How to Find the Right Local Courier Service for Your Business

January 21, 2019 Courier

Do you have a trustworthy local courier service? For a business that relies on speed, you need the best courier service. This can help improve your client satisfaction.

Why?

Studies show that courier services can influence business customer satisfaction. This is true for both brick and mortar or e-commerce businesses.

Regardless if you are an online business or you have an infrastructure, a local courier delivery service can spell success or disaster for you. Since there’s so many of them out in the wild, how do you find the right courier company?

In this article, we’ll talk about what to look for in a local courier service. What do you need to find someone that fits your business?

It looks hard, but if you keep reading, it will be easy from the start.

1. A Courier Business Must Have Easy Tracking

You would want make sure it’s easy to track any package sent over your delivery courier. This gives you and your client the ability to do a few things. With the right service, you can track:

  • the position of goods
  • delivery status
  • estimated time of arrival
  • stage of the delivery process

Knowing how to follow your products gives you and your clients peace of mind. Customers care about proper shipment tracking. The top marks for consumer shipping revolve around “easy to track shipments”.

Also, tracking that shows the estimated time of arrival (ETA) will get priority. If the ETA can happen earlier than anticipated, that’s a plus to your side.

Same day delivery services have many business benefits. A local couriers service that can get items quicker can net the business better reviews.

2. Cheap Local Couriers Service

No matter how big or small your business is, cost is a factor. It will be one of the primary considerations when picking the right courier company. Cost can affect your bottom line, and the lower the price, the better it is.

However, a perfect balance of price and deliverability is essential. Finding the right courier team for your products requires a service level agreement.

How do you do that? Find a business that has the right infrastructure and warehousing capabilities. They should be able to handle whatever volume you need.

3. Service Reliability

Service reliability is the most crucial factor that you need to look for in any delivery courier. A reliable service team means not only can they do the deliveries on time, but they should also be capable of doing the job on a consistent basis.

If you’re unsure how reliable a team is, the first thing you look for is local reviews. People love to record their experiences with their couriers.

The best courier service will have good reviews across. They will also have solid testimonials for their reliability.

If you want to try a new service altogether, compare different quotes. Compare the writing on the paper and discuss compliance with the agreement.

4. Full Range of Delivery Options

If you’re paying good money for a courier company, make sure you have a variety of delivery options. Having a variety of delivery models gives your business pricing flexibility.

An excellent example of this is Amazon. The eCommerce site has a variety of delivery options. This depends on the service that the customers want.

With Amazon Prime, they provide same-day delivery options for local orders. If the products need drop-shipping, they offer a separate delivery option depending on the shipping cost the customer is willing to pay.

For small and medium businesses, you need at least two to three delivery options. Local delivery needs to have a quick turn around time. Out of city or out of state deliveries, however, would need a separate SLA.

5. Robust Insurance Coverage

Damaged goods are a common problem in both eCommerce and brick and mortar businesses. There are countless horror stories online of a delivery courier damaging goods. This will not reflect well on your business.

If you want to prevent lost time and customer dissatisfaction, there’s an answer to it. Make sure to find a local couriers service that has insurance coverage. This insurance will cover them in the event of neglect or damage.

In the event of breakage, the proper recourse is to refund the customer or give them the same product. You would also need something extra to prevent customer complaints. If that happens, the courier’s insurance needs to pay for the damage.

Insurance makes sure you don’t pay out of pocket. It reduces the total cost that you need to bear. It will also allow you to take care of any impending customer service disaster without it affecting your bottom line. Find someone who knows how to handle fragile items in the first place.

6. Professional Couriers

The product journey of a customer starts with the courier business. If the person who delivers the parcel is brusque and unprofessional, the experience will never be the same. Having professional couriers can make the day of the receiver – or even add to the entire experience.

What do the couriers look like when they deliver? What does the product look like during delivery? How do they talk to customers?

These are valid questions to consider when picking the best courier service for your business. Find people with a well-trained fleet of pros who can provide the full customer experience. These people will be the life-blood of the service.

Choosing the Right Local Courier Delivery Service Matters

It takes time to pick the right people to deliver your goods to your customers. You would need some extra effort to wade through quotes. Even then, you can’t be sure who to trust.

When choosing the right local courier delivery service, factor not only the price but also how good their service is.

What’s their reputation? What’s in the black and white? Do they have a service level agreement?

If your service area is in Miami and Fort Lauderdale area, why not rely on ASAP Courier? ASAP Courier is Florida’s premiere local courier, with various delivery options and rush services depending on your needs.

Get pre-scheduled route deliveries, strong warehousing options, and many more. Talk to us at Chicago Messenger and see what we can do to help. Sending your parcels is as easy as A-B-C.