Customer engagement sometimes gets left out of the overall business equation, but it’s actually the missing piece to gaining a competitive edge with your customer experience strategy. To get the customer satisfaction and ROI you’re hoping for, your customers need to be engaged in every step of the process before, during, and after service.
Whenever a business involves moving goods or people, customers expect to see regular ETA updates and follow the driver’s arrival to their door.
The customer experience benefits of last mile tracking are clear. However, businesses are naturally concerned about the impact that real-time visibility has on drivers.
Keep reading to discover how final mile tracking can make it easier for drivers and mobile workers to perform their jobs while safeguarding their privacy and control.
Why is Visibility Essential for Customers?
When we order a package from a popular online marketplace, we know exactly when it will land on our doorstep. Likewise, taxi-hailing apps let us track our driver as they wind their way through the traffic.
These businesses have known for years that when businesses provide operational transparency, customers’ anxiety is reduced, and they perceive the service to have a higher value.
Luckily, delivery and field service providers can take advantage of the same behavioral science with methods such as SMS notifications and web-based ETA tracking.
In addition to enhancing the customer experience, these tactics have a knock-on effect on the bottom line. By keeping customers informed, companies stand to avoid costly missed appointments and reduce unnecessary calls to the contact center.
Equipping customers with real-time visibility requires minimal effort from drivers, and there’s no need to trade off employees’ privacy or work processes.
Benefits of Last Mile Tracking for Drivers
We’ve covered the advantages of tracking a driver’s arrival for customers. Here’s how last mile tracking can also benefit mobile workers.
Drivers Can Focus on the Job
The last mile is where customer engagement can really shine and where you can streamline a driver’s job. Rather than calling the customer or sending an SMS, staff can keep working safely, knowing that the customer will receive an automated notification.
Businesses can send notifications automatically based on geolocation triggers or job status updates. This provides a safe and efficient way for drivers to keep their phone numbers private and their focus on the road, all while offering customers the reassurance that they’ll be there soon.
No Need to Wait For Customers
Missed appointments and failed deliveries leave drivers frustrated and unable to complete the day’s assigned jobs. What’s more, these scenarios contribute to a poor customer experience and fuel waste.
With order tracking software, you can send customers an automatic SMS reminder on the day of the appointment. This is followed by a message that includes a 15-minute arrival window with a link to a live tracking map.
It’s also possible to send a location-triggered message when the driver is about to arrive. This is a great opportunity to include extra information for customers if needed.
These automated reminders ensure that customers are ready on site, and mobile workers can complete their work efficiently.
Customers Can Share Necessary Details
Gaining access to a delivery or service location is not always straightforward. Sometimes, access instructions are required, or the customer is away from the property when the driver arrives.
A tracking portal can include two way chat to facilitate knowledge sharing and help staff to complete their work. The customer can provide entry instructions, or let the driver know that they stepped out for a few minutes.
In addition, businesses can adopt group communication tools to bring the contact center into the conversation. This way, office-based staff can intervene when the driver cannot respond.
Since communication happens through a secure platform, drivers and customers are reassured that their phone numbers remain private.
INDUSTRY WHITE PAPER
Best Practices for Last Mile Delivery
Company size has nothing to do with the ability to transform home/last mile delivery performance—it all starts with a different perspective and vision to turn delivery into a competitive weapon. Technology is an incredibly important enabler of world class delivery performance. Every best-in-class delivery company has 3 things in common. Download our Last Mile Delivery Best Practices eBook to see how you match up.
Customer Engagement Built for Busy Drivers
A seamless employee experience is key to improving driver retention. In addition, happy drivers are more likely to provide an excellent customer service.
Field service tracking software and last mile delivery tracking from Descartes empower drivers to do a great job while keeping customers informed.
Here’s how the customer engagement solution works around drivers’ needs:
Built with Drivers in Mind
The customer engagement solution is designed so that drivers don’t need to take extra actions to alert customers.
Employees can carry out their work as usual via the Descartes MobileLink app, which will trigger a notification to customers when they are on their way to a job.
Alternatively, businesses may choose to enable tracking through a no-touch background app, or to integrate the technology into an existing driver solution. Either way, customer notifications are triggered by geolocation or by job status update, so there’s no need for drivers to take on additional tasks.
Guarding Driver Privacy
Increased transparency vastly improves the customer experience. However, drivers sometimes have concerns about how their location is being used.
The aim of last mile tracking is to help customers prepare for their delivery or service appointment. Therefore, customers can only see the vehicle’s location when the driver is traveling to their address and tracking stops as soon as the driver arrives on site.
In addition, businesses can choose how a worker’s location is shown to customers. That can mean showing the driver’s position with or without a route line to the customer’s address.
Where there is a high volume of orders in the same area, companies can opt to show customers their place in the queue, and to start the tracking a configurable number of stops before the driver reaches the customer. Alternatively, a company might choose to show the customer’s place in the queue without displaying the driver’s position.
Operational Impact of Customer Engagement
Final mile tracking is more than a customer experience tactic. Real-time visibility helps to increase first-time access, minimize fuel costs and reduce calls to the contact center.
Take your fleet productivity and customer service to the next level with customer engagement software that’s made to support your drivers’ daily routine.
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