Key traits to look for in a courier service
You leave your precious contracts, customer deliveries and warehouse stock entirely in their hands every day, so who you choose to be your courier can make or break your business. It’s vital that you get this decision right the first time around, but if you’re wondering what giveaway signs will make for a great working relationship, here are just a handful of traits to look out for…
- Professional
Of course, this is the first sign that they’re a company that values high standards. Firstly, how do they handle your initial query? What’s the tonality of the staff? Remember, these are the people that will be meeting your customers too, so it’s vital you’re honest with yourself about the experience you’ve had. If you’re a larger company, how quickly does the discussion progress towards a meeting? If you’re simply setting up an account to test out a few initial deliveries, how quick and easy is it to use their system?
- Reliable
You need to ensure all contracts and tenders are delivered on time, so you next need to trial how reliable they are? If you’re setting up Skype Calls or meetings with their staff, how smooth a process has this been? Have they repeatedly cancelled? With your test parcels, how did they match up to your expectations? Was everything delivered within the given time frames? Did you receive regular updates? All of this will help to establish how reliable they will be when you come to use their services regularly.
- Convenient
This is one of the most important traits, as you’ll need your courier to be able to fit around your needs as a business, and that means allowing for changes too. For example, your courier might have excellent timing within the UK, but how do they perform abroad when your business reaches the stage of expansion? Irish Parcels have prices for European delivery that are just as affordable, and with a reputable brand you can trust.
- Competitively priced
You obviously want to opt for a solution that will save you money, but if a business is offering rates that seem too good to be true, they probably are. You should shop around various couriers to get a feel for an appropriate price within the marketplace, and this will give you a much better way of separating the wheat from the chaff. Go for a company that is low-cost, but make sure they check out across various review sites.
- Highly recommended
This brings me on to my final point – always check the reviews of each service before signing any dotted lines. While the recommendations on company websites are often true, they’re very good at glossing over any complaints. Search around forums and social media sites to see what people complained about and how that issue was handled by the company.
If you have any other traits in mind that you think are important when choosing a courier, leave them in the section below…
