Delivery management is a crucial step for any business owner who delivers their products to their customers’ door steps. Traditionally, very few businesses gave delivery management its due importance, as they didn’t see the value in setting aside the time to optimize their delivery processes or in setting aside the money to pay a delivery manager to manage the process for them.
However, as we will see in this article, managing the business’s delivery processes will actually free up valuable time and money for the business and improve customer satisfaction. And the good news is that a good delivery management app is all you need to optimize your delivery processes. Which means, you can give delivery management its due importance at a fraction of the cost and time that you would have otherwise spent on it a decade ago.
What is Delivery Management and Why Is It So Important?
Wholesale distributors and manufacturers today are challenged by the dynamic nature of customer orders, where just-in-time or real-time orders are the norm and distributors are expected to deliver products at the customers’ doorsteps. The distributor’s reaction time is limited and has to be managed very efficiently. This is where Delivery Management comes into play.
Delivery management is the implementation of processes to improve the efficiency and effectivity of the transfer of goods from one place to another. Delivery management not only speeds up deliveries, it also improves operational management and improves customer satisfaction.
This fairly complex process has been greatly simplified by the advent of delivery management apps. These apps, when incorporating Point of Sale (POS) features (and sometimes referred to as Van Sales apps), help in overcoming common challenges associated with real-time orders, van sales and doorstep deliveries. This article analyses the challenges involved in such a business model and suggests solutions that can be applied to address them.
Challenges Faced by Van Sales Businesses in the Absence of Delivery Management
In traditional van sales, the van salesman depends on his memory and experience to recall the buying patterns of customers on his route and loads items in the van accordingly, relying heavily on gross guesswork.
This manual approach has serious limitations. The ability to load the van with the right type and amount of products depends on the experience and skill of the van salesperson. Moreover, when he leaves the job, this invaluable knowledge leaves with him. Further, the manual process might encounter challenges in accommodating seasonal variations in buying patterns.
The salesman’s inability to track the items in the van as he progresses along hiss route presents another set of challenges. Very frequently, a van salesman may lose a sales opportunity because he could not see or reach an item that was in the van, leading to a missed order.
The collection process and reminders for payments are a constant irritant with the owners of the business, as there is no proper system to view payment history and ageing.
How A Sales and Delivery Management App Supports Real-time Ordering and Delivery
Smart Van Sales is an innovative salesforce and ordering automation solution that combines features of Posibolt’s retail solution, its Android-based ordering and inventory management mobile app, and a delivery management app. This powerful solution optimizes each of the processes involved in van sales, starting with the loading of the van from the warehouse based on the customer route and the previous sales history of the customers.
Using a sales and delivery management system, the van salesperson can take real-time orders at the client location, avoiding delayed, incorrect or missed orders and duplicate entries and leading to better customer satisfaction. Further, the app provides instant access to customers’ order history, supporting even inexperienced salespersons in upselling and cross-selling and thereby enhancing business prospects.
Operational efficiency is also improved by providing business owners and managers with better visibility and control. The simple yet powerful interface of the app allows them to define and monitor the route map, view the exact time of deliveries, get updates on orders and sales in real-time, and get better visibility and insights into finance.
Sales and Delivery Management Software by Posibolt
The best delivery management systems will ensure that every step of your delivery operations is optimized. It will change the way your delivery operations are carried out, from the moment you receive an order till the product is delivered at your customer’s doorstep. Further, an integrated solution will support additional aspects of the business, such as collecting payments and gaining insights into the operations.
With this in mind, Posibolt has designed a sales and delivery management software that is packed with powerful features to optimize van sales delivery processes, improving operational efficiency, enhancing customer experience, and saving time and money for the business.
The solution enables efficient loading of the van from the warehouse based on the customer route and the previous sales history of the customers.
The integration of Point of Sale (POS) features enables quick and easy app-based sales ordering. Orders can be taken from the customer’s doorstep and a spot-invoice can be produced through backend connectivity to Posibolt ERP Cloud. The simplified process avoids the error-prone duplication of entries.
Every time a customer order is entered, the stock in the van is checked by the mobile app automatically, sparing the van salesman the necessity of physically verifying the availability of stock.
The sales invoice can be printed at the customer premise on the wireless/ handheld PDA during the route sales. Further, inventory and accounts are updated in real-time without any hassles.
The van salesman gets reminders on outstanding payments by customers based on invoice ageing.
The salesman can process customer payments instantly, generating an SMS confirmation to the client about the receipt of the amount.
The sales and delivery app also supports the processing of sales returns at the customer premise.
The app gives the management and salespersons visibility into daily sales and cash balance on the go.