The COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of a nightmare for businesses across the globe. Lockdowns, social distancing norms, etc have made it difficult for businesses to sustain themselves. However, there are few industry verticals that have witnessed an unprecedented rise in the times of the pandemic.
I am talking about the on-demand delivery businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic has played a major role in boosting these services. There are several factors behind this boost. First, due to curfews, people can’t go outside to shop which made them dependent on delivery services.
Secondly, and more importantly, authorities have allowed food delivery, grocery delivery, and medicine delivery amidst curfew since they deliver essential goods.
This boost also ensured that all online delivery businesses have to majorly transform their operations with respect to the pandemic. In simple words, they have to come up with a solution that can assure their customers that there’s no danger of getting infected while using their delivery services.
And that’s when the concept of contactless delivery was conceived. Today, a majority of on-demand delivery platforms have implemented contactless delivery solution to offer safe delivery services.
What is contactless delivery?
The concept of contactless delivery includes total elimination of direct or physical contact with delivering executives, employees, and customers. The main objective behind this practice is to eradicate or minimize the possibility of infection spread.
Contactless delivery which is sometimes referred to as “Zero Contact Delivery” and “No Contact Delivery” ensures that all the essential delivery services are safe and secure.
Apart from avoiding physical contact, contactless delivery also includes sanitization of equipment, offices, packaged goods, warehouses, and delivery partners.
The current pandemic situation has caused panic among the customers. They are hesitant to order anything from outside or coming in contact with the delivery personnel. This fear has forced every delivery business to rethink and reinvent new ways to stay operational. And adopting contactless delivery is a crucial step in that direction.
A contactless delivery is similar to home delivery with a few crucial modifications. In contactless delivery, the delivery executive leaves the package outside the customer doorsteps instead of handing them over to avoid physical contact.
The customer gets notified about the delivery via calls, text message, or email. In contactless delivery, the payment is also contactless. Instead of paying via cash, customers pay via website or mobile wallet apps which further reduces interpersonal contact.
How to start contactless delivery?
In the current time, the implementation of contactless delivery has become the need of the hour for every delivery business whether it’s food delivery, grocery delivery, parcel delivery, etc. Below are few important steps to implement contactless delivery at your premises.
Add ‘Contactless Delivery’ option on your app or website
The first step in the implementation of contactless delivery is to add the very feature on your website or on-demand delivery app. While adding this feature, you must ensure that functionality is clearly visible to the customer. Furthermore, you should also inform customers about this new feature in the app or on the website.
Follow intense sanitization practices
With rising COVID-19 cases across the globe, it has become necessary for every delivery business to follow intense sanitization practices. This includes sanitizing every surface of the premises with the disinfectant.
Furthermore, all the electronic devices such as computer, printers, phones and all other items which might have been touched multiple times like the door premise must be properly sanitized.
Delivery agents and other employees must wash their hands frequently and especially after making a delivery. If it’s a restaurant, then the employee must ensure that there’s no direct contact with the food.
To further ensure safety, you can provide your delivery personnel and employees with masks, face shields, and gloves of good quality. All the vehicles used by the delivery agents should also be sanitized with the help of disinfectants.
Check on your employees regularly
It’s important to understand that the implementation of contactless delivery is not only for the safety of the customers but also for your employees and delivery agents. That’s why it’s important that you check on your employees regularly.
First of all, you need to discuss with them all the protocol changes that have taken place post-COVID-19. Ensure that you make them understand why it’s necessary and also hear what they have to say about it.
Secondly, you must put out guidelines SOPs that every employee has to follow in the premises and while doing delivery. You can also train your employees as to how they can follow these measures efficiently.
Furthermore, you can install temperature screening points at the premises to determine if any of the employee or delivery executive is unwell. If you find any of the employee showing even minor symptoms then you can tell them to stay home until they are completely fine.
Make payments contactless
In times of COVID-19, taking cash payments can rapidly increase the risk of infection to the customers as well as to the delivery agents. To avoid this, you can make the entire payment contactless. You can offer your customers various contactless payment options such as online payments, mobile wallet payment, etc.
