Category: Blog

GoShare connects you with local delivery professionals on demand to help you deliver or move goods in the Charlottesville area. Help is just minutes away with GoShare’s same day last mile delivery service. With GoShare, you can deliver or move almost anything the same day in Charlottesville and nationwide with our unique mobile apps, website or our Delivery API for high volume shippers. Our team of delivery experts can handle most of your delivery needs in the greater Charlottesville region.

Modern consumer demands and the ongoing digital revolution require businesses to adopt a digital delivery and logistics strategy to support same day home delivery. GoShare can help you find vetted delivery professionals with the right equipment and help you manage and track deliveries while saving you time and money by automating manual tasks.

Delivery Service in Charlottesville

Our local driver network includes hundreds of delivery professionals in the greater Charlottesville area who are equipped to handle any and all of your delivery needs. Our delivery pros are experts in handling large and heavy shipments, oversized loads, and small parcels. We have a fleet of vehicles that can handle any size shipment, from box trucks, cargo vans, and pickup trucks to sedans. Our platform is flexible, so depending on your needs you can request one delivery pro for lighter cargo or two delivery pros for big and bulky items that require more than one person. From a single piece of furniture to a pallet of paint, we have the resources and knowledge to handle any size job.

GoShare is trusted by leading companies across a variety of industries such as retail, solar, food and beverage, automotive, clothing, construction supply, e-commerce, industrial supply, manufacturing, medical, transportation, and more.

Your Delivery Service Partner in Charlottesville, VA

We know you need to get your products delivered safely, and on time, to your customers. You need a delivery partner you can trust. We have partnered with thousands of businesses, helping them meet their delivery demand and increase their customer satisfaction. As last mile delivery experts in Charlottesville, we have a passion for making your deliveries easy, efficient, and fast. We pride ourselves on providing the highest levels of customer service.

GoShare is helping businesses like yours by offering modern delivery solutions such as: Proof of Delivery (POD) photographs, automated invoicing, rapid driver matching using Machine Learning (ML), real time order tracking, and a record of each delivery. Connect the GoShare Delivery API to your TMS, POS, WMS, or ERP system to automate order flow, exception handling, and payments.

Whether you need a small parcel delivery or pallets of items transferred from one location to another, our fleet of vetted independent drivers is equipped to handle almost anything you throw at them. All of our delivery pros are licensed, insured, and background checked to give you the peace of mind you need to run your business.

Delivery Service Made Easy in Charlottesville, VA

Your supply chain is our business and we’re committed to providing you with tools for easy scheduling, tracking, and delivery no matter where your business takes you. Our delivery service is available in many cities across the United States. As long as the shipment begins or ends in one of our nationwide service areas, we can accept your last mile delivery orders.

With trucks and vans of all sizes, GoShare specializes in big & bulky delivery in Charlottesville. We focus on providing fast, reliable service to any size business. We can pick up at your store or warehouse seven days a week. Expect rapid service and multiple service levels including: curbside, threshold, room of choice, and white glove delivery.

GoShare is a logistics technology company that facilitates last mile deliveries, middle mile deliveries, LTL shipments, hot shot trucking, and home delivery solutions for businesses nationwide. We are dedicated to delivering happiness in every aspect of our service, from our delivery pros and customer support team to our proprietary software. Try us and see why our customers say we’re the best delivery service available in Charlottesville.

If you need help with moving, furniture delivery, appliance delivery, or other moving and hauling jobs, help is just a tap away. Use GoShare’s app or website to get a free estimate. In less than a minute, you can hire delivery professionals with a pickup truck, cargo van, or box truck. Schedule ahead or request them to arrive in under an hour. Service areas include Charlottesville, Staunton, Crozet, Harrisonburg, Hollymead, Waynesboro, Lake Monticello, Stuarts Draft, Bridgewater, Fishersville, and more.

A lot of leaders, including some with decades of experience who work at top-tier companies, do not fully understand the difference between “hospitality” and “guest service.”

These terms are often used interchangeably, yet while they are related, and while guest satisfaction requires both, they are fundamentally different concepts. Understanding the difference, and being able to convey this to frontline staff, is essential for taking both to the next level at your hotel, resort or inn.

What Is the Difference?

Guest service” is delivering experiences that at least meet, and hopefully exceed expectations. Fundamentally, this requires providing a safe, secure, clean, updated and comfortable accommodation, which of course is the starting point. On top of that, excellent guest service requires communication that rises above merely being polite. A few examples:

• Holding eye contact with guests long enough to exchange smiles;
• Using open body language;
• Excellence in telephone communications (a positive opening greeting, asking for and using the caller’s name, asking permission to place them on hold, supervising call transfers, and ending the call by offering additional assistance, restating the caller’s name and thanking them);
• Using guest names conversationally;
• Using the language of hospitality (“Allow me to check on that,” not “I’ll have to check on that”); and
• Expressing empathy and apologizing when things go wrong.

It is entirely possible for a hotel colleague to use all of these communications techniques and still not even come close to delivering hospitality. As a case in point, I’m sure all readers have had customer service experiences in which the associate delivered the “product” as expected, and said all of the right things, but in a way that felt scripted, robotic and disingenuous.

Top-tier leaders know that hospitality is, at its core, a philosophy for living more than a script or list of “service standards.”

To start, let’s look at the root of the word itself, which is derived from the Latin word “hospes,” meaning both “guest” and “host.”

Dictionary definitions of the word “hospitality” all generally include some version of receiving guests in a way that is warm, generous and friendly.

In my hospitality training workshops, I often ask participants to work in groups and to formulate one collective definition. Their results are always interesting and insightful, but the best one yet was: “Hospitality means caring about, as well as for, others.”

