Think about deliveries like your customer

With all the moving parts required to run a successful HME/DME business, their ultimate goal should be providing an exceptional customer experience and high-quality service during every encounter, by ensuring that the customer's wellbeing and satisfaction are top priority.

There are a multitude of ways to ensure your company is providing high-quality customer service, including taking a look from the outside in and considering your business operations from the customer perspective. Enhancing processes through the use of technology, particularly in the field, will ensure deliveries run more efficiently and customers reap the benefits of the well-oiled organization. To begin thinking like the customer, consider some of the delivery issues they can typically experience:

#1: I don't know where my delivery is and I can't wait around all day long.

We've all experienced this frustration. It's no fun to be given a multiple-hour window of when the delivery will show up and you feel chained to the house for the majority of the day for fear of missing it. When HME companies use a delivery logistics system to optimize routes and track delivery technicians in real time, customer service representatives can give more accurate estimated times of arrival. This transparency can provide a level of service that most companies cannot offer, giving your organization a leg up on the competition.

#2: The technician is too worried about ensuring I complete all the paperwork and is not focused on installing my equipment.

There are many factors competing for a technician's attention during each delivery and, unfortunately, paperwork can be time-intensive and a hassle for both parties. Leveraging a mobile device, such as a tablet, can streamline the delivery process. The technician can easily guide the customer through the paperwork and ensure all the necessary documentation is complete with one simple signature. As a result, the technician can spend more time training and educating the customer on the equipment and less time on documentation, ensuring the customer has a positive experience.

#3: The technician didn't have all the proper equipment I need and will have to come back to deliver the rest.

When it comes to delivering medical equipment, it can be critical that patients receive the proper equipment the first time. Especially when dropping off oxygen tanks or other respiratory equipment, forgetting items in the warehouse is unacceptable and can be detrimental to the health of the patient, not to mention frustrating for the technician to have to make a return trip. A delivery logistics system that provides checks and balances to ensure all equipment needed for the day's trips are loaded onto the truck ensures this mistake won't happen.

By implementing a delivery logistics technology and automating processes that can provide complete fleet visibility, electronic signature capturing and properly documented deliveries, an HME business will not only have happy customers, but improved operations.

Aimee Swope is the customer success manager at Apacheta Corporation.