Getting a sofa from the point of sale to a customer’s living room smoothly — and profitably — isn’t always easy. Retailers and third-party logistics companies need a solid operational foundation to support their delivery teams in meeting customers’ expectations and company goals. The right technology can reduce operational friction caused by common problems — getting orders on the right truck, efficient routing, customer communications, visibility — if it is agile, flexible and well integrated. Your back-end operations and home furnishings delivery technology should be seamless, supporting the customer journey from purchase to post-delivery analysis.
EFFICIENT DATA FLOW
Botched handoffs of information (POS to order entry, order to routing, routed order to warehouse, routed order to dispatch, dispatch to driver) happen when connected functions are handled by different solutions or by separate modules within a solution. An integrated single platform reduces hiccups as data flows within a single solution rather than having to “port” from module to module.
ROUTING OPTIMIZATION
Which routing solution you use matters. Cumbersome or complex solutions discourage dispatchers from making last-minute changes to optimize loads and shorten routes. The integration of AI and machine learning is key to high-performance routing. By recording and learning from your daily operations, the software can accurately predict ETAs, producing routes your drivers can execute so your customers get their sofas on time. They also maximize your fleet capacity and reduce miles driven to make more deliveries in less time while saving fuel.
REAL-TIME VISIBILITY
The ability to see your entire operation in granular detail is critical. Without that visibility, you either make decisions in the moment without knowing the facts or wait until trucks return to the warehouse before you’re even aware of a problem. That creates delays that, at the least, create more work and expense (redelivery, backhaul) or, at worst, make customers angry. Retailer RC Willey, which routes more than 1,100 stops per day using DispatchTrack, credits the platform’s visibility and communications abilities with saving more than 250 stops per month in just one of its five distribution centers.
DRIVER PERFORMANCE
The customer will never meet the warehouse manager, routing engineer, or dispatcher. The faces of the brand are the salesperson and the delivery driver. The right tech can put your drivers in a position to make a great impression:
- Accurate ETAs
- Automated and live customer communications
- Live tracking
- Rapid handling of misorders/damaged goods
Technology that tracks actual driver performance over time can help match the right crews to delivery type (an appliance install or tricky premises access), improve ETA accuracy, and assist in driver management. Live tracking and robust communications reduce “where is my order” or WISMO calls and improve first-attempt delivery rates (FADR), saving labor and reducing costs while boosting customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
COMPREHENSIVE DATA INSIGHTS
To optimize your operation, reduce friction, and increase profitability and customer satisfaction, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t. Comprehensive analysis requires that your software collect all of the operational data — orders, routing, dispatch, deliveries, POD, and satisfaction surveys — into a single library where it can be analyzed. When data is “batched” into separate pools by disparate solutions (one for orders, one for routing, one for POD, another for customer surveys), it can be difficult to see the interplay between stages and recognize opportunities for improvement.
With 16 locations in three states, American Furniture Warehouse implemented DispatchTrack in 2013 because its previous routing software was inflexible and difficult to use. Since then, they’ve found that the platform has enabled a significant improvement in customer outcomes:
“DispatchTrack is more than just fleet management; it’s customer satisfaction management,” says Tony Mitchell, warehouse general manager for AFW.
To improve the end product — a sofa sitting in the living room of a satisfied customer — you have to start at the beginning. By implementing a comprehensive single platform technology to manage everything from order in to done-and-delivered, you can reduce operational friction by creating a smooth data flow across the home furnishings delivery organization.
