It’s an exciting time when a business can finally take to the road and offer their customers the chance to have your products delivered directly to their door. However, if you’re not properly prepared, things can quickly go downhill and your home delivery service could turn out to cost you much more money and hassle than it’s worth. Luckily, there are some easy steps that you need to apply to make sure that things run smoothly.

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Training drivers

While driving a delivery van might be one thing for a regular driver to get themselves used to, being responsible for all of those packages inside is a completely different matter. Your drivers will need to be trained on a few things:

• How to handle packages, especially if they are larger or heavier than expected.
• How to use the technology fitted inside of the truck that will lead them to their next destination and tell them which package it is.
• They will need to fully understand how to manoeuvre a larger vehicle, and have taken safety courses to prove this.
• Your drivers will need to understand that they are representing your company, so you expect the best customer service.
• They will need to adhere to delivery times that are set for them.

Make sure the online store corresponds with the warehouse

One problem that many businesses face is that their online store doesn’t show exactly what’s in stock in their warehouse, and vice versa. This leaves customers annoyed because their item isn’t showing it’s in stock when it actually is, or miffed because they’ve ordered an item and it turned out that it wasn’t in stock.

Make sure that you have a system in place which can easily and accurately tell you how stock levels are, so that the tech side of things can keep up and there’s no confusion or inconvenience for your customers.

Another good idea, is when something is out of stock to have a date for when the item is expected to return. This will allow customers who desire the item to come back at a later date and purchase it from you.

Offer free delivery

Nobody can resist anything for free in this day and age, especially if it’s free delivery of the item that they have just ordered and are now very excited to receive. Remember to correlate delivery charges with prices of your items so that you’re not losing out on profits.

What you need from your customers

Before any purchase is finalised you need to know that your customers aren’t committing any sort of fraudulent activity. There is a simple solution to this dilemma and that’s to require your customers to create an account with you so that you have their details on file. After that, you should establish proof of residence with document verification. If a customer isn’t willing to provide any proof of address, then there’s likely something going on that you don’t want involved with your company.

Another thing that you should be considering is for your drivers to require a signature when packages are delivered safely. This means that the option of leaving packages in greenhouses or under the doormat are out of the question. This will protect the business because if a customer then claims that the package didn’t arrive, you will have signature proof to prove that your company has done their side of the deal.

Encouraging feedback from satisfied customers

Once you have established yourself as a now mobile business that can take their products straight to their customers, it might be time to begin thinking about getting positive feedback from customers who were happy with your service.

It’s always a good idea to have this feedback displayed on your website, social media accounts, and also in store too so that new customers can get a good feel of what your business is about, and it creates an immediate sense of trust.

Use this advice when it comes to getting your business on the road and you will soon find yourself slipping into a new and successful part of your business. Remember, the customer is always right but if you back yourself up then you shouldn’t run into any trouble!