In the hotel industry, when we care “for” others, we basically do our jobs. We clean the rooms, fix what is broken and provide a key in exchange for their credit card. Yet when we care “about” our guests, we understand that the person on the other side of the desk, counter, phone line or email exchange is a real person going through a uniquely personal travel experience. We take time to imagine that they might be in town for a wedding, birthday or a vacation, but also it might be for a funeral, memorial service or at the start or end of a hospital stay. They might be in town on business to capture new sales, hire new staff, testify in a lawsuit or perhaps to layoff an entire team.

Another definition of hospitality is “the delivery of human kindness, especially to strangers.”

Howard Feiertag, a true industry icon who has been my personal mentor and friend for 33 years, said in a 2019 speech accepting a lifetime achievement award from Virginia Tech that “hospitality is making people feel good … and when we make them feel good, it makes YOU feel good, too!”

Around 1990, Howard joined Virginia Tech as an adjunct professor, where he still teaches and inspires students at what is now known as the Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management. You can watch Howard’s speech on YouTube.

Hotel leaders: At your next staff meeting, shift lineup or management conference, take a few moments to discuss with your team the true meaning of hospitality, making certain to differentiate it from the concept of guest service techniques.

Guest services is a division of the hospitality industry. The goal of guest services is to provide customers with an enjoyable experience, primarily in the hotel and spa industry, sports facilities, and event venues. Your duties in a guest services position may include greeting and assisting guests, accommodating requests, answering calls, issuing keys, processing payments, providing recommendations, and more. Guest services is typically located at the front desk to provide easy access to information for guests and to ensure excellent customer service. In some hotels, a concierge is a person in charge of guest services, and their responsibilities range from arranging tours for guests, to making reservations, to ensuring rooms are to the guest’s liking.

If you’ve been an Airbnb host for a while and you’ve had success at it, you may be thinking about adding more vacation rental properties to your portfolio. You may even be considering offering property management services, and managing other people’s properties.

Becoming an Airbnb property manager can be a fulfilling career path – and you can also make a lot of money with it. The short-term rental industry is forever growing: now is as good a time as any to take the next step and set up a property management business. It’s a relatively low-risk, low-investment venture that can turn out to be extremely lucrative.

But where should you start?

In this blog post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about becoming an Airbnb property manager, from finding clients to using vacation rental software to scale your business.

Host Tools provides an automated, unified calendar for short-term rental hosts, allowing you to seamlessly list on all major channels. Start your free trial today!

What Does an Airbnb Property Manager Do?

Before you decide to switch careers, you should be aware of the responsibilities that a property manager has.

While it can be a highly rewarding and lucrative career path, it’s definitely not a cakewalk. You should expect to work hard, especially as you start to grow.

The responsibilities of an Airbnb property manager include:

• Cultivating relationships with homeowners.
• Confirming bookings and communicating with guests.
• Scheduling and managing cleanings and maintenance work.
• Taking care of check-ins and check-outs.
• Distributing listings on Airbnb and other rental platforms.

How Do I Become an Airbnb Property Manager?

If you’re thinking about selling your home consider working with a real estate firm that offers concierge services. Our concierge service has a 100% success rate by guaranteeing that your home sells for its maximum value. Additionally, we can help alleviate the stress of selling your home by providing services that save you time and hassle.

As your concierge agents, we work to get your home in top condition prior to listing it. We provide personalized solutions to prepare your home for the top buyer. Anything you aren’t able to do we can do for you. This includes:

• Repainting your home. A fresh coat of paint is one of the cheapest home renovations you can do to increase your home’s curb appeal, increase your home’s value, and add a layer of protection against elements such as allergens, insects, or weather damage.
• Decluttering your space. This will help you organize your belongings and create a more spacious, welcoming  atmosphere for potential buyers to feel at home.
• Deep cleaning. Thoroughly cleaning your home is incredibly important when listing your property. Dust, dirt, and grime can be a big turn off for potential buyers and spectators. Dusting, shampooing carpets, and removing pet odors will help get your home show-ready!
• Staging. A professional stager can help make your home look like a page out of a magazine by helping you organize and store your belongings while your newly staged furniture is on display. This will make your property feel like a fresh model-home to potential buyers and give it that added sparkle!

When it comes to real estate, there are many moving parts to keep track of. The process can be overwhelming – that’s where a home services concierge can come in handy.

When it comes to buying or selling a home, there are many moving parts and countless details to keep track of.

From finding the right real estate agent to coordinating inspections and repairs, the process can be overwhelming, especially for busy individuals and families. That’s where a home services concierge can come in handy.

A home services concierge is a specialist who assists clients in navigating the complicated real estate market by organizing a range of home services, from cleaning and moving services to home inspections and appraisals. They act as a one-stop shop for all of a client’s housing-related requirements, offering individualized and thorough support throughout the purchasing or selling process.

One example of a home services concierge is Connect, a company that specializes in helping real estate agents and their clients with a range of services, including home inspections, repairs, and maintenance. Connect’s team of professionals works to ensure that all aspects of the home buying or selling process are streamlined and stress-free for their clients.

So, how exactly does a home services concierge work?

Let’s take a closer look at the services they can offer and how they can benefit clients

Utilities

Utilities are a need for every household. As a homeowner, it is most definitely a difficult task to figure out which utility service providers are in charge of servicing your house. Luckily, a home service concierge can help you find all the service providers near your location, and connect you to them.

Repairs and Maintenance

After a home inspection, it’s common for buyers to discover issues that need to be addressed before closing. Connect’s home services concierge can help clients find qualified professionals to perform any necessary repairs or maintenance. They work with a network of licensed and insured contractors to ensure that clients receive quality workmanship and fair pricing. Connect can also help clients schedule routine maintenance services, such as cleaning and lawn care, to keep their property in top condition.

Moving Services

Moving can be a stressful and time-consuming process, but Connect’s home services concierge can help make it easier. They can find a range of moving services, including packing, loading, and unloading. They can also help clients find reputable moving companies that offer competitive pricing and excellent service.

