Logistics and shipping are very crucial aspects of any ecosystem. They single handedly define how their businesses progress. But we often see service providers in the logistics and shipping industry struggle with their workflows. The whole funnel starting from quoting to booking, tracking and fulfillment need a lot of contingency and precision.
Salesforce offers just the right solutions to the logistics industry to streamline every process along the way. When it comes to handling goods, the tracking and analytical process plays a very important role. With consumers demanding a more and more transparent platform to track their orders and with companies wanting to deliver the goods faster, a very strong and sophisticated system that automates and streamlines the goods carrying process needs to be at the heart of the whole business.
What are the Current Challenges?
The pandemic exposed the excessive dependence on human resources and the mishandling of critical analytics in the logistics sector. Fortune Magazine reports that almost 94% of the Fortune 1,000 companies faced massive supply chain disruptions around the pandemic.
Usual challenges for logistics and shipping industry include demand variability, unexpected outages, reliance on manual effort for reporting, legacy demand management, and lack of upstream and downstream visibility.
Here are some more common challenges that the industry faces today.
Lack of real-time tracking
We live in a world where consumers are bombarded with real time shipping details of their smallest of orders. A lack of transparency or detail in shipping could cause your business more damage than you can think of.
Fragmented communication
Between the manufacturer and the end consumer, the whole channel of shipping and logistics involves multiple stakeholders who communicate with each other inconsistently about the product. There is no centrally integrated communication channel throughout and that impacts the delivery timelines.
Delays
Because of the lack of integration of all the stakeholders centrally, every movement and its follow up communication takes more time than it should. This results in delays.
Empty miles
The bookings are never an issue for this sector. It is the delays and lack of integration that result in the vessels or vehicles returning empty. If streamlined well, they can make deliveries on their way back which cuts down the costs massively.
All these challenges can be completely resolved with an integrated system and a cloud based service that keeps everyone onboard and has a transparent channel of data exchange. Salesforce has tailor made solutions for the logistics industry. Let us learn how.
How Salesforce Enhances Your Logistics & Shipping Experience
Salesforce offers a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that helps you automate your routine processes and manage multiple streams at once. This improves your business efficiency and enhances your experience.
Automating critical processes with precision and the availability of relevant data in real time over the cloud helps all departments like sales, marketing, and customer relations improve their performances. It removes operational bottlenecks, improves workflows, and provides accurate reports based on customized criteria to make better decisions.
Here are some points that explain how using Salesforce for logistics and shipping helps business.
Customer Centric
Keeping the business customer centric is more important than anything else. The service sector depends heavily on how well they treat the customers. The features on Salesforce ensure that at every juncture, both the end buyer and the shipper have a great experience.
For instance, if a customer requests a quote, with the help of the availability of real time data through the cloud, you can respond quickly and offer the best rates. Customers can use chatbots to get all the necessary documentation and use the real time tracking to know minor details about the whole process.
This makes them feel at the center. Salesforce enables you to serve them with the best solutions at the fastest speed. Any request for data is served almost immediately. The Customer Data Platform integrates data from external as well as internal sources to have a 360 degree view of the proceedings. For example, any concrete inquiries or leads are followed up quickly for higher conversion. And lastly, analytics lets you know how to serve them better.
Real Time Data Availability
Salesforce stores all the input and output data at a centralized location and avails that data to everyone in the channel through the cloud. This availability is in real time which means the moment there are price updates, it reflects in your customized quotation and you are able to offer an updated quote.
This access to data in real time for everyone in the channel makes the overall internal communication smooth. All the tracking details are updated in real time and hence you are able to offer accurate moment by moment detail to your customers.
The availability of this data in real time over the cloud also helps you plan your freights better which avoids delays and empty miles. You can react quickly in case of a breakdown or a delay and avoid any miscommunication with the customer.
Better Integration
With the help of Salesforce service cloud, all your team members or stakeholders are on the same page and can access the same data in real time. Everyone from the sales, marketing, customer relations, and finance teams is able to access the same set of data and customized reports.
