Dolly’s delivery management solution explained

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“I used to think that buying big items would be a big deal, but after Dolly’s service, my mind has changed.”

Big Lots Customer

You don’t want customers to be reluctant to make big purchases because there isn’t an accessible and affordable delivery option. Dolly’s delivery management system empowers retailers to offer big item delivery with a network of drivers nationwide. Retail teams can easily create, manage and analyze Dolly deliveries with a few simple clicks. 

Instead of adding staff to manage a complicated delivery process or losing out on big and bulky sales, Lighthouse will connect your team to a nationwide fleet of delivery drivers. 

What is Lighthouse?

Lighthouse is a proprietary, enterprise-grade delivery management system, which helps you create and manage deliveries for your customers and supplies real-time delivery information. Lighthouse immediately connects customers with Dolly’s network of drivers and labor at checkout, allowing customers to schedule convenient delivery times. 

Customers can see the details of their delivery, communicate directly with their assigned Helper, and track their items in real time in Dolly’s free customer app. These technologies keep both the retailer and customer in the loop from the time a product leaves the store or warehouse until it arrives at its final destination.

Here’s how The Container Store overhauled their delivery process with Lighthouse:

Before Dolly, The Container Store’s customers would often wait days to receive their larger custom closet goods. Customers didn’t understand that TCS outsourced its delivery service; as far as they were concerned, the delivery process was linked to the retailer, causing brand erosion. 

These inefficiencies led to cluttered backrooms with products waiting to be delivered. This proved inconvenient for store employees and interfered with their ability to quickly restock shelves.

With help from Dolly, The Container Store has been able to offer efficient last-mile delivery. 

“I purchased a large amount of Elfa pieces for closets from The Container Store. I can’t say enough good things about my overall experience with Dolly.”

The Container Store customer

Dolly has also dramatically reduced The Container Store’s backroom clutter and kept employees in the loop on the delivery status and customer satisfaction. Lighthouse allows employees to track inventory from the time it leaves the store until it arrives at the customers’ requested destination. Read the full case study.

It’s also worth noting that customers love quick delivery, and Lighthouse will help you deliver exactly that. Through a 2021 survey about Dolly retail offerings, our team discovered:

  • 72% of customers stated that their Dolly experience positively impacted their impression of the store and that they were more likely to purchase from the retailer again.
  • 13% of customers said they bought more than they planned because same-day delivery was available at the store. 
  • 27% of customers said that would not have purchased their items at all if local delivery wasn’t available.

A few reasons why this is great for you:

  1. It’s risk-free

Unlike many less than truckload (LTL) providers, Dolly has no minimum or maximum allocations. You get to take advantage of a totally flexible nationwide fleet. Lighthouse is free to use, and you are welcome to pilot a few locations before expanding to your entire business.

  1. Customizable for your business needs

Configure Lighthouse’s settings according to your needs, such as custom messages for Dolly drivers or customers, email notifications based on customer preferences, store hours and delivery schedule, and payment options between credit card, PayPal or invoicing. This allows for a more productive and efficient workflow for all parties involved. 

  1. Ease-of-use

The Lighthouse platform is intuitive and easy to use, allowing you to quickly onboard new employees. After a few hours, your new team members will be confidently scheduling deliveries. But if extra support is needed, Dolly provides training resources as well as a dedicated support team. 

A few reasons why this is great for your customers:

  1. Transparency in their delivery

Customers have a one-to-one relationship with their Dolly helper, including chat capabilities and location tracking, similar to tracking an Uber driver on a map. 

  1. Your customer is in control of the timeline 

Customers can choose an exact 1-hour time frame for their item delivery. No more waiting around all day for items to arrive.

  1. Fair pricing

90% of customers who thought the delivery price was important believe Dolly’s prices are fair. – Read full survey results

Let’s get technical and review how it works:

In Lighthouse, you can visualize all of their active orders, search Dollys by name or order number, filter them, and access detailed order information. Retailers can also update orders and edit or cancel them when needed. Orders can be passed through a mobile SMS to customers for scheduling and payment purposes, making the delivery process even more convenient. 

Corporate employees can review and analyze delivery data from the analytics section across the entire portfolio, including total spend, rating data, and the item and average mileage count for each Dolly.

Details about Dolly’s delivery network:

You have huge items to deliver, and we have a huge network of drivers – it’s a perfect fit. 

  • We have a network of 15,000+ vetted and background-checked drivers.
  • Our network spans 48 major American cities.
  • Our average customer satisfaction rating is 4.7/5 stars across 31K+ App Store reviews.
  • Our all-time average customer NPS speaks for itself at 80.