This week Cousins Furniture begins to trial customer delivery tracking with DispatchTrack. DispatchTrack was founded in 2010 by entrepreneurs Satish Natarajan and Shailu Satish to reduce the costs and complexity faced by delivery companies.

American success quickly followed with companies such as Coca-Cola and Walmat using their delivery tracking services.The company has since tripled in size with a presence now having been established in France, Germany, Hong Kong, and Australia. DispatchTrack is now continuing its expansion into the UK, and Cousins Furniture is one of the first companies to have joined their services.

What does this mean for Cousins Furniture customers?

Firstly, DispatchTrack will allow Cousins Furniture to plan the most economical route for each day, which is of course better for the drivers, the customers as well as the planet. The system will also reduce Cousins’ volume of paper, with signatures and receipts being recorded and delivered electronically to their customers going forward. Moving to DispatchTrack will also speed up notifications for the customers. Previously, customers would only be notified of their two hour window on the morning of their delivery. Now with DispatchTrack customers will be notified a minimum of 24 hours before delivery, and in some instances with 48 hours’ notice. Customers will receive their delivery window information by text and email, as well as voice messages. This will allow customers much greater flexibility when planning who will be at home and more importantly at what time.

Not going to be in?

Once customers receive their delivery window confirmation, they can let Cousins know if this time or day does not work for them. What’s really clever, is that the DispatchTrack system will allow Cousins to quickly re-route the delivery to the next economical route.

A future development means that whilst customers wait for their delivery, they’ll also be able to track their delivery driver on route. Keeping them further in the know about when to expect their delivery.

What does this mean for Cousins?

Almost real time information about customer deliveries will be fed back to the warehouse’s, stores and customer services teams. That means that should they need to contact Cousins with any questions before, during or just after delivery, Cousins should have all the up to date information at their fingertips.
Cousins will also be able to follow their drivers throughout the day, and contact them easily if needed through the portal.

In addition, the DispatchTrack system means that Cousins’ delivery drivers will be able to record photographs of the route access if required, as well as the new furniture once fully assembled and placed in the customer’s home. These photos will be stored securely on the database, and can be quickly accessed by the Customer Services team.

All of this allows for a much more streamlined customer experience.

Mr. Richardson, Cousins’ Head of Operations, expressed his excitement to launch DispatchTrack, “This is a huge step forward for the company in improving the communication and quality of our delivery service for our customers. As it is the final step in their buying journey with us, it’s vital that we leave them with a strong impression of our brand and services. We’re looking forward to monitoring and learning from its success across the West Midlands and Shrewsbury”.

Stay up to date with Cousins Furniture for the latest news.