Justin Slawson is the joint managing director of Mevalco
How has Mevalco changed from a technological perspective, what it has achieved, and what made you implement the changes?
At Mevalco, we fully recognise the value of technology and the insight that it can give us. As a relative newcomer (that is growing fast), there is a balance between cost and gain – we have prioritised investment into this area in the knowledge that it will give us a future advantage. We have made this investment despite the pandemic and the impact of covid on our business.
A few ways in which we have looked to use technology to increase our efficiency and outputs:
Over the last year, we have increased the use of route planning trackers, improving the efficiency of our deliveries. Locating the most direct route for our deliveries across Bristol, London, and the rest of the UK has helped us reduce our carbon footprint, adding advantage and weight to our sustainability policies.
Read more: Interview: Mevalco
We have also increased the use of smartphones for our delivery drivers. We can take photos of deliveries that have been made, giving us proof of delivery and reducing queries.
Another technological change we have implemented is the use of WhatsApp groups within the team here. This has been a real winner as it has allowed us to communicate quicker. As a result, team members have access to instant responses to queries that previously may have taken much longer via emails, improving our service to our customers.
We have also invested in how we use data and CRM for our customers and are looking to build on this further in the months to come. There is no question that data is key to future success in understanding new behaviours and potentially growing our business through effective promotional campaigns.
Conversely, our customers are also investing in their technology and harnessing new platforms. Some of our restaurant customers have launched their own home delivery platforms and online ordering in the face of Covid. They are also aware that consumers are changing the way they purchase.
If we had to choose one area to invest in (outside of our range proposition), it would come back to technology!