Home Warranty

A home warranty can provide peace of mind for homeowners by covering the cost of repairs or replacements for covered items, such as appliances and HVAC systems. Connect can help clients find a home warranty provider that meets their needs and budget.

Benefits of Using a Home Services Concierge

Using a home services concierge like Connect can provide numerous benefits for clients. First and foremost, it can save time and reduce stress by streamlining the home buying or selling process. Clients can rely on Connect’s team of professionals to handle all of the details, from scheduling inspections and repairs to coordinating moving services.

Another benefit of using a home services concierge is that it can help clients save money. Connect’s network of licensed and insured contractors and service providers offer competitive pricing, and the company can help clients negotiate pricing and terms to ensure that they receive the best possible value.

Finally, using a home services concierge can provide peace of mind for clients. They can rest assured that all aspects of the home buying or selling process are being handled by professionals who are committed to providing excellent service and support.

In conclusion, a home services concierge can be a valuable resource for anyone navigating the complex world of real estate. Connect’s home services concierge is an excellent example of a company that provides comprehensive and personalized support for clients throughout the home buying or selling process. By offering a range of services, from home inspections and repairs to moving and maintenance, Connect helps clients save time, money, and stress while ensuring that their home-related needs are met. Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or a seasoned real estate investor, a home services concierge can help make the process easier and more efficient.

Consumer buying behaviors have changed, especially when it comes to online shopping.

Today’s consumers expect cheap—or, better yet, free—and fast delivery.

Just to repeat for emphasis: free, fast delivery.

So, in order to stay competitive, companies need to find a way to improve efficiency and cut costs in order to fund their shipping logistics.

A big part of this boils down to a company’s last mile delivery process. That means, for a company to survive in this market, they need to find ways to improve efficiency in this area.

In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the logistics of last mile delivery, identify the biggest challenges of last mile deliveries you’ll face heading into the future, and discuss how technology can be used to solve these and give your company a competitive advantage.

What is Last Mile Delivery?

Last mile delivery refers to the very last step of the delivery process when a parcel is moved from a transportation hub to its final destination—which, usually, is a personal residence or retail store.

This is the most critical step in the delivery process, and the one that businesses want to ensure is as quick and efficient as possible. This is to keep up with the continually increasing consumer demand for speedy shipping, especially in e-commerce, food, and retail industries. It also happens to be the most expensive leg of the journey that goods take to reach their ultimate destination.

5 Key Steps in the Last Mile Delivery Process

The last mile delivery process can be broken down into the following five steps.

Step #1

Orders are digitally entered into a centralized system

This is the step where orders and requests are monitored both by the sender and the end recipient, who is likely following the status of their delivery through a tracking number.

Step #2

Orders arrive at the transportation hub and await delivery to their end recipient

This is where the last mile delivery process truly begins—businesses need to ensure the order gets from the transportation hub to the customer as quickly as possible.

Step #3

Orders are designated to delivery personnel based on routes and recipient addresses

Strategically sorting and designated the parcels for delivery is essential to having an optimized, cost-effective delivery last mile logistics solution.

Step #4

Orders are scanned before being loaded onto delivery vehicles

This updates the status of the order for the sender, as well as the end recipient tracking the shipment. It also reduces the risk of packaged goods getting lost along the way.

Step #5

Orders successfully reach the end recipients, and proof of delivery is obtained

At this stage, the parcel has arrived at its final destination. The delivery personnel then updates the tracking information accordingly to verify and confirm that the delivery has been completed.

What is the “Last Mile Problem”?

By now, we’ve established that an efficient last mile delivery process is essential to keeping your customers happy.

The paradox is: while customers want shipping that’s free and fast, it also happens to be the most expensive and time-consuming part of the shipping process.

But with how easy it is for customers to find an alternative place to shop, companies can’t afford to disappoint them.

Which means companies have to foot that cost.

And that right there, is the last mile delivery problem.

Last mile shipping can account for 53% of a shipment’s total costs. Companies typically eat about 25% of that cost themselves, but this number is increasing as supply chain inefficiencies are becoming more and more costly.

What is the biggest challenge with last mile deliveries?

Optimizing last mile delivery can result in significant savings for ecommerce businesses and retailers, especially as the number of shipments across most industries continues to skyrocket.

We’ll dive into the best practices for optimizing  your last mile logistics in the next section.

5 Ways Technology Can Solve Your Biggest Last Mile Delivery Challenges

Perfecting your last mile delivery in order to provide speedy, on-time delivery is critical to providing a delightful customer experience. But how exactly does one perfect last mile delivery?

Having an effective fleet management tool is a solid place to start.

A last mile delivery platform designed to help you perfect that oh-so-important last mile, trusted by big names including GAP, Total Wine & More, MedMen, Imperfect Foods, and United Supermarkets, among many more. The software serves as a “complete toolkit for last mile delivery,” boasting features like end-to-end route planning, dispatch, real-time driver tracking, communication, and analytics.

In other words, the technology does the heavy lifting for you, so you can focus on your customers.

Here are five ways a last mile delivery solution can help optimize your delivery process.

1. Use route planning to cut delivery times

Every driver that delivers packages has a route to follow. In a perfect world, these routes are nice and straightforward, with parcel drop-offs all along the way.

In reality, however, a route could be several miles long with only a few drop-offs in total, especially in rural areas. That means a lot of time and gas spent on only a few deliveries.

Similarly, in heavily urbanized areas, the congestion of traffic can use up just as much time and gas, even though the drop-offs are closer together.

Optimizes delivery routes by automatically factoring time, location, vehicle capacity, and traffic to recommend efficient routes. Any updates on traffic that could affect these routes are sent to the drivers via SMS in real-time, optimizing route times and empowering end users with real-time information.

Optimizing last mile delivery can result in significant savings for ecommerce businesses and retailers, especially as the number of shipments across most industries continues to skyrocket.

We’ll dive into the best practices for optimizing  your last mile logistics in the next section.

