Customer Survey: Realtime Order Tracking Makes the Difference With Customers

Want to improve your customer satisfaction and boost revenue? Well, in a recent study we conducted 24.6% of online shoppers not affiliated with OptimoRoute said they were extremely likely to return to a brand that provides real-time order tracking.

Customer order tracking goes beyond giving customers rough delivery times. Instead of telling clients that their order will arrive between 12-4 p.m., you give clients a link that shows where their order is right now and clearly tells them when their package is expected to arrive—down to the minute. No long tracking numbers to manually copy and paste. No “approximate delivery dates.” Just real-time, accurate information.

We, of course, think Realtime Order Tracking is pretty cool (which is why it’s part of our software platform). We surveyed more than 100 consumers via LinkedIn and social sharing between the ages of 18 and 74 to find out if live tracking is really worth the hype.

The numbers don’t lie—real-time tracking improves your customer experience.

Findings included in this article:

• The Results Are in—Tracking Orders in Real Time Affects Brand Loyalty
• Why Consumers Love Tracking Orders in Real Time
• What Does This Mean for Businesses?
• Easily Offer Real-Time Tracking Through OptimoRoute

The Results Are in—Tracking Orders in Real Time Affects Brand Loyalty

Our survey respondents overwhelmingly agreed that Realtime Order Tracking is pretty darn cool. In fact, 87.4% said that real-time order tracking made their buying experience more enjoyable.

And the joy customers feel as a result of getting live tracking carries over to the bottom line. More than half (59.3%) of our survey respondents said that real-time customer order tracking has a positive impact on their brand loyalty (and whether or not they will shop with that brand again).

More than one-third (34.7%) said they were a little more likely to return to a brand that provides Realtime Order Tracking. And more than 1 in 5 (24.6%) said they were extremely likely to return to a brand that provides it.

Why Consumers Love Tracking Orders in Real Time

Consumers love Realtime Order Tracking because it reduces their worry and gives them time back—two things that contribute to a great customer experience.

By providing real-time tracking, you give customers more control over their lives and empower them to make informed decisions. One of our survey respondents shared a particular example of a time that live tracking gave them peace of mind, saying, “We live in a townhouse development where package security is a concern. I received a text notification about delivery of a high-value item, which allowed me to call my neighbor to secure it.”

Another respondent told us that real-time tracking helped them get a package before they left town. They explained, “I had to leave town and I was in a hurry, but I saw where the package was [using real-time tracking]. So, I went to the delivery driver, explained my situation, and asked if I could get my package from the delivery car!”

Even if your customer can’t be home to get a package, when they know the precise time their package will arrive, they can make other plans to prevent theft or damage to their order. Delivery transparency reduces costs for businesses as well, because if a package is stolen or damaged, it’s often the business owner who is on the hook to replace it.

Realtime Order Tracking Builds Trust

Emil Prigge, a product engineer for meal delivery service Oco Meals, summed up the value of Realtime Order Tracking perfectly. He said, “It’s a promise. We promise to be here at this time. And then they [the customers] can always check in on that promise.” This act of making a promise and then backing it up with delivery transparency goes a long way toward boosting customer satisfaction—and it’s more important now than ever.

COVID-19 and the resulting social distancing efforts have impacted global buying behaviors in a big way. In fact, 68.6% of the consumers we surveyed said that they shopped online more frequently in 2020 due to COVID-19 and related global shutdowns.

More purchases are taking place off-premise (in-app, online, or over the phone), and real-time tracking reduces the uncertainty, and thus the stress, that comes with purchasing an item you can’t immediately hold in your hands. When customers buy products via your website, app, or other e-commerce platform, they give you their hard-earned money, and then they wait. That requires a lot of trust. The more transparency you can provide about how long exactly they’ll have to wait for their item, the better.

What Does This Mean for Businesses?

The biggest takeaway from our survey was that end consumers love live tracking. And because of this, businesses love it, too. Providing Realtime Order Tracking for your customers will keep more than half of them coming back—but you better be sure the tracking you provide is accurate.

