Finding the best courier service is absolutely crucial for a business that frequently ships various parcels. It doesn’t really matter what it is that you’re shipping unless your courier service is up to the task – you’re putting your business in jeopardy.
On that note, we’ve decided to come in today and try and help you out. We’ve done a little bit of digging, and we’ve come up with a foolproof way to compare courier services and determine which one is the best for your business. Sounds interesting? We sure hope so. Let’s begin.
1. Come Up With A Shortlist
The first step has to be narrowing down your choices. You see, our comparison method might be foolproof, but if you end up comparing ten different courier services at once – you’ll probably get overwhelmed with the results, and you’ll probably make a mistake somewhere along the way.
Now, to be fair, shortlisting the services might be a problem if you can’t stack them against one another, which then defeats the purpose of shortlisting altogether. So, to avoid this paradox – just choose the courier services that seem the most reliable based on their Google rankings, referrals, or simply go with your gut.
Either way, get it down to two or three, no more than four, and compare the following.
2. Experience
Granted, the experience might not be the most important aspect of the courier business, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to it. After all, an experienced service will probably come with experienced drivers, a bunch of resources, and a long list of mistakes they’ve hopefully learned from.
Also, an experienced courier service will have built a reputation over the years – a reputation they now have to uphold. Loosely translated, that means that they’ll do whatever it takes to offer you an excellent service.
3. Location And Reach
Arguably one of the most important factors to consider when comparing courier services is their location and reach.
First up, it would be nice if the courier service was near you so that you don’t have to hire another courier just to deliver the parcel to the ones you want to hire. Also, you’ll want to inform yourself of all the locations they have offices at because that’s usually how broad they operate.
Also, you’ll want to inform yourself on whether the service operates domestically or internationally, depending on where you want to send your parcel. Sometimes they do both, and sometimes they only do one or the other, but unless you check and compare the two – you won’t know which one to choose.
4. Customer Service
As a business owner, you understand the importance of reliable and active customer service – especially nowadays. People will get angry over anything, so having top-notch customer service available around the clock is something you absolutely need from a courier service. You know how impatient people can get when their package is a little bit late.
But also, accidents happen. Sometimes your parcel just ends up in the wrong truck or the wrong plane, or something else goes entirely wrong. Either way, you’ll need customer service to rely on in order to quickly identify or solve the problem. So, unless you want to lose clients and customers over a traffic jam or stress about a misplaced parcel – you better make sure you choose the courier service with better customer service.
5. Reputation
When comparing and choosing a courier service, reputation is one of the key factors to consider, at least according to FlagShip. When you’re in a mishap-prone business such as this one, it is quite easy to build a bad reputation but equally hard to build a good one. Because, quite frankly, no one cares when you do the job right since that’s expected of you.
Either way, a courier service company’s reputation is certainly going to precede it, so all you’ll have to do is read up on some experiences and do a little bit of research, and you should know more than enough.
6. Fleet
If you’re dealing with a domestic courier service, you’ll probably want to take a look at their fleet. Granted, unless one of them is carrying parcels in a rucksack while the other delivers in a brand new Mercedes van – there won’t be much of a difference between the two. However, this is still something worth looking into for other reasons.
Namely, if a courier company is willing to spend money on quality vehicles to improve the quality of their service, chances are – they’re quite reliable. On the other hand, if they use dingy old vans – they will probably get the job done, but the question is how good of a job they’ll do. So, compare the vehicles, too.
7. Insurance
Insurance is probably the most important thing when hiring a courier service. Just imagine if you’re running a business that sells fragile stuff like antique vases, for instance. What happens when a van hits a pothole, and your neatly packed vase falls over in the back? Well, it probably breaks, but that’s not the biggest problem.
The biggest problem is you lose money, you lose a vase, and you probably lose a customer. Therefore, the least you can do is try and cut your losses by protecting the money. Most reliable, reputable courier services will offer some kind of insurance in case something goes wrong, but the coverage and cost will vary, so it is up to you to compare them to one another and choose the best one for your business.
8. Cost
Finally, you’ll have to compare the cost of the services. We’ve saved the cost for last, because, as you can see, there are many other factors to consider and compare, as well. If we start by comparing the costs right away, we’ll just choose the cheaper option. However, that might cost us some quality service, so it’s better to leave the expenses for the very end.
So, first, pit them against each other and compare the things we’ve mentioned. Then, and only then, compare the costs. It’s only when you see the big picture, and you evaluate everything that you can understand the cost of something. Sometimes, a more expensive option might be the valuable one, and the only way to know that is by doing things in the right order.
Conclusion:
This would be our method of comparing and selecting the right courier service for any business. What do you think? Is it really as good as we think it is? Hopefully, you do.
