Customer Needs vs. Customer Expectations
In reality, customer needs are what motivates individuals to purchase your goods or services in your logistic business.
Customers mostly desire to have their needs met in one of two ways:
- Needs for Value — Customers are more likely to purchase a good or service if they can see the value in it. They seek efficiency, usability, and value for their money.
- Needs for Service — Customers are more likely to continue buying/using your service if they receive caring, passionate, and expert service. They seek accurate and prompt responses, as well as understanding and honesty.
Customers’ expectations include certain attitudes and actions they expect from businesses they engage with. The risks are substantially larger in this situation. Today’s consumers demand more than just a reasonable price and excellent service. They desire more, including seamless cross-channel interactions, tailored offers, proactive customer service, and innovation.
5 Ways for Properly Anticipating your Customer’s Challenges and Needs in Logistics
1. Streamline customer communication
A key component of excellent customer service and customer success handoff, in general, is communication, regardless of the field you work in. Here are some suggestions for streamlining customer communications:
Improve your response time – Research proved that customers expect their reply to their unresolved questions within an hour. Ensure your team is handling this well, incorporating teams’ forwarded emails from one inbox to another.
-
Improve your communication channels – Review and optimize your communication channels to make them easier for all and avoid potential glitches. If you see the space for communication improvement, think about investing in software that could benefit you and your clients. Scan the market for logistics SMS software, email automation, and novelties in telecommunication, to test and involve in your processes.
-
Optimize internal operations – Companies that have streamlined internal operations, collaboration, and communication are better able to respond to customer requests and needs. Each of the key components that go into providing an all-around great customer experience—fleet and fuel management, material handling, storage, and stock control—is essential.
-
Reduce complexity in teamwork – Aside from decision-makers, customer service representatives frequently require feedback on issues, including inventory management, arrival and departure timings, and warehousing capacity.
At Saloodo! we are thriving to communicate with all our teams and cross-department-wise. Our teams try to avoid long email threads instead we rely on a chat-based software that ensure super short communication ways. But be careful: Managing too many communication tools leads to slower response times and worse client experiences.
2. Increase supply chain transparency
For supply chain transparency, use the Internet of Things, known as IoT. IoT trackers are tangible objects that track and transmit current GPS location information. These trackers can be installed inside freight vehicles or connected to packages.
As a result, customers are constantly informed about the location of vehicles, the weather, traffic, and vehicle temperature. They are reassured that their cargo will arrive in the most excellent condition.
3. Boost productivity with automation
Automation of processes has gained popularity in the 21st century. No matter what kind of business you run, wasting your time on repetitive tasks is undesirable and unnecessary.
Here’s how automation in logistics customer care can help:
-
Reduces the amount of manual work required of your customer support representatives
-
Frees customer representatives up to concentrate on more complicated problems
-
Gives your customers faster resolutions
4. Implement QR codes
Generating dynamic QR codes can elevate both shipping and logistics. Operators can scan them after you put them on packing at different points during the travel, and you, as a provider, can track where your shipments are. In fact, you can keep an eye on information like the time and precise GPS location with each QR code scan.
4. Use data to your advantage
Poor planning and projection lead to late delivery, partially filled containers, and empty trucks when returning. Using data and analytics, platforms like Saloodo! may assist logistics companies in overcoming these challenges.
By analyzing historical journeys, businesses can overcome the dual challenge of forecasting demand and effectively organizing deliveries.
5. Improve your customer strategy top to bottom
Data analytics, communication plan, and automation of your processes – all fit in some aspects of your customer success strategy. Review the old strategy and start working on the 2.0 version. Redefine your KPIs for each department and make sure all parts of the logistic chain know what their objectives and focus area are.
What should you include in a customer success strategy? When we discuss anticipating customer challenges, we should be one step closer to resolving potential upcoming situations. Algorithms can be very useful for you in this stage of your company development.
Once you know what the issues might be and what influences your customer success rate, you can create algorithms (procedures) that will help your teams find solutions easily. Having a clear understanding of what everybody is in charge of will result in increasing the speed of your response and ultimately boost customer success rate.
In Conclusion
Customer success is developing every day and across all industries. Thus, new tools and platforms are created to help you improve current and create sustainable relationships with your target audience.
If you want to offer better customer services and anticipate customers’ needs and challenges before becoming problems, make use of technological advancements. This includes artificial intelligence, collaboration software, and data analytics. Follow the provided tips on improving the customer’s journey, and you will have enviable customer success.
