The Importance of Contactless Delivery in the Post-COVID Era
By now we’re all familiar with what contactless delivery is and how it has changed the way businesses conduct day-to-day operations. While the catalyst for these changes was COVID-19, contactless delivery is one of the many byproducts of the pandemic lockdowns that are here to stay. This is because of how convenient it is to both businesses and consumers.
For consumers, convenience has always been important. But higher levels of convenience, which began as a necessity to curb the spread, is now baseline expectation in the post-COVID era after we’ve all grown accustomed to it. This expectation has seeped into all aspects of ecommerce, mailrooms, home delivery, video conferencing, medicine, remote work, and more, affecting nearly every industry.
Here we’ll dive into the benefits of contactless delivery methods even post-COVID, how it works, and how companies can implement or improve their contactless delivery methods.
Benefits of Contactless Delivery in the Post-COVID Era
Contactless delivery has changed the way shipping and receiving works. With the advent of smart locker technology, contactless delivery has never been so seamless, easy, and convenient for businesses of all types and sizes. Here are just a handful of the benefits that they provided both during the height of the pandemic and beyond:
- Convenience: Since smart lockers offer 24/7/365 availability to ship or receive goods of any type (including temperature-sensitive packages), they have helped businesses meet and even exceed customer expectations. No longer do recipients have to wait around to sign for a delivery; with smart lockers, they can pick up their package whenever they please.
- Disease protection: While the coronavirus pandemic has certainly died down recently, other bacteria and infectious diseases still exist. Many smart locker systems are equipped with UV-C technology to help disinfect packages within the lockers, thereby minimizing the potential for disease spread. Antimicrobial additives also prevent stain and odor-causing mold and mildew, even in high-humidity areas, to ensure the integrity of each delivery is uncompromised.
- Security features: With heavier reliance on delivery came porch pirates to take advantage of unsecured packages. However, smart lockers boast improved technology features not only from a physical standpoint, but a technological one, too. In fact, users are protected with end-to-end encryption whenever they use their mobile app to pick up their packages. Features such as role-based security access, unique access PINs, key rotation, and more are standard with most reputable smart locker companies.
How Contactless Delivery Works With Smart Lockers
The process for contactless delivery is quite simple:
- Locker reservation: The user places their order and reserves the desired locker, based on the package size, weight, and whether the goods need a regulated temperature.
- Delivery fulfillment: Next, the delivery company places the package in the reserved locker.
- Automated notification: Once the delivery is complete, the user is notified via a mobile app that their order is ready for pickup. They are then prompted to pick up their package using a unique PIN, barcode scan, or QR code with their mobile device. This ensures that all deliveries are secure and find their way to the proper person.
- Package pickup: The user is then able to pick up their package at a time that most suits their schedule. Smart lockers provide secure storage and encrypted delivery notifications to ensure discretion is maintained and package thievery is kept to a minimum. This provides peace of mind so the recipient doesn’t feel the need to rush and
How to Implement Contactless Delivery
Implementing contactless delivery has never been more important. Whether to provide a better customer experience, optimize your mailroom, protect against harmful bacteria, or all of the above, it is now more crucial than ever to provide such services to remain competitive in a thriving ecommerce environment.
Here are some tips to help you implement contactless delivery or improve your existing infrastructure.
- Go Digital
First things first — if you haven’t invested in digital infrastructure already, it’s past time to do so. Through a proprietary app or program, it’s easy to make “contactless delivery” an explicit option for customers, if it isn’t already your default. Ecommerce apps also help you manage all deliveries and orders from first contact to last. This not only streamlines mundane processes for employees, it provides deeper insights into your entire operation to make more informed decisions when it comes to improving the customer journey or eliminating redundancies.
- Invest in Smart Lockers
The benefits of a smart locker system are numerous and wide ranging. They make shipping and receiving a breeze for both your employees and customers by making the entire process easier, more efficient, secure, and convenient. Additionally, you’ll get real-time data regarding maintenance requirements and schedules.
- Contactless Payments
The most crucial part of a convenient, contactless customer journey is making your products as accessible as possible. This includes online product listings, building out a website with ecommerce infrastructure, and making payments completely contactless. It helps to expedite each transaction, reduce the amount of cash that’s handled, and improve the overall customer experience.
Smiota Smart Lockers Create a Better Customer Experience
Smiota smart lockers are designed with your business in mind. Whether you’re looking to implement contactless delivery or improve your existing delivery processes, our lockers are quick and easy to set up.
Our one-of-a-kind Locker Delivery Operating System (L-DOS) is both hardware and cloud-agnostic, meaning it is able to integrate with your existing hardware and proprietary delivery apps.
For more information, get in touch or schedule a free demo today!
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