For businesses, challenges are never-ending. Challenges keep businesses on their toes and prevent them from getting complacent.
When constantly challenged, you could zoom ahead or crumble, depending on your company’s preparedness. One such endless challenge for forwarders is – competition.
For freight forwarders, the competition is not just from the big fish but from the startups too. By understanding how competition is a threat to your organization, you can safeguard your current position. Just like the saying goes – “Ships at the harbor are safe, but that’s not what ships are built for,” you have to keep moving forward. By looking for ways to distinguish yourself and capitalizing on growth opportunities, you can neutralize competition.
So let’s get the ship sailing and see how you can fend off the competition with tact.
Agility in changing conditions
If you’ve been on a ship in a rocky sea, you know the length of preparedness required to avoid losses in such difficult situations. Unfortunately, for forwarders, rocky seas don’t come with a warning sign. To bypass a known or sudden hurdle, having deep and current knowledge of operations makes a great start.
You can only make changes to your operations and other functions when you have a real-time view of your current status. For instance, assigning a new transport pick-up after the originally-assigned driver reported a delay due to congestion can get quite tricky. A transport management system comes to your aid in such a situation so you can avoid missing cut-offs.
Learn more from our experts how you can digitalize your freight forwarding & logistics business.
Excelling in customer service
Due to commoditization among forwarders, understanding and exceeding customers’ needs is a sure way to get ahead in the competition. It is important to remember that the customer acquisition process begins even before you reply to a quotation. Every lead must when nurtured, followed up, and tracked systematically with CRM software. Tweaking quotations, Bill of Lading, and Invoices for each customer can get complex with an increase in volume. Implement freight software that will make it simpler to track leads and yet manage customization per your customer’s needs.
Creating a niche to differentiate
Once you stop aping what every forwarder offers, you create an identity for your business. Dig deep into data collected by your freight system to affirm what you do best and what makes customers come back to you. The freight industry has so many touchpoints that data can paint many pictures to help carve a niche for your business. Organize, sort, and organize data into reports to help you make decisions that will enhance your brand in the industry.
Innovation in methods
Not stopping at tried and tested methods is the trait of leaders. From the heavyweights to the startups, forwarders have found success by bringing innovation to the competition. Find customers’ pain points and serve them with attractive solutions. Problems are plenty to pick from. Like quicker responses to quotations and tracking cargo in real-time is still a big ask from customers. Forwarders that accept the challenge to outdo themselves, will sail forward with the wind of innovation.
Challenge the freight challenges to thrust along
In tough phases of the industry, lie your biggest opportunities. Get under the problems that customers want to resolve and you can explore a sea of growth opportunities. Befriend technology to give your freight business a boost in the competition. Keep probing, don’t stop innovating and you should be the competition your competitors are worrying about!