Tech Helps Sherman’s Create A Winning Experience

Campbell, CA – November 13, 2024 – For independent home goods retailers, beating the big box stores isn’t easy, but Kayla Hopple, Marketing Manager for Illinois-based Sherman’s, has found a formula: heart, hustle and advanced tech tools.

Sherman’s was an early adopter of the AI-powered SaaS routing technology created by DispatchTrack, which schedules deliveries with 98% accurate ETAs and gives drivers an advanced mobile field app.

Optimizing routes does get refrigerators to customers on time, and Hopple also saw an opportunity to compete toe to toe with the big box stores by leveraging DispatchTrack’s cutting edge customer communications features.

In 2023, Sherman’s was relying on drivers to make phone calls to confirm delivery schedules and send out surveys. Now the company uses DispatchTrack automated communications instead:

• Schedule confirmation messages are sent two days prior to delivery and again the night before.
• On the day of delivery, customers get a route start notification and a live, updated ETA.
• Customers are sent a link to a branded live tracking widget that shows them where their new sofa is in real time.

With multiple opportunities to confirm or reschedule, far more customers are at home to receive their deliveries, boosting both efficiency and customer satisfaction. DispatchTrack also sends branded surveys automatically, which has increased survey uptake and reported NPS.

Without the responsibility of making phone calls and collecting surveys, drivers are now able to focus on providing the best possible service, which resulted in an uptick in NPS to 87.

DispatchTrack’s communication capabilities were the perfect fit for family owned Sherman’s, which prides itself on creating close relationships with customers, listening to their needs and giving them personal attention.

Hopple says the ability to directly message individual customers, a whole route, or everyone on the day’s schedule in their preferred channel (text, email or phone) before, during and after their delivery has been a game changer. Messages can be pre-formatted and scheduled (such as the route start notifications) or they can be one-to-one messages between the customer, the driver and dispatch to update ETAs or communicate instructions like a gate code or change in the customer’s availability.

Constant communication from sales through survey is what has kept Sherman’s in the game for almost a half-century, and it’s how they’re winning the fiercely competitive home goods game. The combination of value, personalized service and experience is hard for the big boxes to beat, and Hopple says DispatchTrack has given Sherman’s a key strategic advantage.

“Just the time savings alone from DispatchTrack are huge — you invest an amount of time and you get that back tenfold,” says Hopple reports. “Everybody sees this as a good decision. In fact, they ask, ‘Why didn’t we do this sooner?’”

With DispatchTrack, high tech and high touch come together in an easy to implement package, creating a branded customer experience that has buoyed Sherman’s sales and its reputation.

Score one for local retail.

For more information about DispatchTrack’s integrated suite of tools to improve the customer experience for retailers, visit: https://www.dispatchtrack.com/industries/retail-consumer-goods.

About DispatchTrack

DispatchTrack is the global leader in last mile delivery solutions, helping top brands around the globe power successful deliveries 1 million times a day. Since 2010, DispatchTrack’s scalable SaaS platform has made delivery organizations more connected, agile, and intelligent using highly configurable capabilities designed to empower better delivery management from end to end. Our proprietary AI-powered routing algorithm ensures 98% ETA accuracy in last mile deliveries, and we’re constantly innovating to improve performance and better serve our 2,500+ global customers, including Walmart, Coca-Cola, Ashley, Ferguson Enterprises, Cargill, McCain Foods, and many others. When businesses make promises to their customers—DispatchTrack makes sure they deliver. 

You can follow DispatchTrack on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Contact:

Dan Shim

dan@dispatchtrack.com