Top Tips For Hauliers: How technology can help you meet customer's increasing expectations

Meeting Customer needs – how technology can help

‘Amazon-style’ deliveries have set the bar high with easy on-line ordering, and constant updates during and after delivery.  Hauliers are under increasing pressure to provide a similar consumer-like experience, with more convenience and greater transparency.

Fortunately, a TMS can help haulage operators meet customer needs in a variety of ways:

1. Give customers convenient ways to place orders with you:

• Online bookings are a great way for your customers to serve themselves when it’s convenient for them.
• Use a Transport Management System (TMS) that can integrate with your customer’s system to bring orders directly from their system into the TMS, priced and ready to plan.

2. Plan with your customer in mind:

• Use a TMS that records everything about your customers such as notes about accessing tricky sites and delivery instructions, ensuring all their needs are considered and met during the planning process. With your traffic planners informed, they can ensure you provide the best service you can, to your customers.
• Make every mile and minute count. Plan work around customers’ individual requirements such as timed deliveries, ensuring goods are delivered when they expect.

3. Keep customers informed throughout the journey:

• Provide regular updates to customers as their jobs are in progress. Notifications can be sent by email, or progress viewed online on a customer web portal, or track and trace app.
• Give your traffic team access to real-time visibility of job progress, to manage exceptions proactively. Giving customers a call or email can keep them informed as issues arise.

4. Feed accurate and timely information back to your customers:

• Enable drivers to record accurate details at the point of collection or delivery, using an ePOD app. Any specific details your customers need about the job can be saved to the app and provided to the customer on electronic documents including signature, geo-location and timestamp.
• Update customers with non-conformance details as soon as possible to keep them in the loop.
• Amend job details at the point of collection or delivery, ensuring accurate details such as weights and quantities are fed back to admin, and invoiced.
• Show customers what and how you’ve delivered using quick photos to capture images of delivered goods.

5. Give customers peace of mind that their goods are in safe hands:

• Provide regular KPI reports to show the value your company is providing, and how you are performing against targets. Automatically send reports from your TMS, to ensure reports arrive at the same point in time.
• Show customers how you monitor the performance of your drivers and vehicles to promote safe and positive driving styles.