Introduction

Many small businesses start out by using WhatsApp to communicate with drivers and customers. Excel spreadsheets are used to keep track of the orders, deliveries, invoicing, and other key activities. While it can be fairly simple and inexpensive to start out this way, as the business grows, there can be issues with missed messages or orders, late deliveries, and overall lack of control over the process that can seriously impact customer satisfaction and bottom line profits.

It can be challenging to know when it is time to transition from WhatsApp and Excel to a more sophisticated software, but understanding the warning signs can be helpful in making the switch in time and getting things back under control.

1. When Your Excel Sheets Are Too Hard to Manage

If your delivery business is growing and you are getting up to 50, 100, or even more orders per day, you probably need something a bit more efficient than Excel spreadsheets or WhatsApp chats to keep track of your deliveries. Managing spreadsheets and communicating with drivers through WhatsApp takes up a lot of your team’s time – and the more people you have to involve in the process, the more opportunities for errors there are.

For example,

your team may miss an important message or send the same delivery instructions to two different drivers by mistake

Even if these issues only happen a few times a week, they can add up to late deliveries, customer complaints, and loss of income.

Using a dedicated delivery management software can help take some of that burden off of your staff and allow them to focus on more important tasks.

2. When You Can’t Find Important Information in WhatsApp Chats

WhatsApp is great for communicating with drivers or customers, but it is not the best place to store important information. If your dispatchers are communicating with drivers via WhatsApp chats or groups, there is a good chance that some important information may get lost in the endless stream of notifications.

When an order has special instructions, such as the customer being out-of-town, or when the delivery address needs to be changed, it can be easy to miss that message in a group of several drivers. Even more challenging is going back through old WhatsApp messages to find the most recent update. These disruptions and mishaps can severely impact your delivery performance, especially if your drivers are not following the right procedures or are confused in any way.

A delivery tracking application will give you a much better view of your on-going deliveries while also freeing up your staff to devote more time to actually managing the process. Based on your specific software, you may even be able to send updates directly to customers, reducing the number of calls to your office as well. The good news is that WhatsApp can still be used for everyday communication with drivers and other stakeholders; it just shouldn’t be used for storing or managing that crucial delivery information.

3. When Customers Keep Asking, “Where Is My Delivery?”

Communication with customers is always important and using a delivery tracking app can make that process much simpler. In fact, that is one of the primary functions of such an application – giving the customer the ability to follow along with their delivery without calling or texting your office.

If your customers are continually calling your office about where their order is, that can be an indication that you may need a tracking system in place. If you do not have an easy way to update customers, it can be very frustrating for them – especially if they are waiting at their home or business for a delivery to show up. With delivery tracking software, you can make it even simpler for customers by sending them an automated message as soon as the delivery is complete.

4. When Delivery Errors Start Taking a Toll on Your Business

There is no doubt that delivery errors, such as late or missed deliveries, can take a toll on your business. However, it can be easy to overlook smaller errors or inconsistencies that add up over time. If your Excel sheets or WhatsApp chats are resulting in a high number of delivery errors, it is probably time to re-evaluate your current procedures.

For example,

you may be experiencing a higher rate of failed deliveries than usual. This could be due to drivers visiting the wrong address, or the customer not being available at the time of delivery and not updating their delivery window. If your Excel sheets are not properly tracking each delivery or your WhatsApp messages are not reaching your drivers or customers, it can result in higher fuel costs, longer delivery times, and an overall negative customer experience, which can hurt your business both now and in the future.

While spreadsheets are great for tracking information, they cannot replace other aspects of a delivery management system.

By using delivery management software, you can not only get a better view of your on-going deliveries, but you can optimize and streamline the process to reduce these errors and increase efficiency. That leads us to our next point.

5. When You Can’t Really See Your Business Performance

You may want to see how your delivery business is performing, but if you are using WhatsApp for all of your communications and Excel sheets for tracking deliveries, it can be time-consuming and difficult to compile that information.

You may find yourself asking several important questions:

• How many orders are being delivered successfully each day?

• Which drivers are consistently late or early?

• How many deliveries are resulting in errors?

• How long is it taking to make deliveries?

• Which areas are proving the most challenging?

If you cannot easily answer these questions, it may be time to use a delivery management software that can help make things clearer and easier to manage. It can also help you keep track of the performance of your drivers and delivery vehicles, as well as keep customers better informed.

6. When Your Business Starts Getting Bigger

As your delivery business grows, you may add more drivers or even expand to new territories. While that certainly has the potential to increase your earnings, it also means that you need to have a better system in place to manage those additional drivers and areas.

That means adding another driver or two to your WhatsApp chat group or using another Excel sheet to track their deliveries may work alright at first, especially if you only have a couple of drivers. However, if it becomes much more challenging to keep everything in order, it might not be worth it. At that point, it is probably time to invest in a delivery management software that keeps everyone on the same page.

Depending on your software, there may be a number of features designed to keep multiple drivers, zones, and branches organized as well as track multiple customer orders at once. That should definitely be a goal when choosing the right software for your delivery business.

7. How to Know When It’s Time to Make the Switch

Now that we’ve gone over some of the warning signs that it may be time to make the switch from WhatsApp and Excel to a delivery management software, it is time to start looking at your options. When making that switch, it does not mean that you need to get rid of all of your current tools – a good delivery management software will help you replace those time-consuming and error-inducing processes so that you can get your business operations back in order.

The most efficient time to make the switch will depend on your business needs and operations. You should take a careful look at your current day-to-day process and think about any pain points or issues you encounter. From there, make a short list of your requirements, keeping in mind your current budget and needs for the future.

Some aspects to be on the lookout for include:

• Order management

• Driver assignment

• Route optimization

• Delivery tracking

• Delivery proof

• Customer notification

• Performance reporting

By getting the right features and making sure the software is easy to use and adaptable to your needs, you can make the switch even more seamless by starting with one or two drivers and scaling up as needed.