IT Managers and LSPs often mistakenly purchase Freight management systems based on their back office requirements to help automate processes. While there is no denying that this is an important function of logistics management software, it is not its only function. By making use of industry leading transportation and global freight management solutions LSPs can offer customers value added services that are a vital link in two way communication and customer relationship building.
Here are the Top 5 features that can enhance your customer interactions:
Customer visibility information flow in real time: The process of sharing data and information is critical to manage the distribution of shipments. Leading transportation management software offer Supply Chain Visibility solutions that enable LSPs to share real-time supply chain information with their customers, partners and service providers. The module can track inventory flow, updates transactions and generate a centralized and unified view over the entire Supply Chain.
Information visibility in the supply chain can help timely decision making by improving responsiveness. The module can also be customized to offer access ‘right-based’ visibility.
Daily shipment status reports and alerts: Manual information retrieval process is expensive and prone to errors. Instead LSPs can use the services of robust freight management software that will track all shipments and aggregate results into a master status report. The report will track and retrieve the status of all shipments en route to their final destination and is delivered to the clients’ desktop/tablet/mobile phone on a daily basis. Alerts are also sent out for urgent shipments or shipments of high value. Empowering your customers with these details before they even feel the need to pick up the phone to ask about the shipment status is the key to a longer relationship based on trust.
Auto Scheduler: By reducing reliance on manual processes LSPs can control costs and minimsie errors and offer greater service reliability. Auto-Schedulers can assess, confirm and remind customers regarding shipment, documentation and payments. By automating this process LSPs can spend more time on core business and operations and less time on cumbersome scheduling processes.
Easy integration with ERP systems: LSPs often find themselves in a common dilemma of not being able to completely integrate their freight management system with third party ERP systems or even with their other enterprise systems to meet growing business demands. ERP implementations commonly span a few years and what starts as a few functional modules, often grow into a primary ERP system with a number of stand-alone applications on the side. An established freight management suite however, will provide scalability and easy integration to create a unified application architecture.
Online order booking and order management: Established industry leading software will enable you will offer a robust framework for online order management which will reduce your manual processes and streamline the documentation process. Having a clear cut process for customers gives both the LSPs as well as their customers control over the entire shipment fulfillment cycle - from enquiry, to order placement, documentation, delivery completion to payment settlement. LSPs can thus impress customers by responding quickly to changes and exceptions. A single, unified data repository allows multiple supply chain participants to modify, cancel, track and monitor the order lifecycle in real-time.
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