Let's Talk Reputations

Hello! Here is my first foray into the blogosphere! Today, we are going to be jumping into your reputation, how to build it, and maintain it. Someone told me something many years ago and it has always stuck with me. Do a good job and customers will tell a few people here and there, but do a bad job, and they’ll tell anyone who will listen. So, your reputation in the transportation industry is very important. Let’s get into it shall we?

Knowledge

In order to establish your relationship with your customer, you need to be knowledgeable in their business. It’s very important to do as much preliminary research on them as you can to show them you are committed to their success. Your customer is your “Partner”, and their success is your success. But you need to know your limit. You need to know where you can fit in to help them. If you’re comfortable moving a particular mode of freight, and they offer you something you are either unfamiliar with, or have not done before, it is not a good idea to jump into it as you will expose your lack of knowledge and they will lose faith in your ability to do business with them. It can be tricky, since your first instinct is to land the business.

Accessibility

It is very important to be accessible to your business partners. This is a fast moving industry, and there are thousands of carriers and brokers pounding the pavement looking for new shippers. So it is important to be accessible. Make sure you respond to calls and emails in a timely fashion. If you are going to be out of the office for an extended period of time, make sure you let them know prior to leaving. Make sure they have someone they can contact if they need assistance, whether it’s a hot load, or a load in transit. Don’t leave it up to an automated email reply that you’re out of the office and they’re unable to get any help.

Honesty

Being up front and honest with your partners will help you immensely in the long run, whether it’s late pickups or late deliveries, inability to service a lane, inability to utilize a specialized mode of transportation, or rate changes. Telling them no to something you are unfamiliar with will help you build their confidence in you, so when you say yes, they will believe you are capable of handling it. It can be very tempting to say yes to anything and everything, but that mindset will get you out the door faster than you can blink. You want to establish LONG TERM relationships, and these partners could be trusting you with MILLIONS of dollars. It is important to be honest as to what you can or can’t do.

Friendly

Being friendly is the easiest part, but you need to know your limit as to how friendly you should be. You always need to be courteous and upbeat, but you need to respect their time and keep the small talk to a minimum. It is tempting to find out the inner workings of the person you are talking to, their interests, personal life, etc. but their time is important and they usually don’t want to dive into their personal life. And that is fine. I find myself getting into personal discussions and I have to catch myself digging too deep, as they are super busy and they want me to cover their loads, not get into therapy. They will appreciate your curiosity as you move forward, but let them take the first step in that direction and respect their time. But it all depends on the person you are talking to. Some just want the call or email,”Can you move this load? Yes? No?” they don’t even want the “How are you?” so it is important to know the personality of the person you are talking to and cater to that.

These are a few things to keep in mind to establish your reputation in the freight industry, and the same goes for pretty much every sales and customer service position around. Be knowledgeable, be dependable, be attentive, be honest and friendly, and be respectful of their time.