Market your service
Even when the lockdowns were imposed due to rising COVID-19 cases, the delivery of essentials was allowed. Although, people were still hesitant as they feared catching the virus. For delivery companies to sustain in this period, it’s important for them to remove this fear. And to do this it is important to reach out to the audience.
For this, you can use market your new contactless delivery service through social media, website, and various other offline marketing activities. Nowadays, social media has become the most effective tool for marketing since it connects directly to customers.
You can leverage this by posting more stuff about your premises on Facebook and Instagram posts. You can also use the story feature to show how contactless delivery works in your premises.
Furthermore, you can give a virtual tour of your premise to the customers to make them assure of the safety measures taken against COVID-19.
What are the top advantages of implementing contactless delivery system?
We just saw how you can implement a contactless delivery system at your premises. Now let’s have a look at the top advantages of it.
Complete customer convenience
Customer convenience is always a priority for any online delivery platform. It’s no mystery that any business that offers top-notch customer convenience is bound to taste success. The importance of customer convenience hasn’t decreased in the times of COVID-19.
That’s why it’s important for businesses to ensure that there is no compromise on that part. Contactless delivery helps businesses to do the same since it provides the same level of convenience and comfort that they were experiencing before the pandemic.
Business growth
Contactless delivery has also proved to grow and expand businesses. The top-notch convenience and safety that contactless delivery offers help in gaining the trust of your customers which ultimately makes them use your services again. Furthermore, they also tell their friends and family about your services as well.
Reduce the threat of COVID-19
The biggest reason why contactless delivery came into existence is the COVID-19 pandemic. The current times are critical as the entire world struggling against this highly contagious and fatal disease. The only way to save ourselves is to prevent the spread by maintaining social distancing.
Contactless delivery helps in maintaining social distancing by ensuring that there is no physical contact between the delivery executive and the customer. That’s why there’s not even a need for proof of delivery as the delivery executive can directly leave the package outside the customer’s place and inform them via text message or call.
Employee safety
A good business always takes care of their employees as they take care of their customers. And contactless delivery system helps businesses to achieve the same. Contactless delivery is not just for the customer’s safety, but it’s for your employees’ safety as well. With contactless delivery, you can help ensure that all your employees are safe from the virus.
Make your business ready for the new normal
The traditional way of business was already declining due to the rise of online stores and the on-demand economy. However, COVID-19 has almost made it compulsory for all businesses to have an online presence. It’s because that business that didn’t have an online presence were forced to shut their operations due to lockdowns.
Apart from that, everyone is talking about the new normal. Many experts believe that we have to learn to live with coronavirus. It means that we have to fight with it for few more years. In such a scenario, it becomes important that every delivery business should set up contactless delivery at their premises if they want to stay operational in the times of COVID-19.
How companies around the world are implementing contactless delivery system
Let’s have a look at how delivery companies across the world have implemented contactless delivery systems to ensure safe deliveries of orders.
- Domino’s has implemented contactless delivery where users can place order to anywhere where they feel a safer pickup place is.
- The Dutch company Takeaway.com which recently took over Deliveroo and Just Eat have announced that they will be offering deliveries that will free of any physical touch. The company in their announcement also mentioned that this measure will be applicable to all the restaurants that are available on their platform across Europe.
- McDonald’s in China have also adopted contactless deliveries. There, the employees seal the meals in bags and then put them at a particular spot for the pickup thus avoiding human contact. The delivery executive drops the package at the building entrances and then disinfects the delivery bags. Moreover, drivers also have their body temperature scanned after regular intervals.
- In Spain, Glovo has implemented new measures which include contactless delivery. Furthermore, they have also got rid of a requirement which involved couriers to take mobile signature from the customer.
Conclusion
No one knows when we’ll be completely free of the COVID-19 pandemic. The best we can do is learn how to live with it. And that’s exactly what on-demand delivery businesses are doing. Implementing a contactless delivery system is their way of coping up with the new normal and it’s working quite well.
Contactless delivery system has become inevitable of any on-demand delivery business since it enables them to sustain in these tough times.
I hope this blog helped you to understand the importance of setting up contactless delivery system for your delivery business. If you want to more as to how you can sustain your delivery business in a pandemic then contact Yelowsoft which is a leading on-demand delivery solution provider.