2. Reduce service time and labor costs with auto dispatching

Adding on to the first point, having software plan your routes not only saves the time that would be required to do so manually but, because routes are updated in real-time, can also decrease the number of drivers needed in a day to complete the deliveries.

Managers can set auto-assignment rules based on driver location and route distance, while limiting the number of tasks per driver.

This dispatch feature adds a new level of automation helps save time, enables efficient resource allocation, and allows managers to spend time optimizing other areas of the delivery process. This level of automation not only simplifies last mile logistics, but also helps reduce inefficiencies that drive up last mile delivery costs.

3. Get drivers to provide proof of delivery

In an industry study, 56% of consumers demanded greater transparency in the delivery process.

What other elements are your customers demanding most from their last mile services:

Proof of delivery is documentation that verifies an item has been delivered, like a signature from the recipient or a photo of the package being left at the door along with a date and time stamp.

Proof of delivery is made easy. Drivers can complete the entire process via a mobile app, which supports photo collection, signatures, barcode, and notes.

4. Use reporting to increase accountability

Reporting helps you identify bottlenecks and weaknesses before they become larger issues, as well as opportunities for improvement.

You can monitor key metrics including success rates, on-time rates, service times, feedback scores, distance traveled and more. You can filter this data by teams, drivers, day, week, or even by the hour of the day.

You can export this data at any time to produce custom, comprehensive reports.

By recording and monitoring these KPIs, you can track your company’s last mile delivery supply chain and see just how time is being allocated.

5. Improve the customer experience

Making meaningful improvements to your customer communications requires going beyond simply providing customers with a static tracking number.

Consumer surveys found that customers are expecting more and more from a standard delivery service to be satisfied:

Your customers will be able to not only track their order, but talk to the driver directly, track the vehicle their package is on with SMS notifications, and be part of a real-time feedback loop.

7 Trends That Will Continue to Shape (and Change) Last Mile Delivery in 2023

Here are seven trends that companies are actively testing and executing in an effort to perfect the last mile delivery process and keep up with consumer demands.

1. Rapid order fulfillment

An increasing number of consumers now expect on-demand or same-day delivery, meaning there’s more emphasis than ever on logistics and fulfillment.

Businesses today need to turn orders around, fast—sometimes faster than a lot of technology is capable of keeping up with.

“What normally would have taken less than an hour, all of the sudden needs to go out within minutes, which poses challenges in terms of planning”, Michael Armanious, vice president of sales and marketing at Datexcorp, a third-party logistics (3PL) company, says in an article in Supply Chain Dive.

2. Improved traceability

Old-school last mile delivery carriers have improved their package traceability, adding features like proof of delivery and tracking information.

This is an important part of making sure packages don’t get lost, or figuring out where they are when they do get lost. New smartphone apps have also changed the way we track packages, with some solutions even featuring GPS functionality, allowing people to monitor exactly where on the map their package is and how far the driver is from reaching their home.

Plus, with proof of delivery, data like whether or not a package was signed for, or where and when the package was left if no one is home, reduces disputes between carriers and customers and enhances the overall last mile delivery experience for both parties.

3. In-house delivery services

More and more companies have started using their own in-home delivery service—including e-commerce giant, Amazon.

In-house delivery means a company has its own fleet of delivery vehicles and salaried drivers to get shipments from their warehouses out to customers. This allows companies to control costs and customer experience and expand their delivery window, some even opting to deliver late in the evenings and weekends.

4. Micro warehousing

Using Amazon as an example again: the e-commerce company employs upwards of 58 transportation hubs in the US alone dedicated to their Prime Now service, for customers who wanted their order delivered on the same day.

This has started a trend of more and more organizations allocating or purchasing additional warehouse space dedicated to these extra-fast deliveries.

However, while many retail companies have been able to bring their delivery time down to two days, Amazon is still in the lead, delivering parcels in as little as two hours. So competitors have a ways to go.

5. Carrier upsells

Many e-commerce stores use data to recommend similar products to you when you’ve viewed or purchased something previously from them in an attempt to upsell you. This tactic is making its way down to last mile delivery carriers, some of whom are now upselling products right at the door.

For example, if a consumer has ordered oral hygiene products every month for the past three months, the delivery driver could bring toothpaste along with their order and ask if they’re interested in purchasing it. If they’ve ordered a lot of garden supplies, some grass seeds or fertilizer may be good upsell opportunities.

6. Smart technology

The range of products being ordered online is growing every day. Many consumers now order fresh and frozen foods online, or even livestock like plants and pet fish. These are products that must be shipped in certain conditions to maintain their integrity and well-being. For this reason, many fulfillment centers have taken measures in their warehouses to control temperature, humidity levels, air quality and more.

It also means more factors are considered during route planning, like the weather. Additional packing materials may be required to account for variations in temperature.

7. Robots and drones

Okay, robots and drones aren’t quite trending yet—but we’ll bet they will be soon.

Andre Pharand, Accenture’s global management consulting lead for the postal and parcel industry, says in a Supply Chain Dive article: “If parcels can be delivered by autonomous vehicles or drones, that will change the game considerably. The highest cost in delivery is labor, which accounts for 60% of the cost. Deliveries are currently limited by labor cost, availability, and shifts. Robotic delivery could be done 24 hours a day.”

Last mile delivery is a term used for transportation of merchandise from the nearest distribution hub to the final destination, such as a home or business. The term is commonly used in the contexts of food delivery, enterprise supply chains and transport for delivery businesses. The term originally comes from telecommunications, where the last mile is the connection from the ISP to the location of the customer premises equipment, such as a user’s home or office.

In delivery businesses, the hubs along delivery routes are located at sites near to the center point of common delivery locations. Deliveries between these hubs normally involve trucks moving large quantities of packages. Because of the greater number of potential locations involved, the use of large vehicles is not cost-effective for last mile delivery and smaller vehicles such as vans are used instead. However, it may also be necessary to make multiple delivery attempts, which can further increase costs and make the last mile delivery the least efficient leg of the delivery process.

