Forwarders have traditionally underinvested in their user interfaces with customers, believing customer service trumps slick websites. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com.
Forwarders are gradually coming around to the idea that an intuitive, easy-to-use interface is more than just an added perk; it’s an actual deciding factor in winning bids from shippers.
Chicago-based forwarder RIM Logistics, for example, told JOC.com this week it was losing out on bids due to an inability to provide business intelligence (BI) dashboards to shippers via its website, something the forwarder realized it needed to address.
A big challenge for RIM was converting investments it had previously made to enhance internal data sharing among its owned offices and partner agents into information it could share with its shipper customers. That challenge is symptomatic of one many mid-sized forwarders face: how to build a user interface for shippers that are increasingly asking for more ability to manage their shipments in a self-service fashion.
“We spent two years building data integrations with agents and our partners,” said Jason Steinke, RIM’s executive vice president. “But we struggled with how to take that sharing with partners and share it with our customers. Data is only so good when it’s within a silo.”
RIM engaged Seattle-based forwarding software provider Logixboard to help it build a dashboard-oriented interface with customers that connected to RIM’s internal BI tools. The forwarder considered six or seven different providers, and also considered building something internally, before deciding on Logixboard, Steinke said.
“We started to see this trend where the BI aspect of the industry was coming to the forefront,” he said. “We had reports and visibility we were pulling out of CargoWise, but we couldn’t put that in front of our customers.” CargoWise is a widely-used operating system for forwarders, one which many now supplement with products from startup software companies like Logixboard and established technology providers like Microsoft.
Lost business the catalyst
Steinke said an inflection point in RIM’s decision to focus on customer experience was when it began to see “leakage on our bid process” to forwarders, like Flexport, that had effective existing user interfaces. “As we grew, we were leveling up into the Fortune 100 customer base, but we’d get to the no. 2 slot in their bid preferences, and they’d say, ‘this is what we want.’”
RIM uses Microsoft Power BI overlaid on CargoWise to analyze data generated in the CargoWise transportation management system, he said, “but we realized we needed to build this experience externally. How do we translate that experience with customers?”
The ability to use Logixboard’s software, which focuses on allowing forwarders to present visibility and analytics dashboards to their customers, was built on a two-year initiative RIM undertook to connect with its agents and partners. The company identified gateways and trade lanes that accounted for the majority of the global volume it managed.
“We mapped out our shipment counts by region, and decided If we attack these three partners out of our gateways, we’ll have 87 percent of our volume inside our system,” he said.
A key consideration for RIM was deciding whether investment in its front end would actually make a difference from a performance perspective. RIM started offering the Logixboard environment to customers in January, and Steinke said he estimates using the software will save the company the equivalent of salaries for three full-time employees annually, based on a headcount of 400 globally, including 12 on its technology team.
But he said the proposed investment in Logixboard’s solution was centered more around sales growth, not cost savings.
“We’ve estimated our sales growth from this at $20 million in 2021,” he said. “I’ll be measured upon that, as will our president of sales.”
Some forwarders have told JOC.com that investment into user experience and self-service tools is a question of building now for future demand, and Steinke concurred that RIM’s customer base is varied in that respect.
“We’re a ‘tweener,’” he said. “We’re caught between people who want a phone call and an Excel for everything and others who say, ‘I don’t even want to see you.’”
Beyond the improved interface that Steinke hopes will land RIM more accounts, he said the use of Logixboard will allow the forwarder to “tie our data together” since most of its customers want to know what they spent or if there were any delays, he said. “Whether they are small or large, they want an automatic notification for when a shipment goes awry.”
He said Logixboard will also allow account management teams to proactively serve customers. “We’ve already built training materials internally, so the account reps can create shipment watch lists, or whatever they know the customer tends to want, ahead of them asking for it. And quarterly reviews will be so much easier, because what they want is native to Logixboard.”
Logixboard CEO Julian Alvarez said his company’s ability to implement their solutions quickly, and in a way that doesn’t disrupt the use of existing systems, is key to the value it can provide.
“It speeds up a customer’s speed to market, from a few weeks versus 18 to 24 months,” he said. “Customer service is the no. 1 issue for forwarders. What that used to mean is having someone available 24/7. Now it’s evolved to become: how do we give access to data 24/7?”
Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @LogTechEric.
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