A version of this dialogue transpires in many boardrooms where one person proposes to improve the delivery application, and the answer is that it is an operations issue, rather than a customer experience issue. The cost of such an assumption is high. All customer alerts, all delivery delivery records, all live tracking alerts and all exceptions notifications go through the app in the pocket of the driver. The customer does not physically perceive the app, and he experiences all the effects of its functionality either good or bad during delivery. Saphyroo works under the assumption that driver tools and customer experience are the same discussion wearing different clothes- and those who separate the two are the ones that will have delivery issues that they will never be able to pinpoint as the root cause of the problem.

The workflow design of the drivers defines the speed of each individual stop in the operating day of a fleet of drivers. The kind of rhythmic momentum that a driver gets when using an app that displays stop information clearly – address conspicuous, customer notes visible without having to navigate further – access codes and special instructions being surfaced at the right time in a context allows drivers to keep the route on schedule well into the afternoon. Thirty seconds per stop of disruption in thirty locations means fifteen minutes of schedule drift, manifested as late deliveries at the end of the route, poor customer reviews the next morning and a dispatch team that takes calls they do not need to receive. The formula is basic and the origin is normally not noticeable until someone pays special attention to the interaction patterns of apps.

Evidence of delivery systems on the app workflow can only be effective when they do not add a conscious burden on the driver. Photo capture, GPS confirmation and signature collection must occur as natural stages in the delivery completion cycle as opposed to independent administrative events which must be remembered by the driver to be done properly under time pressure. The quality of documentation is directly related to the feel of the capture process, as drivers who find it truly smooth sail through to the end of the process and all the documentation is the difference between a closed case and a costly compromise made to put an end to an unpleasant discussion.

Exception handling with in-app infrastructure makes operations receptive as the conditions of the real world vary with the plan – which occurs at any moment and with little politeness or prior notice. A driver who has to face an inaccessible building, a missing customer or a broken parcel requires instant instructions without long telephone conversation, which distracts dispatcher attention and jeopardizes the safety of the driving process at the same time. Quick, transparent in-app exception reporting with immediate dispatch visibility transforms possible route failures into controlled circumstances, so long as the tools themselves are actually operable in a field environment and not only theoretically workable in ideal circumstances.