanced route planning software is THE tool you need.

You can improve your operational efficiency, minimize costs, all the while avoiding customer disappointment. Advanced route planning software allows you to create highly accurate routes with clear time windows for your customers. Routes that are feasible and achievable.

The advantage of advanced route planning software over manual methods or a more basic solution is that it considers a massive range of parameters so the operation can confidently provide a time window or confidently commit to a requested time window. You're not going to disappoint them because you showed up too late or too early or delivered to the wrong entrance. The software is doing all the work for you.

You can ensure customer satisfaction before the truck even leaves the depot. Advanced route planning software plans your routes with precision, accuracy and reliability to increase the likelihood of delivering what you said you would exactly when you said you would.

Let's say, for example, your enterprise needs to deliver fresh produce to a big-time customer. But your driver is stuck in traffic, or there was a delay with a previous delivery. If you're not using advanced routing software, there's no way to let your big-time customer know that you may be a little late. And even more importantly, you can't calculate that new ETA on the go.

Then what's likely to happen: the driver arrives late, the customer refuses the delivery because they've missed their time slot, and they're entirely dissatisfied. It's not a good situation for the customer or your business.

But advanced routing and scheduling software can mitigate that issue entirely. The software has a robust algorithm designed to help identify potential problems before they arise when mapping out schedules. And, on those occasions when there is a deviation from the plan on the day, you're able to automate communication with your customers to update them on their delivery status. This not only makes work easier for the driver, but it gives your customers insight into the delivery they're expecting. The customer can adjust their plans and shift their schedule to be around whenever you deliver that fresh produce.

Because let's face it: if you're out for delivery with fresh produce, for example—and the customer cannot take that delivery, there's a considerable expense involved. There's not only the cost of transporting the goods back to the distribution center or the additional stop along the driver's route but also the costs associated with wasting that fresh produce that can no longer be used or re-shipped. And even penalties and fines to be paid for delivery failure. Not to mention the customer won't be happy because they no longer have the stock levels they were anticipating—which will mean a shortage for their end users until the next delivery comes in.

When you're efficient on the backend, when you have the right software for advanced algorithms to create feasible and efficient routes, you can minimize costs when you're able to schedule accurate arrival times. And in doing all the heavy lifting and work on the backend, you're creating smooth deliveries and happy customers on the front end.

And the best part? With the right route planning software, you can tailor your delivery service to better meet customer demand. Your customers demand accuracy and timeliness when it comes to their delivery window. They have jobs to do, their own customers to serve, and can't wait around all day for a delivery to arrive. So just AM and PM delivery slots aren't going to cut it anymore. Many may also have dedicated delivery windows where they only accept deliveries between specific times.

Instead, advanced route planning software allows you to manage and execute deliveries based on customer needs. You just enter the relevant information, and the algorithm does the rest. You could have specific restrictions on all your deliveries, and the software considers them and creates routes that meet customer demand without sacrificing any kind of operational efficiency. In fact, advanced software improves your efficiency and helps you reduce costs—anywhere between 10 and 30%.

So it's no exaggeration to say, Aptean Routing & Scheduling software can transform your delivery operations.

It's made to ensure the customer experience is a positive one.

And with this solution, you have the power to flip the script on the traditional service-to-cost model. You can drive up service levels and customer confidence by making delivery convenient and giving customers the control they want while supporting cost-effectiveness and efficiency throughout your operations.

Ready to satisfy your customers with accurate information and tighter delivery time windows? Find out how, now.