TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • Providing Seamless Experience
  • Meeting Customer's Expectation
  • Offering Consolidated Quotes
  • Conclusion
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Providing excellent 3PL customer service has become a more significant challenge with the rise in customers' demands and expectations. As a result, companies that can find and implement effective customer service strategies can stand out against the competition.

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This article can help you boost 3PL customer service and acquire new market share by providing four effective strategies.

1. Providing Seamless Experience

If a customer hires your 3PL service to transport their goods, they expect to get it done right the first time and error-free. They are also looking for an option of personalization to meet their specific needs.

Be it transportation, storage, or distribution needs, providing your customers with a consistent and seamless experience can improve 3PL customer service. A tool that can help you achieve this is a CRM. By being a centralized place for all your customer interactions, it can ensure that everyone in your team involved in the process is fully aligned.

For example, a CRM can allow you to document each call and make notes on each customer's needs. So that when the same customer calls for the second time, whoever gets that call can go back and refer to those notes.

Even if the same person takes the call, that person is managing multiple accounts and may forget the exact details of that customer. Having documented interactions can help that person understand the customer’s history. It allows you to deliver a seamless experience, thus improving 3PL customer service.

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2. Meeting Customer's Expectation

Every customer has different expectations when they choose a 3PL service. How you manage the expectations of each client is essential to boost customer service.

Having smooth centralized communication can help manage the expectations of your customers. It can also help you understand what your customers are going through and their expectations.

A CRM with a centralized communication feature in supply chain management allows you to store all the interactions, including calls, emails, and meetings with customers, in one place. The storage of past interactions helps create a valuable source of data. Based on past interactions, you can discover your customers' priorities and challenges. It can also help decide what steps to take to meet customer expectations and improve your overall 3PL customer service.

3. Offering Consolidated Quotes

Offering consolidated quotes to your customers is a great way to improve 3PL customer service. A consolidated quote is a single quote that includes multiple transportation and logistics services to fulfill all your customers' requirements. This helps boost customer service by simplifying the quote process and not sending multiple quotes that could create confusion.

For example, take a customer who needs to move their goods overseas. Through a consolidated quote, you can offer inland and ocean services in a single quote. You can also include different options for inland, such as FTL, LTL, or Intermodal, in that quote to provide customers a choice according to their time and budget.

Conclusion

Practicing the strategies mentioned above can help you meet the rise in customers' demands and expectations and improve your 3PL customer service. The quality of customer service can effectively enhance your brand's image that'll help you bring in new customers and retain your existing ones, therefore, increasing sales.

If you are looking for a CRM that enables you to implement the strategies mentioned in the article, look at this CRM built especially for 3PLs.

Thank you for reading our article. For more educational content, you can explore all our blogs here. You can follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook to get supply chain industry trends and efficiency tips. If you have other inquiries or suggestions, do not hesitate to contact us through this link.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Phil Magill Supply Chain Expert

Phil is IFS’s co-founder, chairman, and industry expert, holding over 35 years of experience in the transportation industry. He is also the founder and CEO of Transportation Management Solutions, the largest privately held 3PL in South Florida. Prior to TMS and IFS, Phil held significant roles in C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Freight Transportation Specialist (acquired by C.H. Robinson), and Emery Worldwide.