The transportation and logistics industry depends heavily on collaborations and integrations. This network of partners is often very complex. To keep the all on board, you can acquire Salesforce consulting services where you get a customized CRM that integrates all your partners, assigns them their credentials and allows them to input and access data in real time. All of this has cloud storage.
In today’s times when a lot of team members are working remotely, it gets very convenient if all of them have cloud access to the same system. Employees and partners are able to connect with each other, resolve complex issues and address breakdowns and delays with real time communication in chatter, no matter where in the world they are located.
Accurate Reports
You can empower your team that faces your customers both at the shipping end and consumer end with intelligent analytics and predictions. The intelligent reports based on real-time data integration suggest better routes and club the shipments to cut down the costs and deliver goods efficiently.
The smart dashboard and KPIs at your disposal help you take faster decisions. The progress bars show the whereabouts of your shipments. Moreover, you can customize the criteria of your reports and avail specific reports based on your needs. Of course, you are going to need to partner with a Salesforce consulting company to ensure seamless deployment and to set up customized analytics that provides your business specific reports.
Some of the key features of Salesforce’s CRM analytics include:
- Native Analytics: Avail predictive insights in visual representation on Salesforce pages. Stay updated with the status of deliveries and varying prices.
- Data Platform: Get data management tools that integrate data from external sources like navigation and weather apps, email platforms, etc. Connect, prepare, and synchronize data from anywhere.
- Apps for Every Department and Industry: With over two decades of practice in offering tailor made solutions for all industries get your business specific applications made from the best Salesforce consulting services.
- Einstein Discovery: Let your application learn about all the happenings in your business with Salesforce’s smart AI deployment.
- Security and User Management: Control who accesses what, assign roles and restrict data viewing to members in your system based on their profile with apt governance and visibility.
AI Enabled Workflows
With Salesforce’s automation and intelligent data processing, you can maximize the efficiency of your business. The obvious benefit of digitizing your workflows is that it saves a lot of time that manual bookkeeping can consume. Other than that, the AI enabled digital workflows and tasks on Salesforce eliminate any possibility of an error or data loss.
You can perform the following tasks efficiently with the help of the Salesforce service cloud.
- Opportunity Management: Keep a track of strong leads. Take the opportunity to convert the leads faster with an immersive customer activity timeline.
- Sales Automation: Boost the efficiency of your sales activities by automating routine tasks and workflows.
- Forecast: Use the data and AI to make faster and better decisions. Be a step ahead of the rest and forecast the upcoming changes.
- Revenue Cloud: Finest revenue management with all in one platform for CPQ, billing, subscriptions, etc.
- Sales Engagement: Manage everything in your sales channel through a single interface. Plan and execute sales campaigns.
- Territory Planning: Assign resources on the basis of territories. Focus on areas that need more involvement.
Customer Support
Using Salesforce for the logistics and shipping industry helps you serve your customers better. The detailed information that is available to your representatives is one of the most obvious benefits of using Salesforce. Your customers can get all the real time information, with a service forecast with laser type accuracy.
Along with that, you can also accurately inform your shipment partners about the strong leads and their status regarding conversion and the consumers about the availability of the shipments. Having a strong channel helps you facilitate both ends with a lot of accuracies.
Finally, your customers too can avail of many critical reports and real time data about their shipments on a dedicated interface. This offers great control and lessens the dependency on human support. Along with that, the e-chatbot services too are very accurate and run at an optimum speed. All this together creates premium customer support.
Salesforce ensures that your business is streamlined through its range of solutions like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Experience Cloud, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, CRM Analytics, Customer 360, Einstein AI, etc. Get in touch with a professional Salesforce consulting company today and transform your shipping and logistics business today to reap the benefits of the ongoing purchase trends.
Conclusion
Any business needs an expert and efficient system right at the core of it to scale up. Using the world’s leading CRM services will completely change the way you work. Eliminate all the delays, empty miles, and tedious process of documentation by automating your logistics business through Salesforce. Connect to a Salesforce consulting service provider to avoid the overwhelm of technical terminologies and overload of information.
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