6 Reasons CRM Software is Essential for Modern Freight Forwarders

It should come as no surprise that how you manage your relationships with customers and prospects can make or break your business. Freight forwarding customers these days are demanding, and they have plenty of options to choose from. The speed at which you are able to respond, the consistency of your services, and the ease at which they can communicate with you are all important considerations that can turn an interested prospect into a loyal, longtime customer. In the freight forwarding industry, making effective use of data is tantamount to success, and integrating a CRM in your technology stack can help equip all teams with accurate, up-to-date customer data.

 Key Takeaways

• Freight forwarding CRM software can make important data available when it’s most needed, including current and completed transactions, cargo status, order estimations, accepted commercial offers, vehicle, shipping/trucking, and customs documentation, payment information, commercial offers, and more.
• A CRM system integrated with your freight software platform will streamline quoting and communications across multiple teams, busting silos that can hurt your customer experience, and the bottom line.
• A connected CRM system can be instrumental in automating the processes of receiving requests for quotes, assigning them to team members, and managing orders until the deal is closed.

Here are 6 reasons why freight forwarding CRM (customer relationship management) software is essential to compete in today’s crowded logistics services space:

Ensuring Quality, Accuracy, and Timeliness of Data

Constantly updating customer organization details, contacts, quotes, activities, and procedures is an administrative nightmare with multiple, disconnected data systems within a company. A unified data system with a single system of record for customer data ensures that the entire team, from sales through operations to finance, has access to the same updated information to ensure a quality flow of information. A freight forwarding CRM system can make important data available when it’s most needed, including current and completed transactions, cargo status, order estimations, accepted commercial offers, vehicle, shipping/trucking, and customs documentation, payment information, commercial offers, and more.

Improving the Customer Experience

Communicating standard operating procedures to multiple customer-facing and back-office teams is a challenge, resulting in inconsistencies in the customer experience. Your customers want reliable, consistent service every time they do business with you, no matter what channel they use or who they work with. An integrated CRM designed for freight forwarding workflows makes it easy for everyone managing an account to speak the same language and know the customer’s history and current needs. Even in the event a key employee leaves your organization, their successor will know right where they left off with every customer without having to rifle through thousands of emails or notes.

Boosting Visibility for Management Teams

When accounts and quotes are managed across multiple systems, it’s challenging – if not impossible – for management to obtain a clear picture of operating performance, pipeline health, and strategy. A CRM system that shines a light on data regarding sales efforts – as well as any setbacks that could be affecting a sale – is an important enabler for sales management to make data-driven strategic moves. For freight forwarders, that means that data should be sliced and diced in various ways, for instance by quotation and tonnage, pulling reporting data from throughout the system.

Streamlining Quoting and Communications

When multiple teams are at play to make a sale, important information can slip through the cracks, or take excessive amounts of time to be shared. For example, access to the most up-to-date data about quotes is a must for both sales and operations teams. A CRM system integrated with your freight software platform will streamline quoting and communications across multiple teams, busting silos that can hurt your customer experience, and the bottom line.

Enabling a Highly-Effective Sales Process

A well-implemented CRM system provides an effective framework for sales teams to pursue prospects and collect the data they need to generate revenue-driving opportunities. Plus, by putting all customer data in one place, sales management and operations can quickly spring to action in support of sales representatives, instead of wasting time collecting and digesting information from all over the place. Comprehensive, relevant reports and data available to all key stakeholders enables a highly-effective sales process and allows users to increase the time spent with customer interaction (and spend less time on bureaucratic tasks).

Automating Manual Processes

If there’s one thing that can really slow down a freight forwarder and negatively impact customer relations, it’s the abundance of manual, repetitive tasks that come along with traditional quoting processes. A connected CRM system can be instrumental in automating the processes of receiving requests for quotes, assigning them to team members, and managing orders until the deal is closed. Plus, automatic updates from a centralized CRM keep all stakeholders (shipping agents, specialists responsible for vehicles, ports, storage, terminal workers, etc.) informed and updated in a fast-changing global business environment. Automation of repetitive customer service tasks also reduces the risk of human error, and can free up staff for more strategic, revenue-generating tasks.

Put your customer data in the spotlight with Magaya CRM. Integrated with Magaya Supply Chain, this time-saving solution eliminates redundancies and fosters collaboration across sales and operations teams with greater visibility, streamlined processes, and built-in business intelligence. Learn more about Magaya CRM.