If your dispensary offers top-shelf products and friendly, well-informed budtenders, you’ve got what it takes to provide a great customer experience—but that experience usually ends when customers leave your shop. With home delivery, however, you can bring the best of your dispensary to your customers’ front doors.
Home delivery is an excellent option for your frequent customers who have memorized your menu. It is also an appealing option for many medical patients, who may be restricted in their ability to visit your shop in person. Here are six tips on how to launch and operate home delivery out of your dispensary.
1. Get acclimated with your state’s regulations surrounding home delivery.
You may be required to do additional paperwork to add home delivery to your general retailer license. Delivery sales may need to be recorded differently than in-store sales. In Oregon, there are specific forms to generate for each delivery, and they must be processed directly through the state tracking system. Oregon also requires a commercially insured vehicle outfitted with a lock box for products to be stored while driving. Sort through these details first, then conceptualize how your delivery service might run.
2. Consider online ordering platforms.
In many states, several platforms are available that offer online menu hosting and ordering services. This feature allows your customers to browse your stock at their leisure and track their orders as they progress. Here at Eugene OG, our online orders on average are also larger than our in-store orders, making this a prime opportunity to increase sales.
3. Build your team and procedures.
You’ll likely need someone to prep orders and complete paperwork in store, and someone to act as a delivery driver. Break the process of taking an order, prepping it and transporting it to the customer into small parts, and give each part a specific workflow to follow. Timing is an essential, uncompromising component of delivery. Efficient workflows allow you to get the product to your customer as quickly as possible, which boosts reviews and return shoppers. With at least two employees working on deliveries at all times, you can set up a consistent workflow so that you are always able to accept new orders and have them delivered in a timely manner.
4. Communicate often!
New orders came in while the driver was out? Send them a quick message. Driver is running late with an order? Call the customer and give him or her an updated ETA. A little communication goes a long way.
5. Double-checking is a virtue.
Make sure your drivers have everything they’ll need before they leave the store. In a rush, it can be easy to forget receipts, products, phones or paperwork. You only get one shot to take the correct products to the correct address in a timely manner the first time. If your driver has to double-back, suddenly that transaction costs that much more in labor and puts you off schedule.
6. Be safe out there.
Your best defense is to avoid attracting attention. Stick with a discreet, unmarked vehicle for deliveries. Carry products in a larger bag without branding or labeling. Drivers should carry a minimal amount of cash on hand. At OG we also provide the driver with a delivery-only phone so they can call customers without fear of giving out their personal number.