When you offer live tracking, most customers will check it. Frequently. In fact, more than 3 out of 4 consumers we surveyed said they check their order status more than once.

We found a correlation between the number of consumers who say they like real-time tracking and those who received accurate real-time tracking. At the beginning of this article, we shared that 12.6% of our survey respondents didn’t feel real-time order tracking had made their buying experience more enjoyable. This percentage correlates very closely to the 11% of respondents who said the real-time tracking they did receive wasn’t very accurate.

So, if you’re going to offer real-time tracking, you need to do it well. Fortunately, this is easier than ever with modern route planning and optimization software. We’ll show you how you can start offering Realtime Order Tracking with OptimoRoute in the next section.

Easily Offer Real-Time Tracking Through OptimoRoute

At OptimoRoute, we understand the importance of Realtime Order Tracking, not just for your customers but for your own team, too. That’s why we offer live tracking for both you and your customers as part of our route optimization software.

Real-time customer notifications

The OptimoRoute customer order tracking system is easy to use and quick to set up. Here’s how to get started:

• Customize your notification messages. Add messaging in your customer’s preferred language and include a link to your website, support phone number, logo, and more.
• Make sure your delivery drivers are set up in the OptimoRoute Driver App. Our driver app works so that if drivers find themselves in a bad reception area and lose their signal, the app will still function as normal for the driver. When reception comes back, the OptimoRoute Driver App will automatically sync with dispatch and live tracking for consumers and mark completed jobs as done.

That’s all there is to it! Have your drivers mark themselves as “ON DUTY” in the app when they set out on their route, and OptimoRoute will automatically send messages with live tracking information to your customers. Customers will get messages when their order is departing their origin, en route, and once it’s reached its final destination. This works for service professionals such as HVAC professionals and dog walkers, too!

Based on our customer statistics, businesses using OptimoRoute have seen as much as a 70% reduction in customer service calls when they use our Realtime Order Tracking. Customer order tracking has also contributed to increased on-time delivery rates. When customers know their package is arriving, businesses experience fewer failed delivery attempts. Drivers spend less time waiting for customers to buzz them in through a gate or accept a package. Some items simply can’t be left by a front door because they will perish or because the customer needs to sign for them. So, customer notifications are a win-win for everyone.

Real-time tracking for businesses

When you use OptimoRoute, your internal team gets live tracking, too. Dispatchers get a live view of each driver or service professional in the field, enabling them to provide better assistance and help drivers troubleshoot issues that might come up along a route. If one driver, for instance, gets a flat tire, your dispatcher will be able to quickly identify if there’s another driver nearby who can take high-priority packages and complete important deliveries on time.

If a customer calls in with a question about their delivery status, dispatchers and customer support providers will be able to provide accurate status updates quickly. Since all of this tracking data is stored in your OptimoRoute analytics dashboard, you’ll also be able to gain important insights once drivers have completed their rounds.

OptimoRoute analytics helps dispatchers and delivery team managers identify drivers that might need help navigating a particularly difficult route, or drivers that could take on a larger load. When business leaders get a deeper understanding of their field team’s performance, both as a whole and as individuals, they’re able to manage workloads more efficiently and identify opportunities for learning.

Start a Free 30-Day Trial

Realtime Order Tracking is a service provided to OptimoRoute customers using the Enterprise price plan that enables them to track the delivery of their purchase in real time.

We know you appreciate transparency, too, which is why we invite you to try out our software at no cost. We offer a 30-day trial—no strings attached. And Yes! Realtime Order Tracking is included in the trial.

If you have any questions while you’re getting set up, our support team will be happy to assist you, and we won’t ask for your credit card at signup. Once your trial period has ended, we offer flexible pricing that can scale up and down with your delivery volume.

Take OptimoRoute for a spin and see what Realtime Order Tracking can do for your customer experience.