Because it is the most inefficient stage of the delivery process, last mile delivery often needs out-of-the-box thinking to increase efficiency. Drone delivery and delivery by driverless car are two approaches being tested by transport organizations. Companies also contract with independent drivers for deliveries to save on staff and overhead. Amazon, a major driver of innovation in last mile delivery, has been a developer and an early adopter of these and other various technologies and methods.

Business delivery service is growing rapidly growing industry that is expected to grow at a rate of 8.2% in 2022 and reach a market size, measured by revenue, of $149.6 billion in 2022.

It is an industry that has shown fast growth, and the market size of this industry has increased faster than the transportation and warehousing sector.

All online businesses rely heavily on delivery services, and due to the rise in online businesses, delivery business is also seeing exponential growth year on year. More and more delivery businesses are required daily to fulfill the demand of this aggressively growing industry.

If you’ve been considering starting your own delivery business, now might be a good time to do it. You might have a number of questions about it, though.

In this article, we will shed light on how you can start a small business delivery service.

What Are the Types of Small Business Delivery Services?

When it comes to business delivery services, the options are unlimited. There are multiple types of profitable delivery businesses that you can start and embark on your business journey. Here are some of the most well-known delivery services.

1. Courier services

Courier services are necessary for most businesses. Whether it be B2B or B2C, all businesses need courier services. The E-commerce market is growing rapidly, and with it, the demand for more delivery services. It is one of the most successful forms of delivery service. Not just businesses but individuals also require to send and receive parcels.

If you are looking to start a courier service, start small. Start with deliveries within a county or a state and grow from there. Doing so will require less capital, and expansion can be planned out as the business grows.

2. Food delivery business

Food delivery services are a market growing daily, and it is one of the types of delivery businesses that will require fewer resources. Since food delivery is a business confined to a city, the resources required will be minimal, and if you utilize the best available tools, the profits will be higher.

The only major obstacle here would be to plan our deliveries to decrease your operational cost and increase the profits. This can be done using intelligent route planning software, which will do all the hard work for you.

3. Medicine delivery

The medical courier business is estimated to be $7.1 billion and is forecasted to grow at a rate of 5.5% over the next 5 years. This service includes not just delivering medicines but also lab specimens, laboratory equipment, surgical equipment, and many others. You can begin catering to local customers and expand as the revenue increases.

4. Groceries delivery

Grocery delivery is one of the most profitable business delivery services with the most recurring customers. The customer base will keep expanding if the products are of high quality and the customer experience is outstanding.

What Are Some Delivery Challenges that Small Businesses Face?

There are multiple challenges that delivery companies may face in the delivery business. These can be related to day-to-day operations, resource management, delivery fee, or delivery drivers. Here are some of the obstacles delivery companies may face.

1. Route planning

If not done correctly, route planning can be the most troubling part of a delivery business. Moreover, it is a process that takes hours to complete. This task can get more complex if you don’t have any experience, especially if you offer same-day delivery.

However, the right tool can help you reduce the time and optimize multiple routes to fulfill more deliveries and increase profitability.

2. Dependency on human resources

Delivery business depends highly on human resources. Hiring a large team to fulfill the delivery demands can become a challenge. A large team means a higher operational cost. Without proper management, a delivery business may lose more money than it will make.

3. Delayed deliveries

A delay in delivery can lead to a bad customer experience and even loss of clientele. Delays can happen due to an error in planning, the delivery person, or any technical issues in the delivery vehicle.

4. Without damage delivery

Any delivery business needs to make sure the product is not damaged. Any damage to the product can lead to a bad customer experience, and the business may be liable to pay the price at times.

Delivery Options for a Small Business

If you are deciding on an option for your business, make sure you understand each method’s pros and cons before you choose the one for you. Put your mind at ease and go through the options below to find your answers.

1. Outsourcing to a third-party delivery service

In this method, the delivery service is outsourced to a third party. This may seem like a viable option to small business owners, but third-party service comes with its issues. For instance, the business will have no control over the shipping accuracy and shipping experience attached to it.

The situation may get even more complex if there are some additional parameters attached to the shipping. For example, if you run a grocery business, it is very clear that shipping should be instant since everybody wants fresh groceries. But if you have no control over delivery, it will be tough for you to ensure fast delivery. As a result, the business may lose customers.

2. Maintain control by optimizing your own delivery

If you are a small business, optimizing delivery by yourself may be the best bet using an in-house delivery service. It will help you to have full control over the delivery and will help you to create a better experience for your customer base. Many businesses are now choosing this option and are fulfilling delivery orders faster without paying additional fees to third-party delivery services.

Steps to Start Your Small Business Delivery Services

Starting your own delivery business from scratch may seem strenuous, but with the right information and tools, you can start a new business and guide it toward profit. To make it easier, we have laid down the plan in the easy steps mentioned below.

1. Business plan

One of the essential parts of starting a business is creating a business plan by understanding the various aspects of a business. Any business plan should be designed through extensive research on the various business models and market research. Going the extra mile and studying the competitors will only help create a better and more solid business plan.

2. Take care of the legal aspect

A business needs to be registered with the local governing authorities. Ensure you understand all the legal implications of starting a business and registering your company. You will need to register for taxes, open a business account in the bank, and get the necessary licenses and permits. One important aspect is to get your business insured.

3. Designing a delivery process

The next important step is designing a delivery process. This extensive job will require expertise and knowledge of the delivery business. If someone new to the delivery business is trying to design a process, it may become a tedious job, and the chances of error will increase multiple-fold.

All the profit in a delivery business will depend on how well the delivery routes are planned. You wouldn’t want to spend more on resources than you make by completing deliveries. A delivery business needs to run keeping in mind that the operational cost is as less as possible. The best possible results in a delivery business will only come if the delivery routes are planned efficiently and resources are utilized to the best of their capabilities.

