This sometimes requires a change of perspective. Customer strategies must now be questioned.
Logistics heroes – suddenly the focus of society
Logisticians have recently been celebrated as heroes of everyday life. On the one hand, it is very pleasing that society is finally recognising the importance of truck drivers, warehouse workers, logistics centre workers, port workers, railway workers and all the others. Logistik-Helden
The Wirtschaftsmacher, one initiative of German logisticians with the support of the BVL, has been trying to point this out for months – we would rather not have had this extra push, but now the awareness has arrived in any case.
Framework conditions are permanently changing – demands on logistics providers more variable than ever
Not only the perception of consumers has changed, but also the challenges for logisticians. My clients are active in very different areas of logistics.
Discussions over the last few weeks show that some are forced to put most of their staff on short-time work and others hardly know how they are going to cope with the workload.
Still others report that although there is currently less to transport, the order situation for May already looks good again.
A fourth group reports that they hardly know where to find enough storage capacity for all the requests they receive.
The ships from China are again bringing large quantities of goods to Europe, but here the ordered loads cannot be delivered because DIY stores, restaurants, shopping centres and many manufacturing companies have closed and cannot accept goods.Each of these logistics providers needs a different customer strategy.
Keep the overview through good digital tools
The multitude of different facets shows that it is incredibly important to understand what is going on with customers now. Things change from day to day and only with good analysis tools, research and the conversations with your contacts is it possible to stay on top of things.
Being customer-centric, understanding what the customer really wants, understanding the customer journey and the type of customer can be very helpful here. It is through your interactions with your customers that the customer experience is determined. In direct communication as well as through your appearance in social media, you can trigger emotions and thus be positively remembered.
Develop your customer strategy now and collect all customer knowledge in a CRM database.
In industry and commerce, it is no longer possible to imagine life without considering the customer experience in the logistics sector, but this has not yet become part of everyday life. Take the opportunity to act NOW so that when things get busy again, your customers will come to you and give you the orders. And not your competition.
A customer centricity strategy, the involvement of all employees with customer contact and the support of a good CRM are now indispensable.
Companies whose management in the past always had more pressing concerns than the digitalisation and unification of their databases and data streams are left behind.
The digitisation of the supply chain is not finished with a transport management system
Until now, some logisticians thought, “As long as the trucks are moving, the containers are being moved, the warehouses are being loaded and unloaded, I’ve digitised enough.”
And this attitude is now becoming the undoing of some. Because one must not forget: The industry giants are in the best possible position and can weather the troubled times with relative ease and draw from their reserves.
If your staff work from a home office, a database where all interactions with clients are stored and can be accessed by all is essential. If the team is possibly downsized due to the slump in turnover, it is essential to have all information on customers and potentials structured in a database in good time in order to continue to serve customers with pinpoint accuracy.
A family-run medium-sized company, on the other hand, is already struggling to keep its staff and vehicles. During the 2011 crisis, I witnessed how many of these traditional companies first downsized their vehicle fleets. And then some of them sold out to the big players. But that doesn’t really have to be the case in the current crisis, because goods are still being transported and stored. The only question is by whom!
Don’t let your market share be taken away now. Strengthen your position in your specific segment.
Make use of the advantages of medium-sized businesses right now! You have a direct line to your customers and know where the shoe pinches. You are flexible and can also make something impossible possible. You are regional and know the current framework conditions.
What we have been emphasising in our sales trainings for years is even more true now:
Regional, Personal, Individual. This is how small and medium-sized enterprises can score points.
If you would like to learn how other logistics companies master the challenges and what role a logistics CRM can play here, contact me, in a video chat we can discuss your current situation and I may be able to help you set important impulses for your customer strategy with a change of perspective.
