How many times have you sent a parcel, only for it to not arrive at its destination, or it actually arrives damaged!

• Who do you turn to when this happens when you are using a courier company?
• Who will help you directly, when a problem with a delivery arises?
• Who will answer any urgent questions to ensure your client/customer receive a 5 star delivery service from your company?

These are just a few of the many questions that you should ask when deciding on a courier.

The delivery world, as we know it, has changed immensely in both scale and capacity over the past few years.  We have seen a huge influx in small courier companies coming up through the ranks to take on the big names – each one of these companies is promising to move our parcels to their final destinations quicker and more efficiently than the last.

Finding a courier that will handle your parcels with the care and attention required and more importantly, one that will ensure your parcels reach their destination within a specified time frame and intact, is an absolute necessity when fulfilling client or customer orders.

Choosing a suitable courier is a daunting prospect, but it is essential that first and foremost you decide exactly what your business requires before committing yourself to a contract.

Things to take into consideration are:-

Cost  – How much are you willing to pay for the service, is there enough of a profit margin after you have factored in the courier costs?  As an example:

• Would you need a ‘high volume’ account, which could give a faster delivery service and the delivery prices could be cheaper?
• Or a ‘low volume’ account, which could potentially push the price of delivery up but would mean it doesn’t matter what quantity you send each month?
• Do you need an international service as well as a UK one?

Delivery Times  – How quickly do you need the parcels to be delivered, to your customer/client? Do you need an express delivery service or a standard service?

Efficiency & Reliability – This is a crucial factor and I have found that reading customer reviews online can help immensely.  This enables you to see if there are any patterns of bad service which may be a recurring theme for that particular courier company.

Communication – When deciding on a courier service, one of the main criteria to look for and something that is essential for a successful working partnership is ‘communication’.

• Is there an option to easily and openly communicate directly with a helpful, efficient and more importantly, knowledgeable, point of contact within the company you choose? Having someone behind the email address or telephone number to quickly answer any questions, is an absolute necessity to maintain successful customer deliveries.

Without good communication, the fulfilment side of a business will falter very quickly!  Communication between ALL parties is essential – not having that connection could make your role a very stressful one if you do not set it up efficiently from the beginning.  You want a smooth transaction from the initial raising of the collection request, through to the signature at the other end to accept the goods. Who wants to pay for a service which is shoddy and doesn’t ensure good feedback for you company – Good Communication Equals Great Fulfilment!

If you want to see for yourself recommended couriers from professionals that currently use them, you’d be well advised to visit a few review websites like ‘TrustPilot’, to find out what businesses are saying.  There you can see scores given and read reviews. Or maybe for a brief overview, visit ‘Which’ where you will find a table containing peoples reviews on courier companies :-

Ensure that you research your courier companies thoroughly before you sign any contracts, or maybe even give them a call.  That way you can make your own informed conclusions/decisions as to which ones would possibly be a great fit for your company.