The Role of Customer Service

Customers do not like poor service. A bad customer experience can ruin a business’s reputation and drive loyal customers away. It’s important to be aware of how you’re treating clients, handling complaints and establishing lines of communication throughout your customer’s journey.

By 2020, customer experience will bypass product and price as the number one brand differentiator. Consumers not only want more, they expect more from the companies and services they purchase, which means it’s time to look under the hood and evaluate how you are approaching customer service.

In the shipping and logistics industry, transparency and communication are essential to success. Whether you’re a freight agent or carrier, your customers depend on you to get their cargo where it needs to be.

If a retailer is out of snow shovels two days before the biggest snow storm of the season and is relying on your services to get their order from the warehouse to the store in time, it’s a safe bet that they want to know what is happening with the order every step of the way. Smart freight agents leverage logistics technology and freight brokerage platforms that give them the information and real-time updates needed to move and track shipments with confidence and ease. If any problems arise, it is never EVER a good idea to assume that it will not affect the cargo, whether its time or some sort of damage. 

People trust people, not brands, and this should be something you keep in the back of your mind as you establish yourself as a freight agent.

Communication and transparency are key; technology is just there to make it easier for you to achieve those goals. Customers don’t want to spend too much time on the phone trying to deal with an issue, and they certainly don’t want to be consumed dealing with nonsense that make doing business difficult or impossible. As you build your freight agent business, think about how you can weave communication and transparency through every step of the customer journey – from the resources and information located on your website and marketing materials, to how you answer the phone when a client makes an inquiry or complaint. These are all important things to think about.

Customer loyalty can change in the blink of an eye. But with the right technology and communication protocols in place, you can rest easy knowing your clients will continue to depend on you to move their shipments because you’re someone they can trust.