Have you ever just sat home late at night and craved a coffee? Needed a special part for your automotive shop? Didin't have the time to go get lunch? If you have, have you ever considered offering a delivery service of your product to your customers? Let's take a look.

Consider this: you offer your customers the ability to order any of your products either online or over the phone and deliver it right to their door. Not only does this save your customer time, but it also gets you another sale. No matter how big or how small the product, a delivery service will allow you to serve more customers and make more money.

Now, how and what should you charge for the delivery? What I would suggest is make the delivery charge a cost recovery – not another way to make a profit. Not only does this look like a better deal for your customers, but they will feel that you are offering the service to help them, not to profit from them.

How do you deliver it? I guess there are really two choices: deliver it yourself (for example with a company vehicle) or pay someone to do it.

Do it yourself

The advantage of doing it this way is that if you pay an employee to deliver it in a company vehicle, you will also be advertising your firm. Also, this method is good from a control point of view as your employees should care more about the image your company portrays to the public – which would become an opportunity for a “free” public relations campaign. Consider offering your customers a special offer when you deliver the product - not only will this help for sales (repeat business) but it will also let your customers know that you appreciate their business.

Pay someone to do it

By paying someone to do it you do not need to invest in the equipment (for example a vehicle) to deliver your product, rather you just pay someone to do it. You can use a courier service, trucking company, airline, shipping company, or whatever is appropriate for your product. In the case of a food, small parts or office supply business, it can be a very cost-effective delivery system. On the other hand, if your product requires special equipment or procedures to be followed to deliver it, that may not be a good option.

If you offer a specialized product or one that has special requirements, be sure to check on the regulations regarding safe handling and delivery of those products. Items such as blood, radioactive materials, oxygen, chemicals, etc. would have special handling considerations and may not be able to be delivered by your average courier company. In most cases though, there are companies that specialize in those types of products and would be able to provide the delivery service to your company. You can check with your supplier regarding what types of delivery services are available and what regulations need to be followed regarding your product.

Offering a delivery service can add value and increase profits for your business. Whether you offer a food service or special order merchandise, by serving more customers by offering delivery, not only will you increase customer awareness, but increase your sales as well.

Written by Marc Norris, owner of Bizops.ca. Are you an entrepreneur looking for good business opportunities? Check out our website for great, free, entrepreneurial resources. Big thinking, bigger results. Copyright © 2007 Marc Norris. This article may be freely distributed with this box intact.