Two-man delivery specialist Panther Warehousing, which is believed to be among the first transport firms to introduce a groundbreaking mobile app for use in its daily operations, has made a number of upgrades and developments as it continues to innovate.
The easy-to-use app now offers several new high-demand features designed to enhance and simplify the booking and delivery experience for both Panther’s own customers and the end customer. For example, customers are able to take control of the delivery process. If they are not in for some reason then they receive an SMS message or email asking them to nominate the day of their delivery. In fact, Northampton-based Panther has devised a total of 14 different SMS messages for the end customer in a bid to improve the communication channels and to keep them informed and updated about their situation at every stage of the delivery process.
Panther has increasingly found that customers of larger items far prefer to nominate a specific day when they receive their new bathroom, bed or garden pergola.
Panther Managing Director Colin McCarthy says: “Our app developments are aimed at enhancing the entire delivery experience – both for our own customers and the end customer. We are continually striving for a seamless booking and delivery process that works for everybody. Our innovative and forward-thinking approach will further improve the delivery experience and put end customers in control.”
The latest release of Panther’s driver app includes many new features to enhance route control and assist drivers. New drop order controls have been added in a bid to ensure that routes are carried out in the most efficient order possible with consolidated proof of delivery (POD) signatures for drops with multiple orders and new guides for orders with additional services, such as assembly and disposal.
Another addition to the driver app focuses on the crucial area of customer returns. There is now the ability to scan customer returns at the point of collection and also a final scan at the point of return back to the clients’ returns location. Panther has also developed the app so that different return locations can easily be specified for each sku as some clients operate different returns centres for different ranges.
Other changes to the driver mobile app have included redefined call prompts for the drivers (both at client and order/item level) to provide additional guidance in certain situations. This enables Panther to offer a full bespoke experience to each client and ensure all goods are handled in the most appropriate way possible.
To this end, the self-booking app has been upgraded to help the Customer Service team log and time-stamp bookings to prioritise orders based on previous calls to customers. Additionally, colour-coded date pickers help staff optimise the way orders are booked on certain days, or postcode areas, to prevent overbooking.
A complex order volume control system has also been developed that allows Panther to tightly manage order volumes up to four weeks in advance in a bid to minimise the risk of volume-related problems.