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Defending you delivery area

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daisy1

Active member
How do you defend or justify your delivery area to customers ?? I had a customer call for a delivery the other day, I checked my delivery map & they were located 17 miles away, yet they got shitty with my gal on the phone, saying “we order from you weekly, and have told numerous people about you & sent you many customers” so how do you respond to that??? The order was only $14, we charge $3 for delivery.

My radius for delivery is nothing over 5 miles away from the shop
 
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“The more you order…the further I go.” That is my mantra when folks ask me how far I deliver.
I have 2 thoughts for consideration.
1.Simply charge extra for “long” deliveries. I have certain roads in all directions, that we charge extra for once we pass them.
It is only $1 and I give it to the driver. Inform the customer that the price is $xx picked up or $xxx delivered.
I also would let them know that you won’t be able to make it in your usual time frame but it will be delivered as soon as it comes out of the oven.
2. Start advertising and do a mailing in that area to see if you can pick up more business. If you are going that way anyway, make it a double. If you have never mailed in that area before, you will definitely gather more sales because folks want to try you out.

Please do not turn down business, you never know how much they will bring you in the future.
 
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daisy1 said:
How do you defend or justify your delivery area to customers ?? I had a customer call for a delivery the other day, I checked my delivery map & they were located 17 miles away, yet they got shitty with my gal on the phone, saying “we order from you weekly, and have told numerous people about you & sent you many customers” so how do you respond to that??? The order was only $14, we charge $3 for delivery.

My radius for delivery is nothing over 5 miles away from the shop
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If I was faced with this dilemma;
I’d reply in the most diplomatic way possible by explaining that we had tested travel times against food quality and freshness, and that we set the limits of our delivery area based solely on temperature/quality degradations so we are able to guarantee that our food is as fresh and hot and possible.
By exceeding those driving/time limits on a delivery, that quality is lost and it would be unfair to you, the customer to not have the best food that we are able to offer. I would leave monetary issues out of the conversation.

Of course, While explaining this, I’d be flipping the bird towards the mouthpiece of the phone, making funny faces, and partaking in other offensive bodily gestures that are not seen or heard by any customers.
Sound fair??
 
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For big $$$$ orders we do deliver for an extra charge out side our delivery zone, this person just acted like we OWED her the world just because of what she told my gal on the phone, just found it a little irritating

Will keep in mind about the $1 for every rd passed though THANKS for advise
 
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That customer was all about them…So no matter what you say will not matter to them…Best to ignore them and move on…
 
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The big reason to limit your delivery area is not that the 17-mile-away person might receive bad service, but that customers within your delivery area may experience longer wait times due to your taking that one delivery out in the sticks. And once you get behind during a rush, you’re generally running behind until the rush ends.

We do take deliveries outside our area, but they are to customers that want large orders on a regular basis or that know to place the order well in advance so that we can plan and schedule accordingly.
 
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The big reason to limit your delivery area is not that the 17-mile-away person might receive bad service, but that customers within your delivery area may experience longer wait times due to your taking that one delivery out in the sticks. And once you get behind during a rush, you’re generally running behind until the rush ends.
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^^^ This. This is the real reason I very seldom take deliveries out of zone, and the reason we give customers. Any other reason you give and the person is going to handle objections - “I’ll pay extra”, “I’ll tip the driver really well (they never do)”, etc.

I say something like “taking a delivery that far out of zone will cause a lot my local deliveries to be late. We don’t like upsetting customers”.
we order from you weekly, and have told numerous people about you & sent you many customers"
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We all know this is usually a lie :rolleyes:. What I always want to say is “If you really ordered weekly, I’d already know who you are. I’d know your wife’s, kids’ and dog’s name, and we’d have a relationship built on enough loyalty that you wouldn’t be threatening me.”

What I actually say is “I’m sorry to hear that you feel that way, but I would rather have one upset customer than five later tonight when all of their deliveries are late.”
 
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I agree with Brad, the important factor is giving great service to those within your delivery area. If sending a driver on a 35 mile roundtrip delivery screws up your service to just one of your regular customers it may cost you big time. How do you address this with customers who think it’s reasonable to ask you to go that far? Tell them your insurance company limits their coverage to 5 miles.
 
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I was recently speaking with the owner of one of the big chains about delivery times and distances. He informed me that corporate policy is not to take a delivery farther than a six minute drive away from the store. I was a driver for him back when the city was much smaller and you could get to anywhere in the city in 6 minutes. The city has grown enough that there are areas in the city that take up to 20 minutes one way which explains his adding a second location on the other end of the city.

When I have to tell customers they are out side of our delivery area, I often have get the comment “you are kidding, right?” Then I go into the explanation of why we are unable to deliver as stated in the above posts.
 
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I never give reasons why. I just repeatedly apologize that they are out of our delivery zone , they are more then welcome to come pick it up and that I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I just repeat over till the customer gives up or picks up. By not giving them a reason it also doesn’t give the customer any negotiation proposition like I’ll pay extra, you’ve been here before, I don’t care if its cold. When they say I bring you tons of business I would thank them very much and wish that I could help them out tonight but unfortunately I can’t.
 
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I never give reasons why. I just repeatedly apologize that they are out of our delivery zone , they are more then welcome to come pick it up and that I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I just repeat over till the customer gives up or picks up. By not giving them a reason it also doesn’t give the customer any negotiation proposition like I’ll pay extra, you’ve been here before, I don’t care if its cold. When they say I bring you tons of business I would thank them very much and wish that I could help them out tonight but unfortunately I can’t.
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Post of the day!!!

Because if you explain it is due to your other customers getting screwed, they don’t care! And you might as well have just told them that do not matter to you as much as other customers.
 
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I never give reasons why. I just repeatedly apologize that they are out of our delivery zone , they are more then welcome to come pick it up and that I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I just repeat over till the customer gives up or picks up. By not giving them a reason it also doesn’t give the customer any negotiation proposition like I’ll pay extra, you’ve been here before, I don’t care if its cold. When they say I bring you tons of business I would thank them very much and wish that I could help them out tonight but unfortunately I can’t.
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So how do you deal with the " But Why?" or “It’s only one block more.”
 
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Daddio said:
So how do you deal with the " But Why?" or “It’s only one block more.”
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I’m terribly sorry we just don’t, I understand it’s only one more block but we still can’t deliver it. You could pick it up if you’d like, but I not going to be able to delivery it, I’m really, really sorry.

By the way, if it really was one more block I would probably take the delivery. But the original poster was talking about 17 miles out.
 
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I don’t deliver but I would like to say that an apology is all you need. If you give a “reason” it looks like an “excuse” to customers. Any mistakes or problems we come across can be handled with an apology. If it is a mistake, we simply ask “How can we make it up to you?” Once we get an answer, we go above and beyond that.
 
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