How Quick Quotes Helps Freight Agency Ltd. to Become Faster in Freight Forwarding
In this Interview Margo Banasiak from Freight Agency Ltd talks about challenges in her daily job and how Quick Quotes helps her to overcome these.
Hi Margo, thank you for taking the time and shedding some light on your usage of Quick Quotes. Let’s start by giving some background to your work as a freight forwarder. How would you describe the main challenges you face in freight forwarding nowadays?
Margo: Freight forwarding is an extremely fast paced industry. It's changing unexpectedly. We have to make sure we are able to adapt to these changes, and that we are flexible enough to fulfil and meet all our customers’ needs. We need to be ready to face these issues and changes with the right solution, meaning to be able to find alternatives to different routes and destinations.
Seems like flexibility is one of the most important aspects in freight forwarding, right?
Margo: Yes. Flexibility is crucial when everything is happening so quick and can change suddenly. You can never predict what comes next. First of all, flexibility allows us to search for different options – finding the best solution and adapting to the changes and making sure that we do meet customer's needs and demands. That's very important in terms of keeping them happy and satisfied with our services.
What are some of the other main needs your customers raise?
Margo: All our customers are different. They have different demands and expectations. They ship all over the world. Sometimes time is crucial, so we need to make sure that we find the best transit time option that we can provide. Sometimes it's the cost, and we need to make sure we provide the most competitive rate possible. Most of the time it's a combination of both. And if we can combine both, the time and the cost, we can actually provide the best service for their shipment.
However, the majority of customers know exactly what they need, and all of them expect reliability and efficiency. So, we must make sure that we meet these needs and demands. Because if we don't, somebody else might provide them.
We do have customers who tend to have instant demands, and we must meet them instantly as well. They don't have a day or two. They need it right here and right now because the shipping's ready and done. In that sense, accessing Quick Quotes and just providing the necessary information to receive the quote back immediately is extremely helpful because then we can provide the service, meet their needs and have the booking.
Margo Banasiak, Freight Agency LtdI choose my options. Go to the next page. Seconds later: Quote’s received! It's literally a click away and you receive your quote.
You mentioned Quick Quotes just there. How does that come into play when you work on a new customer inquiry?
Margo: So, once I get a quote request to a certain destination from our customer, it might be a known destination, or it might be an unknown destination that I'm not familiar with. I use Quick Quotes to either provide the best service, keeping in mind the transit time and the cost. Sometimes, I use it to check the availability of the service and find out if I can provide it with Hapag-Lloyd.
It's more of a general thing: Once I got the demands and expectations from the customer, I want to be able to tailor the quotes to them and think quickly. That's the time when we use Quick Quotes very often to check if that destination is available in the first place. Secondly, the difference in cost and how quickly we can provide that. It's a matter of minutes to provide our customers with their quote. And that quote has to be competitive. We need to make sure that we win the business and get the job because otherwise they might go to our competitors. So, it's crucial to work fast and provide the best rates possible. Once we get into Quick Quotes, we can combine all of these all together in one rate.
Can you think of a specific example where Quick Quotes has helped you in your daily work?
Margo: Our customers are shipping to various destinations, in the world, and sometimes we're not entirely sure which service we can actually use to provide the most efficient and reliable route. Hapag-Lloyd’s Quick Quotes helps in terms of, first of all, finding out if that destination is available at the service and then straight away if it does, we can receive a rate for that and provide it to the customer.
I think that the relationship with my customers is extremely important, and I build it and maintain it by providing competitive quotes in a timely manner. I like to look after my customers afterwards as well, providing crucial information if they ever need it. The perfect day is when everything goes smoothly. As long as my customers are happy, I'm happy.
Can you elaborate that further? How does Quick Quotes help you in making your customers happy – both in terms of cost and in terms of time?
Margo: Quick Quotes is simple to use and fast. It’s reliable as well. I use it to find the best price and the best route for the shipment that is required by the customer. Once you get on the website, you just type in your place of loading, the place that it needs to get to, provide all the details and within seconds you receive the quote. And that enables me to provide our customers with a quote that is competitive, because the prices that are provided by Quick Quotes are very competitive. So, we can meet and combine all our customers’ needs in one quote.
And last but not least: What do you like most about the tool?
Margo: I like the simplicity. It's simple to use and it provides the quotes within seconds so we can meet all our customers’ demands and expectations in one place just by using that tool. I like the fact that everything is shown clearly and logically. I know exactly where is what, I type in all the information, I press the button, it goes to the next stage. I choose my options. Go to the next page.
Seconds later: Quote’s received! It's literally a click away and you receive your quote! So, it's extremely helpful in terms of timing. There's no extra hidden charges or costs. I've got everything laid out as it is, and I know I do provide my customer with the quote I have received.
Thank you so much Margo, for all the insights into your daily work!
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