If you are starting your delivery business, achieving such an optimal efficiency level may seem like a dream, but that’s not true. We at upper have sworn an oath (literally) to help new business run in the most efficient manner possible.

Upper software comes equipped with a highly intelligent algorithm that will help you by reducing the time required to create an optimized route and create effective routes with multiple stops so you can fulfill more deliveries in less time. The properly optimized routes will not only help you in reducing fuel costs but will allow you to make more deliveries in a single trip.

4. Hiring drivers

The next crucial part is hiring drivers to do the delivery. Depending on your needs, you can start with a single driver or even hire multiple drivers. Many small businesses start with one or two drivers and increase their teams as revenue and demand grow. Many business owners resort to driving the vehicle by themselves to complete deliveries to keep operating cost low. Also, it helps them to get a better understanding of their business.

Deliver Parcels with Finesse through Upper’s Route Optimization Planner

All delivery businesses thrive on efficiency. The more efficiency, the better the results. Efficiency comes by designing routes that will help you reduce delivery time and costs.

Even for people who have done this for years, it is a very time taking process and is prone to errors. So, starting your new business may need more expertise, time, or resources to pull this off. Don’t worry if you are a new delivery business owner facing the same issues, don’t worry. We have got it covered.

We at Upper have successfully been able to help businesses solve the problem of efficiency. Our software is a one-stop destination for all your business-related needs. Upper would be your perfect companion for starting a delivery business.

1. Route planning

Upper software comes equipped with a powerful route-optimizing algorithm that helps create efficient routes for all your deliveries. It factors in the required multiple stops and designs the route so that the least time is required to complete the deliveries. This will help you to reduce the time required, and you will be able to complete more deliveries in less time.

The advantages are not restricted to that; an efficient route will also help you to utilize your resources to the fullest and will help to reduce costs as well.

2. One-click dispatch

Upper comes equipped with a one-click dispatch option by which you can send the routes with multiple stops to your drivers with just one click. In case of any issue with the driver, you can reassign the route to another driver so deliveries are completed without hassle.

3. Proof of delivery

This feature will help you collect signatures digitally and allow the drivers to click pictures as proof of delivery. It reduces the manual work, and the signature and the images are stored in the software for future use. Even in the case of unsuccessful deliveries, the driver can mention the reason for the same.

4. Upload with excel

Upper comes with a feature to add multiple through excel with one click. The software also identifies duplicate stops. If you want to keep the duplicate stop, you can, and if you want to erase the same, it can be done in a jiffy.

Don’t spend another minute going to the cleaners! We will come to you! Experience our convenient Pick Up and Delivery Service and you will never go back to those trips to the cleaners. It’s simple and easy. Here’s how it works:

• Put the items you want cleaned in the express bag we provide, and on your pickup day, leave it in a pre-determined area of your choice (front, side, or back door, porch, garage…) on your pick up day.

• Our driver will come by, pick up the items you’ve left for us, and deliver any finished items.

• We will professionally clean, press, and package your items and return them to you in 3 days.

• Your credit card will be automatically billed and an invoice will be attached to each order. If you have a question or a special request, you can attach a note to your pick up order or contact the driver or store directly.

Guest service experience is vital in an industry as high-pressure and competitive as hospitality. Guests are spoilt for choice, which means that offering outstanding customer service can be the turning point that can lead to loyal guests who keep coming back thanks to impeccable, stress-free service.

In this article, we talk in detail about why guest service experience and management are so important and how guest experience insights can help you put your best foot forward.

What Is Guest Service Experience Management?

Guest service experience management is the process of using sentiment analysis to track and measure guest service satisfaction. The guest experience analysis platform ascertains the performance of different aspects of your business so you know exactly what you need to do in order to improve them and increase customer satisfaction.

To effectively manage guest experience, it is important to use a platform that can give you high-precision customer review analysis. Being in a business that can attract people from all backgrounds, it is vital that the tool is able to extract insights from a variety of data sources such as surveys, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, GoogleMyBusiness, etc.

It must also have native natural language processing capabilities in order to analyze comments and reviews in different languages.

Why Is Guest Service Experience Important?

A study conducted by Deloitte shows that 60% of guests who have a positive experience go back as return customers. This one detail in itself indicates how important guest service experience is for the hospitality industry.

Below you will find more points that showcase the importance of guest experience and how they can be used for business growth.

1. Build customer trust

Top-notch guest service experience can help you build trust with your customers who will be more than happy to give you recommendations and reviews. You can use this information to build better-targeted marketing strategies and make sure there is no discrepancy between what you advertise and what you offer. This further strengthens your credibility in the market.

Additionally, a machine learning tool can also help you segregate guest profiles by the different things they mention in their comments and reviews so that you can attract different types of guests through different tactics.

2. Become more competitive

Personalizing guest experience sets you apart in a highly competitive service industry. Customer insights from guest feedback data can give you ideas to strategically design personalized guest experiences based on not only guest profiles but also for occasions such as honeymoon deals, romantic getaways, corporate packages, leisure travelers, family and kids specials, leisure activities for the elderly, and so on.

3. Attract new customers

Insights from guest service experience feedback can tell you what kind of promotions will get you the most results through your email campaigns, digital advertising, and website/online offers. Once you have the insights and formulate a plan, you can use the guest profile data in your customer relationship management (CRM) tool to send push notifications and emails to the right guests, appropriately.

4. Increase sales conversions

With new tactics that you develop by listening to data-driven insights from a guest experience analytics tool, you can keep track and measure how many new and return customers you have, and what they have in common. This will help you find a pattern in customer behavior and figure out what aspects of your hotel, restaurant, or service are attracting them the most.

