The old days of judging customer service effectiveness by call resolution and average talk time are over. It is time for organizations see customer service operations in a more systemic way. And, as a way to drive customer value, retention and advocacy. This is especially true in the transportation industry where data is complex and bottlenecks have major ramifications. If you are dealing with inaccurate and sluggish data then you are missing out on solving larger, systemic issues.
A transportation management system (TMS) is only as good as the data in it and the system’s ability to glean information from that data. Many TMS products on the market give you data in a user-friendly format, but make no guarantees that your data is correct. This is why it is necessary to find not only a TMS, but customer support services that ensure data accuracy and value. For example, IntelliTrans measures customer service representatives based on their ability to keep customer railcars moving and their ability to keep customer data clean. These representatives also develop relationships and industry expertise by communicating with railroads and customers on a daily basis to resolve issues such as delayed cars, bad orders, and out-of-route shipments. When you are proactively intervening on behalf of the customer you are creating value in very tangible ways: reducing distribution chain inventory, improving asset utilization, optimal transportation modes, lower operational costs. Besides improving optimization and reducing costs, IntelliTrans customer service operations provide the know-how needed to obtain data from a diverse set of sources and create custom alerts and reporting, tailored specifically to customers.
Great things can happen when customer service is seen as a strategic asset and way to tangibly deliver value to the customer. Ingraining systems thinking in your customer service operations can deliver more value to customers then approaching customer cases or tickets as single anomalies. In the end, you want a team of consultants intervening on your behalf who don’t just put out fires, but deliver significant customer value, retention, and advocacy.
Please contact us to see how we can deliver these results for you.