Complete Guide to Contactless Delivery – Tookan

The COVID-19 pandemic has finally changed how people engage with businesses, particularly on-demand operations and those that involve the delivery of goods. With social distancing becoming the new normal, on-demand businesses have quickly adapted to the changing times and introduced contactless delivery as an alternative. Read on to learn more about contactless delivery and everything in detail.

What is contactless delivery?

As the name suggests, contactless delivery, also known as no contact delivery or contact-free delivery, is when the delivery executive leaves your order in a safe space either in front of your door/gate or with the security guard. Given the pandemic, most people prefer avoiding any physical contact. In fact, according to a Technomic survey, almost 32% of consumers are leaving their houses less often than before.

A contactless delivery allows them to order food and any other product home without having to worry about any physical contact with the delivery executive.

Why is contactless delivery necessary for your business

Contactless delivery is the way ahead and there are various reasons why delivery businesses need to jump in on the bandwagon. Here’s why contactless delivery is necessary for your business:

• Sustainability: Businesses need to adapt to changing times by modifying their offerings. The only way to attain longevity in the competitive world of business is to constantly evolve and change with the times. While the need for contactless delivery arose due to the pandemic, the demand for this type of delivery isn’t going away anytime soon. By introducing contactless delivery as an option, businesses can sustain their operations for longer and offer customers exactly what they need.

• Stopping the Spread: As things stand, the virus is still amongst us and as a delivery business, it becomes your ethical responsibility to do your part in stopping the spread. Since delivery executives travel around all day, there’s a possibility of them inadvertently spreading the virus. But if a no-contact delivery option is available, they can leave the package at the door or gate and complete the delivery without physically contacting anyone. Contactless delivery is actually safer for delivery executives themselves since they can avoid being in touch with people and potentially getting infected.

• Brand Image: A business’ image as a brand is crucial, particularly during testing times like these. Customers appreciate a business offering contactless delivery to make both the delivery executives and customers feel safe and that helps boost their brand loyalty and value. If a business, for instance, doesn’t change with the times and continues offering regular delivery, customers might start to avoid engaging with them.

• Digital Payments Boost: Most businesses prefer dealing with digital payment since there’s a lower risk of bad orders than cash on delivery. With contactless delivery, digital payments become the only mode of payment available since delivery executives cannot collect cash or accept card payments from customers. This push towards digital payments works great for businesses as they immediately get the money and don’t have to deal in cash.

How contactless delivery works

Most businesses offer contactless delivery as an option at the checkout page. If a customer selects this when making the purchase, the delivery will be contactless. At the time of delivery, instead of physically handing over the parcel to the customer, the delivery executive will leave it at the customer’s doorstep. If there’s no visible place to safely keep the parcel, the executive can call the customer to ask for a place where they can keep the parcel.

Once the delivery is complete, the executive will inform the customer by sending them a picture of the delivered package via the mobile app. Post this, the customer may receive a notification or alert to remind them to collect their package.

If payment is pending, the customer will be asked to transfer the money through digital wallets or OTP-based transactions. Another important element of contactless delivery is sharing the delivery executive’s health status in the order tracking screen.

Contactless delivery after the pandemic

As previously mentioned, the pandemic has left a lasting impact on how businesses function. While things will eventually go back to normal in most ways, there are certain aspects of a business that have changed for good. Contactless delivery is one of these aspects. 

This mode of delivery is generally of no inconvenience to customers since they can just collect the order from their door and avoid physical contact with the delivery executive. 

This extra layer of safety on offer is what will push customers to opt for contactless delivery even after the pandemic is over. 

The pandemic is expected to also alter customer behavior in major ways and make them more cautious of physically receiving packages when there’s a safer alternative available. 

It’s widely believed that viruses, in general, spread mostly through physical contact. If there’s an option that helps prevent that, it’s safe to assume that customers would gravitate towards it.

For businesses, it’s important to train delivery partners in the ways of no-contact delivery. Also important is defining a clear process and flow for contactless deliveries and contingencies that protect the interests of both the customers and the delivery executives.

How will Tookan make Contactless delivery possible?

Tookan is an enterprise delivery management software that helps businesses run super smooth delivery operations with a suite of powerful end-to-end business solutions. Some features that make Tookan the best delivery management software out there include:

• Powerful dashboard for single or bulk (CSV) task creation, smooth third-party order creation, web booking form compatibility, and more.
• Excellent delivery executive dispatching mechanism based on a suitable allocation algorithm.
• Top-notch route optimization to save your delivery executives time and enable them to complete more deliveries.
• Simplified task assignment process courtesy geofencing capabilities that help categorize delivery executives based on their location.
• Robust order tracking mechanism where customers receive SMS tracking links and in-app tracking to keep track of the driver and the expected time of arrival.

This is just the tip of the barrel when it comes to how Tookan can help a delivery business scale new heights. With Tookan, you can also easily add a contactless delivery option to the checkout page of your customer’s app. The drivers will also receive suitable intimation on their app when contactless delivery has been selected for a particular order.

How can you start contactless delivery for your business?

There are quite a few things you need to do to make your business ready for contactless delivery, including:

• Checkout page preparedness: The checkout page in the customer app should have a clearly highlighted section where customers can opt-in for contactless delivery. Since you can’t force no-contact delivery on customers, adding it as an option during the checkout page is the only way of going about it. If the delivery is food or grocery-related, you can add a message in the track screen mentioning the fact that the delivery will be contactless.

• Notifying customers: Training delivery executives on how to handle contactless deliveries is crucial. When a delivery executive arrives at a customer’s location, they should give the customer a call or send them a message via the app informing them of their arrival. Another way to go about informing customers of the executive’s arrival is through notifications. This option is preferred over calling or texting customers since many don’t like to be disturbed.

• Number masking: To maintain both customers’ and delivery executives’ privacy, it’s crucial to invest in robust number masking technology. This ensures the customer and delivery executive’s numbers don’t fall into the wrong hands.

• Handling tips: Like everything else, tips for delivery executives need to be digitized and paid out to the executives on a weekly or monthly basis. An option to add tips should be available on the checkout page and the post-delivery rating page. Sending customers notifications to add a tip for a great delivery experience is also recommended.

• Managing proof of delivery digitally: With contactless deliveries, getting a customer to physically sign the proof of delivery is not possible. The way out? Digital, of course. With Tookan, you can empower your agents to scan barcodes, add notes, images and collect digital signatures from customers.

Conclusion

Contactless delivery is the way ahead as the world comes to grips with the new normal of social distancing and limited physical contact. If your delivery business is in need of smart delivery management solutions to ride the pandemic wave and adapt to the changing times, get in touch with the experts at Tookan.