October 7th, 2020
3PL’s customers often have many questions – and rightfully so – but why is it so difficult to get them the answers they need in an efficient and effective manner? Whether it’s a simple tracking update, or an LTL quote, it’s time consuming and labor intensive every time your customer dials your number or sends you an email. There are a couple of major reasons that most 3PLs run into these sorts of inefficiencies:
No TMS – many 3PLs operate the different departments of their business in silos that are closed off from one another. This makes it more difficult to track down information that you are not directly responsible for, and there tends to be no singular system in place that can unify all those areas of the business. For businesses that ship, a Transportation Management System (TMS) is the best way to overcome this obstacle.
No Customer Portal – for many, simply having a TMS in place is not enough. Customers will often reach out to ask for answers that are readily available within the TMS and it’s very inefficient to ask an internal team member to track down answers. If there is no Customer Portal in place, this “answer” is often passed on to the customer via email – separately from the TMS. Utilizing a TMS that comes equipped with a Customer Portal is the best way to unify these processes in an efficient and organized manner.
Shippers are always asking for tracking updates, cost information, invoicing details, and more – if you’re like most 3PLs and Brokers, you’re probably providing those updates via phone or email. Not only is this inefficient, but it also opens up potential data entry errors. To alleviate these pitfalls, Logistically TMS has developed a highly intuitive and easy-to-use Customer Portal solution.
How can Logistically TMS Customer Portals help me?
With Logistically TMS Customer Portals, your customers will be able to reference a multitude of information pertaining to their orders with you. Whether they are looking for a shipment status, or building the load themselves, they are in a position to interact with you and your team more effectively and efficiently. As a result, your team will have more bandwidth to focus on procuring freight and building stronger relationships with your customer base.
Shippers will have more accessibility and visibility into their freight life cycle than ever before. Those moving LTL shipments can shop for rates and make carrier selections based on price, delivery date, and service levels. The end result is a happy Shipper who has control over their own freight decisions. We can even report on instances where Shippers choose a higher priced carrier for seemingly no reason at all. It’s amazing what our 3PLs have discovered when using this data to dig into the trends…
As the 3PL, you will control what your customers can see and what functions they have access to. This can be customized by user and by customer, giving you the ultimate flexibility to manage your customer relationships how you see fit. As a result, your customers no longer need to call or send an email every time they have an inquiry, as there will be a branded tool they can reference to gather the information when they want it. Pretty cool right?
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly – Logistically TMS Customer Portals are not priced at the user level! Getting a new customer is always exciting and you shouldn’t have to compromise on their experience due to cost limitations.