subject: Putting Dispatch Software In Place [print this page] What many courier company owners and administrators don't realize is that when buying new courier delivery software, making that purchase is only half of the total process of improvement that they are looking to create within their company. The second half is the actual implementation of that software. A mistake made here could offset any gains that a company made by putting careful forethought into what software they purchased, so it is critical to be sure and have a great strategy for putting that software into play.
Training can't be over emphasized in terms of its importance when it comes to putting a new courier program into place. This is because there are so many people that need to be trained, and they all need to be trained well if you want the process to go smoothly. You're going to need to train the people that are using the software in the office. Next, you'll need to train your drivers who are going to be using the software in the field. Finally, and this is the element that is overlooked the most often, you also need to train your customers about the changes that are going to be happening to your company.
The people that actually use the software in the dispatching office might need to be the ones that receive the most training when you're putting new software into place. That is because if either a driver or a customer experiences a problem with the software, it is going to be the office that they are going to contact. Not only does your office staff need to know how to use the software for their own job, such as dispatching, it is also often important that they can troubleshoot it.
Drivers are of course also going to need to be trained very well in the use of the new software. They're going to need to know how to scan orders in and out, to receive their dispatches, and to update the statuses of their shipments. If they don't know how to do all this, all the shipments they are delivering will quickly be logged incorrectly in the system.
Finally, it is important to provide some educational material to your customers when you're putting new software in place if it is software that they use. Most courier software includes a web aspect that will be accessed by the customer. If this is changing, be sure to prepare the customer for it.
