Agediss Improves Customer Satisfaction with Descartes’ Route Planning and Reservations Software

!

As part of a major company transformation, Agediss chose Descartes to deliver its distribution management solutions, specifically to optimise last-mile delivery routes and enable time slot allocations online. Implementing Descartes’ routing and appointment booking solutions helped Agediss introduce innovative delivery options and value-added services for consumers, improve service quality to maintain customer loyalty, and generate profitable growth to reinforce its position as the market leader.

“After extensive research, we partnered with
Descartes to help transform our distribution
management practices because it proved to be
a real benchmark in the market. Their tools are
very effective. The routing solution has been
a resounding success resulting in lower costs
and greater customer satisfaction, while the
appointment booking capability is in great demand
from our customers and their consumers.”

Nicolas Tellier
Chairman
Agediss

About the Client

Agediss is a leader in Europe home delivery of high-volume and heavy products ordered on ecommerce websites. With 61 years of distribution experience, the company delivers 1.2 million orders a year across France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, and the Benelux and eastern European countries.

Challenge: Maintaining High Quality Offering Against Competitive Threats

With competition in home delivery increasing, Agediss was facing new entrants in the market including start-ups that understood how valuable managing last mile delivery could be, and major logistics firms acquiring historic competitors capable of making home deliveries to consumers. Although facing similar delivery challenges as these competitors, Agediss had more constraints because it offers sophisticated value-added services such as product assembly and installation.

To survive and continue growing in this highly-competitive and dynamic market, Agediss needed to differentiate itself by providing the highest quality customer experience and maintaining the loyalty of its customers’ online consumers who have high expectations for service quality.

Solution: Route Optimisation and Appointment Setting Raise the Bar

Distribution management was one of the first processes Agediss reviewed when launching its transformation, because it was very important to their customers and end consumers. Descartes was selected to optimise the company’s last-mile delivery routes and to manage time slot allocations online.

Agediss manages 250-300 delivery routes per day with 10 to 15 stops per round trip. Every stop is a delivery and, depending on the product, associated installation and assembly services may also be requested. By integrating Descartes’ route planning solution with Agediss’ transportation management system, the company has gained further efficiencies and lowered costs by setting parameters to shorten and reduce the number of delivery trips. Reduced gas emissions also provide an environmental benefit.

To meet ever-evolving consumer expectations, Descartes’ appointment booking tool was implemented. It enables Agediss to give consumers a two-hour time slot for a delivery appointment once their order has been received on a customer’s commercial website.

The ability to request a two-hour time slot at the point of sale, rather than receiving it a few days later when the goods are ready to be delivered, is a major innovation and significant benefit for busy consumers who no longer need to request time off to be at home for the two hours when their delivery is scheduled.

Results:

• Greater customer satisfaction
  An immediate increase in the Net Promoter Score, a measurement of Agediss service quality, indicated customers are far more satisfied with deliveries on optimised routes.

• Improved legal compliance
  The route planning solution digitally compiles information such as vehicle load capacity and working time and drivers’ hours for each route, enabling legal requirements to be met more efficiently and accurately.

• Increased efficiency
  Descartes’ route planning and reservations solution provided Agediss with a very important technological advantage relative to its competitors. This technology is a point of differentiation giving the company an edge in the ecommerce delivery market to continue fueling its rapid growth.

• Lower costs
  Due to better route tracking and optimisation, fewer trips were generated for the same number of delivery orders and shorter routes were driven to increase delivery density. By decreasing mileage, vehicle gas emissions were also reduced.