Why It's More Important Than Ever for Shippers to Own the Customer Experience

And for the Transportation Department to Lead the Way

Customer satisfaction is becoming the new “North Star” for shippers. As my team and I at FourKites meet with customers and prospects around the world, we hear it time and again. Cost management is still critical, but customer satisfaction is the overarching goal. (In fact, a survey last year by Logistics Management found companies prioritizing customer service above all other objectives.)

We hear this consistently from leaders across transportation, logistics, supply chain and operations. It's a welcome trend, to see everyone coming together around such a sensible concept that’s not only good practice but also good business. By focusing on customer satisfaction first-and-foremost, shippers have an opportunity to do two really important things—(1) protect their own bottom line through higher on-time rates, better inventory management, and improved staff utilization, and (2) protect their top-line through stronger customer relationships that lead to continued purchasing agreements and expanded shelf space.

It's taken a while to get here, but that’s understandable. Historically, shippers often had no viable method to control for customer frustration over delivery time variability: once a load was in transit, it entered a black hole. You crossed your fingers and hoped it would reach its destination on-time and without mishap.

Fragmentation Meets Capacity Crunch

The norm for decades has been that shippers learned about problems with freight delivery not from their own systems, but from their own customers.

To many, this process will sound all too familiar: the shipment is late, the call comes in from a customer, the shipper can't tell the customer where the truck is, so the shipper calls the carrier, who then tries to track down the driver…you know the drill. It's an ongoing problem, and it's why oftentimes our first conversations with shippers are triggered by their desire to deliver better customer service.

So, what to do? It has become a cliché in our industry to talk about "bringing the eCommerce experience" to B2B freight—shippers and their customers should be able to track their freight as easily as a consumer can track the delivery of their new iPhone case or TV. But it's fundamentally different in the consumer world, where you have a handful of carriers in the mix. Compare that to the half a million trucking companies in the U.S., multitude of retailers and dizzying array of new technologies and telematics types. Things are quite a bit tougher.

In addition to fragmentation, the industry is now experiencing a capacity crunch, brought on by a variety of factors, including the ELD mandate. Plenty has been written of late about the impact of higher transportation costs on everyone in the value chain (including, ultimately, consumers). As Reuters notes, capacity has not increased as demand has grown.

An Opportunity for the Transportation Department

As tough as it is, shifting market dynamics create opportunities. There's a big one here for shippers, and for transportation and supply chain teams in particular.

First, after decades of inadequate manual processes, we now have the ability to connect this vast network and to provide the kind of visibility that has been lacking historically. I'd argue this presents a tremendous opportunity for shippers to use technology to help their customers achieve higher on-time delivery rates, find capacity and gain other efficiencies—even in the face of higher delivery costs and less carrier supply.

Second, customer satisfaction is a shared responsibility across most organizations, as it should be. But when it comes to shippers, I'd argue that the transportation department has a unique responsibility, and opportunity, in front of it. Why? Because the transportation department is on the frontlines of receiving this powerful data – data that can make the difference between proactively notifying a customer hours in advance that there’s a shipment delay, or being notified by an exasperated customer that their shipment is late. That gives the transportation team the ability to positively impact the customer experience.

Consider the power of this data at even one large retail customer’s facility. If a shipper knows a shipment to that store is running late and can proactively notify the customer, that customer can reschedule the delivery window to allow another shipment to unload, or keep store associates engaged in productive activities on the store floor, as opposed to waiting at an empty dock. Making this happen requires more than sharing data between apps; this is about sharing insights across shipper organizations with the people and departments who can drive greatest customer sat.

Today’s transportation teams have the ability to seize a leadership role when it comes to customer satisfaction. I'm thrilled to see so many of our shipper customers—and so many enthusiastic and dedicated transportation directors in particular—embracing that mission and allowing us to help them on the journey. We can drive so much more value together—for you, your customers and the entire supply chain.

What do you think? Please share your feedback or perspective below.