Many courier businesses have been doing well during the pandemic because everybody has been ordering more stuff online. But not every courier business has seen this big increase in work and some courier businesses are still struggling.
If your courier business isn’t doing well and you aren’t getting any clients, you need to work out what’s going wrong and take steps to rectify it. The problem is, a lot of business owners don’t have a clue where to start. If your courier business doesn’t have any customers, these are some of the areas where you could be going wrong.
You Haven’t Specialized
There are some big courier businesses out there that will ship anything and everything, but a smaller courier company should specialize and work out what their target market is. When businesses or individuals are looking for a courier, they will usually look for a company that deals specifically with whatever item they’re sending. For example, if people have some antique furniture or an expensive car to ship, they won’t go to a general shipping company. That means that your general courier business is losing out to all of the other specialized companies. Why not try focusing on one area and work on being the best in that specific field.
You’re Relying On Word Of Mouth
To start with, you probably worked hard to get your name out there and find your first clients. But a lot of courier businesses get complacent once things pick up and they get some regular clients. If things slow down, it could be because you are relying on word of mouth instead of making a concerted effort to find more work. If you are struggling, you should try Shiply, where you can find lots of courier jobs being posted all the time. Consider investing more time and money in marketing too. Once you start being more proactive, things should pick up again.
The Service Is Slow
Being a good courier is all about speed, and if you can’t keep up, your clients will go elsewhere. If a business pays you to deliver products to their customers and you are slow, that reflects badly on them. You could potentially be losing them sales, so they’re not going to work with you again. If you’re struggling to keep up with demand and provide a good service, consider hiring more drivers or using route planning apps to improve efficiency. When you speed up delivery times, you will notice that more of your customers return in the future.
You Keep Breaking Things
Even though speed is important, you need to get products there in one piece. If you get a lot of breakages, you will lose customers and you will have to claim on your insurance to replace items, which pushes the premiums up. If it’s only items from a specific customer, you should ask them if they can improve their packaging. However, it could be down to your drivers, so it’s important to track when and where the breakages are happening.
If you can rectify these problems, your courier business should get some more clients soon enough.
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