magazine
businessinfomag.uk
38
Deliveries
Fast and flexible
‘I want it here. And I want it now’
used to be the sort of thing an
excessively demanding boss would
shout at the office junior. Today,
instant gratification no longer seems
so unreasonable – especially when it
comes to online purchases.
A recent study by Barclaycard
highlights that it is not only our
attention span that is suffering in the
digital age: our willingness to wait for
things is also diminishing, with 33%
of businesses surveyed claiming that
customers expect orders to be delivered
or services supplied more quickly than
they did a year go.
For some, even next-day delivery
is no longer good enough. Almost one
in five consumers (17%) questioned
by Barclaycard said they want their
purchases instantly – and they don’t
particularly care how this is achieved,
with 37% happy to receive deliveries by
robot if it means a shorter wait.
This tendency applies to services,
too, with more and more consumers
wanting doctors (38%), dentists (28%),
handymen (23%) and fitness instructors
(16%) to come to the home ‘on
demand’.
Barclaycard calls this the ‘doorstep
economy’ and says that the pressure to
deliver goods and services to consumers
where, when and how they want is set to
change the face of the retail and service
industries.
Already, Argos offers a Fast Track
service with same-day delivery, seven
days a week for a flat fee of £3.95, while
Amazon offers Amazon Prime members
in certain areas same-day delivery for
no extra charge. In June, it is launching
Prime Now, which offers members in
select postcodes one-hour delivery for
£6.99. In the future, Amazon hopes to
cut delivery times to just 30 minutes
through the use of small aerial drones.
Smaller companies, too, are meeting
Tayla Ansell explains why, when it comes to deliveries, ‘next day’ is so yesterday
They want their
purchases
instantly –
and they don’t
particularly
care how this
is achieved
Once the customer has placed an order, it comes
through to our dispatch team at head office. They
verify the order and make sure we know exactly
what we need to get before assigning a driver to
the job.
The level of detail provided by the customer helps
speed up the process. For example, stock code numbers
are invaluable and can cut delivery times by 20%.
A typical timeline for the purchase and delivery of
a new laptop charger might be:
09:00
Order sent for a laptop charger.
09:01
Dispatcher contacts the customer confirming the
type of laptop charger they want.
09:06
Dispatcher sources the item from a retailer that
stocks it.
09:10
A nearby Henchman is assigned to go to the
retailer to pick up the item.
09:22
Henchman arrives at the retailer, picks up the
item and then sets off to the drop off location
requested by the customer.
09:38
Henchman arrives and drops off the item with the
customer, waiting while the customer checks it’s
OK before setting off on the next job.
How did they do that?
Henchman head of marketing Craig
Stockwell explains how Henchman is
able to deliver items so quickly.
