Supercharge Customer Service: Goodbye to Slow Response Times

The quality of the 3PL services you provide is often based on delivery times and accuracy. However, if your focus is all about space optimization and shipping, you’re missing an opportunity to set yourself apart with supercharged customer service that helps retain 3PL contracts. Here, we look at ways to transform slow response times into optimal support to greatly improve customer satisfaction.

Create a Customer-Focused Culture 

Customer service builds strong relationships that help you retain and attract clients. Many 3PLs focus their efforts on minimizing costs and optimizing profits, which often means customer service suffers. However, what you might not realize is that a customer-focused culture is one of the best ways to reduce costs. Why? To create a customer-focused culture, you need to streamline processes using tools that improve efficiencies, like advanced warehouse management systems (WMS). As a result, your entire team becomes better at their work, reducing errors and improving customer service. 

In a customer-focused culture, having the right tools empowers your team to provide superior communication and updates so customers always know where they stand. You also improve communication methods that allow customers to enjoy the benefits of self-serve tools such as real-time shipment tracking, inventory counts, and customer orders. This frees up your team’s time so they can provide immediate responses when mistakes occur with quick access to the information they need across all touchpoints and stages of the supply chain.

Improve Enterprise-Wide Training

When you make a formal switch to your company culture, improved training processes at the onboarding stage must become part of the process. All new hires undergo the same level of training consistently, so they understand that customer service is a priority and must be considered in everything they do. Emphasizing the importance of quick response times, with methods and tools introduced to empower employees to improve their responses, ensures customers receive optimized support throughout their interactions across your entire enterprise.

Integration of your administrative systems optimizes workflows and makes training easier. New hires use your WMS connected to all relevant administrative systems, including your CRM or the CRM of your clients, so they can resolve client-facing challenges in no time.

Leverage Leading Edge Technology

Technology eliminates errors and slow response times related to manual processes. As mentioned above, using leading-edge 3PL systems like cloud-based WMSs and application programming interface (API) tools streamline supply chain processes and improve visibility at all legs of the supply chain.

Technology also keeps 3PL companies agile, allowing them to pivot to meet the changing needs of their clients. However, outdated technology stagnates your ability to provide optimal support, reducing response times due to an inefficient WMS. Leading-edge technology ensures you can provide real-time insights and track orders or inventory effortlessly.

You can also provide complete transparency with self-serve systems that provide visibility throughout the entire supply chain. When everything is tracked, your team has a scalable workflow that meets growing customer demand while improving their ability to respond immediately with real-time data always just a click away.

Take a Proactive Approach to Communication

Client satisfaction is always guaranteed when you take a more proactive approach. With ongoing communication, your team helps predict the needs of your customers, improving response times. If an issue arises, proactive communication keeps customers in the loop, so there’s minimum effort required on their part. It is even more effective when you monitor shipments, whether they are from a manufacturer to your 3PL warehouse or from your warehouse to a store or customer. As soon as issues arise, such as weather-related delays, you can inform your customers so there are never any unpleasant surprises.

Your responsiveness improves when your team always knows where items are, whether in transit, in storage, being packed for shipment, or en route to the end user. Proactive communication, both self-serve and via your team actively emailing or calling customers, eliminates common hiccups and improves relationships by building confidence and trust.

Become Accessible and Reliable

Making it easy for customers to reach you via several communication methods improves accessibility. Using state-of-the-art software with self-serve options provides access 24/7 so clients can often resolve problems instantly and prevent slow response times. In the case where they require further assistance, your availability to determine exactly how an error occurred via internal systems makes your team more reliable and provides early resolution.

With a robust WMS, you can turn bad experiences into positive ones because you provide solutions without skipping a beat. That’s why direct access is often preferable, as clients don’t have to wait. They can review order details immediately, 24/7, so your 3PL customer service is always accessible and reliable.

Customer satisfaction relies heavily on quick response times that alleviate issues. These techniques help improve customer experience and build lasting relationships with your 3PL clients.