Geofencing is changing the way customers are experiencing deliveries at home.
When businesses use location-based technology, there is an improved way of how the logistics process is run.
Companies can define virtual boundaries around physical locations and use these zones to trigger specific actions. It might sound complicated, but it’s pretty straightforward and can make a significant difference.
There are many advantages locked up in geofencing. From increasing foot traffic to boosting customer engagement.
This article explores how geofencing benefits businesses and why it’s becoming a must-have tool.
What is Geofencing Technology?
Geofencing creates virtual boundaries around a geographical location. It can use GPS coordinates, Wi-Fi, or cellular data.
It’s like marking the area off, and whoever tries to enter or exit the predefined area triggers a censor.
The question is what benefit is this for businesses? By entering this virtual boundary, a business can send notifications, deliver advertisements or trigger specific application actions.
You don’t need fancy gear to activate geofencing. The technology works seamlessly across smartphones, wearable devices, and even cars.
Here’s an example: A coffee shop could use virtual boundaries to send a special discount to customers who pass within a half-mile radius. This capability helps businesses connect with customers in real-time, offering personalized experiences.
5 Top benefits of geofencing
Virtual boundaries have many benefits for businesses requiring delivering items to customers. It improves accuracy, helps to give a better customer experience, and even improves route planning.
Chief of Product at Locate2u Mark Power says geofencing also collects vital information that can help your business. “To analyze how much time your drivers spend in specific areas, identify inefficiencies, and make decisions to improve processes.”
1. Improved Delivery Accuracy
Geofencing enables precise tracking of delivery vehicles and alerts drivers when they are near a customer’s location.
This ensures accurate, timely deliveries by minimizing missed or incorrect drop-offs.
Many companies use geofencing technology to ensure drivers accurately locate and deliver parcels to the right address. This is ideal for delivering items to complex areas like apartment buildings or gated communities.
2. Enhanced Customer Experience
Imagine a busy pizza restaurant during peak hours. For every delivery that leaves the restaurant, a customer has to be informed that their food is en route.
Geofencing helps this restaurant send out real-time notifications about their delivery status as soon as the driver leaves the geofence area (restaurant). It creates a smoother and more predictable delivery experience.
3. Optimized Route Planning
Geofencing uses location data to work with the Global Positioning System and streamline routes with the help of route optimization.
Drivers are guided efficiently, avoiding delays caused by traffic or restricted areas, which leads to faster deliveries and reduced costs.
FedEx also uses geofencing capabilities to integrate real-time traffic data into its route planning. This ensures drivers avoid congested areas and stick to the most efficient routes, speeding up deliveries.
4. Increased Driver Accountability
With geofencing, fleet managers can monitor driver behavior. With push notification, fleet managers can make sure drivers adhere to designated routes and delivery zones.
If drivers enter or leave active geofences, they trigger notifications. This reduces unauthorized stops and improves overall operational efficiency.
5. Streamlined In-Store Pickups and Returns
For services like curbside pickups or in-store returns, geofencing notifies staff when a customer enters the pickup zone.
This reduces wait times and creates a smoother handoff process, enhancing customer convenience. It also gives the business a competitive advantage and speeds up the delivery rate.
How To Set Up Geofencing
With all these benefits to the business, it’s time to set up the geofencing.
The virtual fence uses location services to monitor mobile devices within the designated area.
Here’s how to set up geofencing:
Step 1: Define the geofencing boundary
Determine how far you want the virtual boundary to surround the specific physical location.
This can be done by drawing a circle or polygon around the desired location on a map, creating a precise area that will be monitored.
Step 2: Set up location services
Now you want to set up location services such as wifi or cellphone data on the mobile device.
These services enable the device to determine its location and communicate with the geofencing software.
Step 3: Monitor device location
The geofencing software continuously monitors the mobile device’s location. It tracks the movement in real-time, and if any movement is detected leaving or entering the set location, the geofencing software is detected.
Step 4: Triggering target actions
When a mobile device enters or exits the geofence, the software gets triggered. It could trigger an in-app notification or initiate other interactions, like sending customers a message that a delivery has been completed.
Enhanced Targeting with Geofencing
Geofencing is ideal for helping businesses reach their target audience. It pinpoints accuracy by targeting a specific group of customers in a certain area.
Delivery companies can automatically send customers notifications when a package is leaving the warehouse by triggering the geofence.
It can also automatically send a request for feedback to a customer after a delivery driver drops off the hot food.
About the author
Mia is a multi-award-winning journalist. She has more than 14 years of experience in mainstream media. She's covered many historic moments that happened in Africa and internationally. She has a strong focus on human interest stories, to bring her readers and viewers closer to the topics at hand.