Is it the Spa facility, family-friendly services like children’s play area, daycare, or kiddie pools? Or is it your corporate facilities like conference rooms and workstations? Knowing what works best for you can help you enhance those facilities more in order to get more sales conversions.

5. Drive customer satisfaction

Guest feedback is a goldmine that you can take advantage of if you have a truly brilliant sentiment analysis platform that can sort and segregate guest experience feedback into granular categories of the degree of likes and dislikes. The best customer experience analytics tool lets you analyze not only comments and reviews on sites like Google, TrustPilot, or TripAdvisor but also gives you the advantage of analyzing detailed responses in surveys.

Thus, you get to use all kinds of data sources in order to understand what’s deterring your guests from having a good time at your business and what’s working in your interest.

6. Increase guest engagement

You should use different techniques to reach out to your guests before and after their stay. For example, Instagram social listening can give you insights as to what people want from a business in hospitality or what comments are saying while tagging you. You can do the same with TikTok insights.

Using social media also gives you a better opportunity to engage more actively with your guests and respond to mentions promptly regarding their guest service experience. This can be very advantageous, especially in case of a negative experience. It not only tells potential customers that you are aware of what’s happening at your establishment and you are taking responsibility for it, but also that you care what your guests think of you.

7. Maintain a loyal customer base

Loyalty points and incentives for being loyal customers can go a long way in capturing new clients as well. Offering a holiday discount to guests who have had a long stay before or offering additional services free of charge such as access to the golf course or Spa facilities, tells your guests that you appreciate their business. On the business side, this is a clever tactic because as research says, obtaining new customers is 5 times more expensive than maintaining old ones.

8. Use guest insights to improve staff training

Guest service experience insights can also tell you important information about the quality of your staff and the service they provide. Based on guest comments, you can decide if your cleaning staff needs to be more mindful, if your kitchen is understaffed, if the reception is not being responsive enough, and if your online booking systems are not as efficient as you’d like it to be. Being on top of things before they escalate can help you manage your business reputation and enhance your brand experience immensely.

9. Streamlined operations

Guest experience review analysis can also help you streamline your operations for smoother task management. Whether it is special arrival requests, pet services, self-checkouts, restaurant bookings, or Spa reservations, you can keep a track of all these operations and make sure there are no issues related to them that can irk guests. This increases customer delight.

Repustate’s guest service experience analytics solution’s aspect-emotion co-occurrence capability gives you deep insight into these areas so you know how to improve things in a timely manner.

10. Sell additional services

Knowing your guests and their preferences can help you sell additional services to them. This not only adds an additional revenue stream to your business but also gives guests the opportunity to have something that is a bonus. For example, a gift shop, pet knick-knacks, a business center, tour and cruise packages, special diet menus, clothing and accessories, and makeup and hair services can all add towards making your guest service experience exemplary and thus attracting more customers.

11. Enhance brand perception

A very important reason you should measure and track guest experience is so that you can use the insights to enhance your brand perception. Brand perception is much more than just the service you provide but the feelings that a guest experiences after being in touch with your business.

Research shows that guests are peeved and not likely to recommend a hotel if there is a marked difference between what’s advertised and promised and what they actually experience. A customer insights tool can help you dodge a fiasco like this and ensure that your brand has a great reputation both online and through word-of-mouth.

12. Build lasting relationships

When you are able to connect with your guests in a meaningful way and cater to their needs even before they ask, there is trust built. This customer trust is the foundation of a lasting business and makes for a sustainable business strategy for longevity.

Through social media listening and performing tasks such as YouTube comments analysis, AI-driven survey analysis, Reddit and subreddit thread analysis, news monitoring, etc, you can find a treasure trove of guest service experience insights that can help you build relatable content for your marketing campaigns as well as personalized guest communications.

How Can You Measure Guest Service Experience?

You can measure and track guest service experience most efficiently through a machine learning platform that analyzes all data types from all data sources, across different languages.

Once the model is trained for your business, it will give you precise insights based on your guest experience, which you can use to build a better brand experience.

The platform measures guest service experience by following the below steps.

Step 1 – Data collection

You can input the URL of any review platform from which you want to analyze your customer experience. Based on your demographic or how you collect guest experience feedback, you can choose Reddit, TripAdvisor, Google reviews, or any other. You could also choose to upload your survey responses in an excel file.

Step 2 – Data processing

All the data from the various guest reviews forums including video and audio data is analyzed. All non-text data is transcribed and included in the text pipeline. This includes emojis.

Step 3 – Data analysis

Guest reviews and comments are now processed for sentiment analysis. The platform for guest service experience analytics applies several ML tasks such as multilingual natural language processing, semantic clustering, sentiment analysis, and such. Within seconds, it gives you overall sentiment scores for your guest experience and your business as well as for individual aspects such as price, rooms, service, convenience, cleanliness, etc depending on the data.

Step 4 – Data visualization

All the insights are now shown in the form of charts and graphs on a sentiment analysis dashboard. You can also set alerts in this dashboard for mentions and keywords.

The relationship between landlords and tenants requires honesty and accountability. But, that is not how things always pan out. As a landlord or commercial property manager, conducting thorough commercial space inspections is necessary foresight before a new tenant moves in or a current one moves out.

Why Are Move-In & Move-Out Inspections Important?

Creates Traceability Of Conditions

You can never be too sure how long tenants will call a rental space home. By the time the lease is over, it can be difficult to remember the initial condition of the space.

Having a move-in inspection protects you from accountability over damages caused by the tenant. With all the details that a move-in inspection should cover, many property companies use an inspection checklist. This way, you can trace back to the initial conditions of the rental space.

For example, if there is water damage on the floors, note this on the checklist and you can make the necessary repairs. If a tenant leaves a giant hole in the wall that wasn’t there when they moved in, you can include this in your deposit deductions.

From a financial standpoint, this means you won’t have to pay for any repair costs that were not your fault. From a legal position, this protects your business from undue legal claims.

