Good service is the best way to generate sales

It all comes together in Hamburg

The Hamburg native first came to Hapag-Lloyd when she was 19 years old. She has been with the company since 1997, when she was studying at the Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA). As part of the dual-track program combining in-class learning with on-the-job training, she simultaneously completed an apprenticeship in the company to become a shipping agent.

“I always really wanted to work abroad, so it seemed like an obvious choice to apply to work at a shipping company,” she says. “Since then, things have never gotten boring for me here, and I’ve always been given new areas of responsibility.”

During her career, Nibbe has been posted in Singapore for two years followed by three years in Shanghai. “There, I could immerse myself in a completely different work culture than the Western one,” she explains. “And learn a bit of Chinese on the side.”

Today, Nibbe is where the operational threads come together from 11 European branches, in which more than 1,000 employees perform first-class Sales and Customer Service tasks. Each year, European customers book more than 2.5 million containers with Hapag-Lloyd, and the figures have been steadily rising.

Nibbe keeps her eye on these figures at all times. “Instead of viewing ourselves as primarily in charge of managing sales, we feel that we are mainly responsible for creating the environment in which we can also reach our goals,” she says.

“Compete to Win” strengthens Sales

One of the top priorities in 2016 was “Compete to Win,” an extensive project aimed at making Sales more professional and focused – and thereby ultimately faster and better. To roll out this project in all European locations, Nibbe had to be on the road a lot. “I think there was hardly a week last year in which I didn’t fly somewhere,” says the mother of two small children. “Now there probably isn’t a single European country that I haven’t been to.”

One of the elements of the “Compete to Win” project involved the introduction of QlikView. This information system gives Sales staff quick and easy access to market and internal data. For example, they can see at a glance which shipping company is transporting cargo to the United States or South America for which customer.

Using this knowledge, members of the Sales teams can optimally prepare for meetings and customer acquisition. “This data helps us identify new market potential or to detect shifts in global cargo handling early,” Nibbe explains. “We have a Commercial Intelligence unit that ‘feeds’ the system with the right data and validates them before they are made available to employees.”

Nibbe also notes that Hapag-Lloyd would like to increase its share of the segment for temperature-sensitive goods like food and medications. In 2016, approximately 6,000 new refrigerated “reefer” containers were ordered for this purpose.

Strong demand sailing to and from Asia

The fact that goods such as coffee, cocoa and exotic fruits are handled by Sales teams in Europe has one simple reason: The key factor is either where the customer is headquartered or where its own purchasing operations are based. For example, Italy’s No. 1 coffee specialist, Lavazza, is one of the customers that prefers to rely on Hapag-Lloyd. European manufactures that have most of their production operations in Asia also account for a large share in terms of volume. “Approximately 75 percent of the customers who export from Asia are supported by the Sales teams in Region Europe,” Nibbe says.

At the moment, demand is far exceeding capacity on the route from Asia to Europe. But business in the opposite direction is also currently booming. “For us, the biggest challenge is getting all of our customers’ goods to their destinations on time,” Nibbe continues. “But, in the end, that’s exactly what we’re here for.”