Selecting a good courier service to deliver your goods is a choice that has to be done with great care as getting it wrong can have you scratching your head and pulling your hair out of frustration. This is especially true if you are a business owner that depends heavily on products being delivered to customers.
If your packages are not delivered on time, or if they are damaged while delivering, your business will seriously get hit with a bad reputation although it was not your fault but of the courier service you hired to deliver them.
This is why choosing a good courier service company is important and in order for you to not have this problem ever occur to you, we have put together a sort of checklist that you can refer to when choosing a courier service for your business or even for your personal use.
Therefore, without any more delay, let’s get right into it.
1. Customer Service
The customer service of the courier company is very important. If you are delivering a high value or confidential items like letters and other luxury goods, you have to have good communication with the courier company.
As this is the case, if they start to doge your calls or lie about the delivery (trust us, this happens a lot) you will get frustrated and nervous about your delivery as that is the last thing you want as a business owner with all the other thousands of things on your mind.
Also, if your business delivers to your customers, the overall experience of the delivery will also influence the satisfaction rate of the customer. Therefore, if the delivery driver is rude or comes out with a bad attitude, your reputation will get affected even though the courier company was a third-party service you hired.
One simple way to avoid this is to read online reviews of the courier company before you reach out to them. This is a great way to know how that company has treated other customers just like you.
Also, you will also be able to identify the level of customer satisfaction you get with the initial phone call. Are they polite and helpful? Are they recommending you things?
These small communication points will allow you to get a clear idea of the customer care you will receive.
2. Security & Safety
There are some courier services that pay no attention to the goods being delivered. All they care about is getting the goods from point A to point B as soon as possible. This can result in damaged goods in delivery which you do not want in business deliveries on in any personal deliveries.
Also, there are some courier companies that handle confidential deliveries such as documents and letters that are not delivered in a confidential manner. They may switch delivery vehicles mid-way to save fuel or for other reasons they have which might result in that confidentiality being broken.
As this is the case with some courier services, you should clearly mention to the courier service company you are reaching out to that safety and security are your primary concern and check on what guarantees they offer to you on your delivery being delivered safely and securely.
If they do not guarantee the safety or if they say that they don’t take any responsibility for damaged delivery that is a clear red flag and you should move on from that company as soon as possible.
It would help you to make a choice if you read their online reviews as well. Make sure there are no bad reviews saying the goods delivered were damaged.
3. Speed of Delivery
The third thing that you need to look for in a courier service is their speed of delivery. A lot of unexpected things happen on a day-to-day basis and there may be instances where you will have to deliver something urgently.
In such cases, the courier service company you choose must be quick. Also, remember when we said that some companies focus mainly on the speed of delivery without any concerns for the safety of the goods being delivered? Well, here you will have to consider that as well. There is no point delivering your goods on time if they are damaged.
Therefore, when choosing a courier company, make sure that you get some sort of guarantee on both the time of delivery and the safety of the delivery as one without the other is no good. You can discuss these things during the initial discovery call.
One other additional tip here is to choose a courier company that has over 5 years of experience like AAWI Enterprise LTD as they know the ins and outs of each city and will be able to deliver your goods on time even on the busiest days.
4. Courier Areas Serviced
The areas that the courier service company covers are also an important factor when it comes to choosing a good company if you have goods to be delivered across the country or you want to do multi-drop deliveries or even if you need to deliver goods out of the country.
There are some courier companies out there that say they cover all locations but in reality, they don’t. They just hire another cheap courier service company that will deliver to those locations and act as middlemen getting a commission which is very risky as this will reduce the level of security and the safety of the goods being delivered.
To avoid this happening to you, make sure to request delivery tracking and get a clear confirmation that they are the only ones that will handle your delivery and that no other untrusted courier service will handle them.
As we mentioned above, if you are operating an eCommerce business or any other business that does deliveries nationwide or worldwide, it is better for you to have one courier service picked out for every delivery.
As this is the case you will have to have a good initial conversation with the courier company and mention to them all your requirements and come to a delivery partnership which will have you not stressed out as much if you pick several courier services to deliver your goods at different times.
5. The flexibility of the company
The flexibility of your courier company is another important thing that you must look into when choosing a good courier service company. This is especially important for business owners as they will have a lot of deliveries and there are certain situations where your courier service needs to be a little flexible to make some deliveries.
For example, let’s say that you have a sudden unscheduled delivery to be made. If all the delivery vehicles are out, the courier company must be able to work something out such as hire a third-party delivery vehicle that they trust and get your goods delivered.
If you give them regular business with your deliveries, they must be willing to be as much flexible as possible to keep you as their customer.
Therefore, make sure that the courier service you choose will offer flexible service and is always there to help you out in emergencies.
6. Service Price Points
If you are a business owner you must pay special attention to these prices as you will have to add these prices for your products to cover up the costs. If the prices are too high, your products will not be ordered and that is something that you don’t want to happen.
We know that the prices should be higher on this list, but it is not true. If you want the best courier service that guarantees safe delivery, is insured, and provide additional services along with great customer care, you will not be able to obtain such services cheaply.
Also, there are some courier services that charge ridiculous prices which you should avoid. A good work around this is the get quotations from several other courier companies compare them with each other and make your decision.
Please note that when we say “comparer” we don’t mean just the price. You will have to compare their overall service as well such as the customer care, the reputation, flexibility and etc.
7. Warehousing Facilities
There can be certain instances where you need warehousing facilities to store your goods before delivering such as when you are a wholesaler delivering goods to retailers in specific areas. In such instances, you will need warehousing and if your courier service company does not have its own warehousing facilities you will have to rent one out which will make it more expensive and more stressful to handle.
On the other hand, if you choose a courier service that provides warehousing you will be able to store and deliver all your goods in one place which will make it easy and stressless at the same time making it cost efficient as well.
Note that warehousing facilities are not a must if you just need day-to-day deliveries done. This is a factor that you should only consider if you need storing facilities along with your delivery facilities.
8. Vehicle Fleet availability
There can be jobs that require specific vehicles such as temperature controlled or heavy load trucks such as eighteen wheelers. If your courier company does not have access to these vehicles, you will be in trouble.
With that said, make sure that the courier service you are choosing have access to a wide range of vehicle fleet that can cater to any delivery you might have to make.
Some may think that this is not something that they wouldn’t need but, trust us, it is better to be prepared than to be sorry after a sudden requirement arises.
Conclusions
There you go, eight factors to consider when choosing a courier service. Now that you are aware of these eight factors, we now hope that you will make the right choice and make sure your deliveries are made smoothly, safely, and on time.