Inspections at the handover of the premises hold all parties responsible and accountable for the care and proper maintenance of the property.

Images Tell A Thousand Words

While a simple checklist can be enough for property companies, visual evidence is vital when managing a property. As with the checklist, images or videos record the condition of the property. Images also allow for a visual comparison of the condition before and after occupation.

This makes it easier to consider the normal wear and tear of the space. Normal wear and tear are the changes to a space that occur as a result of people using the space. An example is scuff marks on the floors.

Taking pictures when accepting the premises back is just as important. Include those pictures in your final correspondence with your tenant. These pictures are important evidence and safety nets for both parties. If your former tenants make false damage claims, you have the visual proof and communication to back you.

Pictures are also particularly helpful if both you and the tenant cannot be present for either inspection and/or third parties are used for inspection services.

Digital Signatures Provide Proof Of Agreement

The keyword in any agreement is communication! Sending pictures of the condition, emailing the complete checklist, forwarding written concerns or issues – you must do all of the above.

Your digital correspondence with the tenant is proof of an agreement between you. The exchanges also serve as proof if there are any issues and disputes that occur.

It is important to have interactions written via email, or visually documented so that you can access them if necessary.

It’s not just for your organisation – tenants expect it too

With too many arguments, disputes and tweets about unjust landlords, tenants have started to expect move-in and move-out inspections too. Nobody wants to work or live in a space where you have to fear that any scratch or mark may end up getting taken from your bank account – even if they were there before you!

By providing detailed, transparent inspection checklist reports with good quality images, you end up starting the relationship with new tenants with proper experience and congratulating them justly when they move forward from your lease. Make sure to get the most of these two customer touchpoints.

Last mile delivery is defined as the movement of goods from a transportation hub to the final delivery destination. The final delivery destination is typically a personal residence. The focus of last mile logistics is to deliver items to the end user as fast as possible. Last mile logistics has become a popular area of interest for retailers due to the growing demand for fully integrated omnichannel retailing. Evolving omnichannel needs have forced retailers to evaluate current transportation network capabilities and make adjustments accordingly.

Focus has been placed on last mile logistics because, in many cases, this is a key differentiator for retailers. Because consumers can easily shop for product alternatives retailers and their supply chain partners must provide exceptional service to gain market share and build brand loyalty.

Last mile delivery is becoming more important than ever due to the surge of online orders. E-commerce sales are expected to reach $1.35 billion by 2018, an increase of 28.8% from 2013. These expected increases span across a variety of product types including apparel, entertainment, food, health & beauty, electronics and more.

Retailers must begin to prepare their transportation networks for traffic fluctuations caused by the expected growth in online sales. Traditional transportation methods such as UPS, FedEx and USPS are not successful in all regions and retailers are beginning to search for alternatives to satisfy their needs. In order to accommodate faster shipping times, changing regulation and infrastructure limitations retailers and their transportation partners have started to research delivery alternatives including click-to-collect locations, local regional carriers, drones and much more.

The order fulfillment industry is continuously facing new obstacles, one challenge is providing a timely delivery service to customers. Customers expect to receive their order as soon as possible. Therefore, it is extremely important to ensure timely delivery service to customers, regardless of the sort of eCommerce business you run.

According to Havard Business Review, in 2021, just 20% of customers were prepared to forgive eCommerce businesses for delivery delays caused by supply chain concerns. As a result, consumers are not willing to tolerate delivery delays. Timely delivery services are critical to meeting customer expectations many eCommerce firms struggle to meet customer demands on time to provide accurate and timely delivery of goods

The Impact of Poor Delivery Services:

Providing poor delivery service to customers can have a damaging impact on businesses. The result of poor delivery services can lead to:

• Negative Customer Reviews

When a customer is unsatisfied with a delivery service, it will trigger them to create a negative review. Poor customer reviews harm the reputation of businesses. Customer reviews influence the purchasing behavior of 68% of customers.

Customers will be unlikely to purchase from an eCommerce business with a negative brand image therefore, it is important to ensure timely delivery services to customers to maintain positive customer service. It is extremely difficult to recover from a poor reputation therefore, it is important to continuously provide timely delivery services to customers and keep regular communication to restore customer trust.

• Lose Loyal Customers

Regular customers are a valuable element to your organization. Loyal customers provide repetitive orders and promote your business via word by mouth. Not meeting customer expectations with timely delivery services to provide accurate and timely delivery of goods results in losing loyal customers.

Consequently, it is important to keep the promise of ensuring a timely delivery service to retain customers and potentially attract potential customers.

How to Improve Timely Delivery Services:

You can relieve strain on your drivers and ensure timely delivery service by providing an on-time delivery improvement strategy and the use of relevant technological solutions:

• Maintain accurate inventory records

Ascertain that your purchasing and receiving operations are reliable and error-free. Before releasing a production order, do stock counts on key product lines to confirm they are in-house.

Accurate inventory counts increase satisfied customers ensuring they will receive their orders on time. Visibility is further enhanced by accurate and reliable inventory data, which allows managers to identify data trends and estimate future demand.

• Create a realistic journey schedule

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to service delivery timescales. These timetables must be created on a case-by-case basis with representatives from each client’s company if you want speedy, high-quality services that meet each client’s individual demands.

Creating a realistic journey schedule can also help with improved communication throughout the service delivery process by defining milestones that may be used to track progress and increase transparency.

• Build relationships with suppliers

Supplier relationship management is extremely important for ensuring timely delivery of services to customers. Regular communication with suppliers is critical to ensure accurate and timely delivery of goods. Any delays can result in providing a poor delivery service to customers.

If you want to send a package from home or work, you’ll need to book a courier pickup service. This is where a courier will come to your door, pick up your package and deliver it to its destination.

Package pick up services allow you to send packages without the inconvenience of a trip to the post office or a courier drop-off point. All you need to do is pay for your shipping online, attach the shipping label and wait for a knock at the door.