How to Improve Your Customer Experience Through Outsourced Logistics Management

The bigger your business grows, the more demanding your customers get.  And as they get more demanding, the more you need to be able to provide accurate and up-to-date information to appease them.

In addition, the quality of service needs to be at a level that the customer feels happy about.  Filing claims, speed, how the product is handled en route to its destination, all the little details that add up to the complete experience.

Your shipping department is, assuredly, more than capable of helping with how the product should be unloaded, packed for resale, and everything with the product itself.  After all, they work with your product(s) all day, every day.  They know everything there is to know about shipping it.

But when it comes to dealing with freight, why not lean on the experience of people who do nothing but help ship freight all day, every day – and who know everything there is to know about doing so?

A great 3PL helps through the use of an effective TMS:

You may already have a warehouse management system, but utilizing a transportation management system is often beyond what a single company needs to manage its freight shipping needs.

However, transportation management systems are a key aspect of how a third-party logistics provider manages shipments.  The best third-party logistics providers utilize systems that allow you, the shipper, to log in to your portal.  You can get shipping quotes, track shipments, and find all of the information associated with each shipment.

This makes life easy for you as you manage the shipments leaving your facility to their final destinations, and it does something else that your customers love: you can always provide accurate, up-to-date information for them.

Gone are the days when your customer calls you and you have to tell them you’ll call back with an update – instead, you can just log in and check for yourself.  The customer gets an answer right then and there.

More than just immediate access to tracking information, it helps with the administrative side, too:

When everything goes right, there’s a hill of paperwork that travels along with any shipment: bills of lading, labels, documentation, and all of those associated bits of paper.

When something goes wrong, it turns into a mountain of paperwork.  Filing claims, keeping up on them, photos of how the shipment arrived… there’s more than just a handful of routine forms to fill out.

And when you need that help, the cheapest 3PL may not be who you want to be dealing with.  They’re cheap for a reason, and that reason isn’t going to be something you’re happy with when a problem arises.

Sometimes, the cheapest option isn’t actually all that cheap – something we’ve discussed in the past.   When you need to deal with a claim, the last thing you want is the carrier that’s cheap because they’ve skimped on their customer service department.

That’s where outsourcing to an experienced logistics provider comes in handy.  At Diversified Transportation Services, we have nearly 3 decades of experience in logistics.  We help companies like yours find the balance between cost, speed, and care during shipping.

Data from the TMS meets intelligent support for all of your shipping needs:

With the TMS from a 3PL provider like DTS, you can integrate your shipping information with your warehouse management system.

This enables you to have a smooth, streamlined supply chain for all locations receiving your goods.

This level of insight into your own inventory and supply chain allows for better customer service for your end client.  No more calling back and forth, no more waiting for updates, just knowledge ready and available.  If you’re a retail store, this helps you offer that integrated shopping experience that your consumers are demanding.