Hello everyone, we talked about sales and routes earlier, both of which are front-line jobs. This time, we are going to talk about the customer service operation position that is unknown in the back and helps you to handle the goods every day.
As for this position, some companies call it customer service, and some companies call it operation. In fact, the essence is the same. But in order to confuse this position with on-site operation, we simply call it customer service here. Just hearing the name tells you that this position must be done by someone who requires extreme patience and consideration, and there is a good chance that the work will be very tedious. You are right, it is true. After the goods are taken down in the front, all subsequent details need to be followed up and implemented by customer service, and there may be some places that are different from the previous ones. So customer service needs to be very careful and considerate.
After getting a bkd ticket, the salesperson will send the ticket to the customer service staff to follow up. Generally, the salesperson will have a relatively fixed customer service to follow up his goods. Because fixed people are more likely to develop tacit understanding. Of course, if there are many things that can be followed by SOP, the importance of tacit understanding will be greatly reduced. But in our industry, although the general direction is the same, each shipment has different aspects, so it is difficult to do everything with SOP. Therefore, after the tacit understanding of sales and customer service is reached, it is indeed possible to improve work efficiency to a certain extent.
If there is any unexpected situation in the process of following up the goods, or something unexpected happens before. Customer service should first explain the situation to the salesman, and then the salesperson decides whether to implement it with the customer one by one. Of course, for some small things, such as the early delivery time, the customer service can directly implement this with the customer. Because if it is early, it will not affect the flight.
Let’s take an example now. For example, a customer places a ticket for bkd and takes a CZ flight to FRA. The adhoc price is set. There is no fixed position, and the position needs to be queued. Now that the goods have been ordered, when the route comes back, we can only get to the position after a week. At this time, the customer service should have an awareness, knowing that this time may cause a large gap between customers. Then, the customer service first is to explain the situation to the sales. If the sale has already been made to the customer at the outset, then of course it is fine. If there is a position for the next day when the salesman asks, but it becomes a week later when the position is booked, then the salesman has to explain to the customer. First, let’s explain why the position will arrive after a week, and second, let’s see if there are other options for customers or whether customers want to cancel bkd. In theory, customer service does not have the function of explaining to customers, and it is very likely that the explanation is unclear. So this action must be done by sales.
At this time, the customer service must hold the K-good position first, and cannot release it casually (of course, if it is a position of dozens of kilograms, it does not matter), and wait until the sales confirm that the customer no longer wants to take the next action. But even if the customer doesn’t want it, don’t tell the airline to cancel it. Because if time permits, in fact, we have a good position in our hands, and we can see if there are other experts or customers who need it. So keep it. The action of canceling a position should also be done by sales, because only the sales can know whether the position is really unusable. Of course, sales can’t be delayed all the time, otherwise, if there is no cargo on the top in the end, resulting in an empty warehouse, the airline will definitely go to the sky. So let go, let go, and re-sale is re-sale.
The above is an example, which shows that customer service needs to have a certain industry awareness and overall view, know what things can communicate with customers directly, and what things need to be asked first. If it is shipped normally, it is just a general operation. For example, the sales may not communicate with customers in the early stage whether they need to pick up the goods, the specific manifest of the goods and so on. These are all for customer service to follow up. If there are additional costs involved in this process, the sales also need to be explained to the customer. Of course, if the company has a very complete set of procedures and quotations, and the delivery can also be standardized, then the customer service can also directly quote the price according to the distance. After all, it’s not that difficult.
After picking up the goods, we will start to ask the customer for the list of goods, invoices and other information. If it is a customer self-declaration, then naturally we do not need too much information, just a packing list and an invoice are almost the same. If it is an entrusted customs declaration, then we have to ask the customer for a lot of information. Because customs declaration is still a relatively rigorous process, you can ask the customs brokers or customs brokers of your own company for the required information. Then after the car arrives at the scene, the customer service also needs to coordinate the entry into the warehouse, such as the time of entry into the warehouse, whether there is a big difference in the number, weight, volume and size of the goods with the customer’s report, and the draft bill of lading and the customer’s order.
Here to insert a sentence, we must not ignore the link of the single. Because of many details, we cannot explain all of them to customers, but they will all be reflected on the bill of lading. Therefore, we must send the draft bill of lading to the customer for verification based on the information we have at hand. In case something goes wrong in the future, this procedure will be very important. If the bill of lading needs to be changed and the bill of lading has been checked by the customer, the bill of lading fee is borne by the customer, but if it has not been checked, it is hard to say. Let’s take another example. For example, the customer told us that there are 100 pieces of goods, 1 ton. In fact, after warehousing, according to the warehousing paper, there are only 10 pieces and the weight is 1100kg. This problem is very big, because the number of pieces is very different, and the weight is not correct. At this time, the customer service must first figure out what it is in advance. In this example, it is very likely that the customer thought that there were 100 pieces of goods, but in fact, they made pallets, and every 10 pieces were made a pallet, and 10 pallets were made. So when you enter the warehouse, it will become 10 pieces. Since the pallet also has weight, the weight of the entire shipment will increase. This must be communicated clearly with the customer to avoid shipping disputes in the future.
If a shipment is consol and a separate order needs to be issued, and the main order contains goods from multiple different customers, we can issue a draft separate order for the customer to check, but we cannot issue the main order for the customer to check. Because the customer will only pay for the shipping of their own goods and not the shipping of other customers. Directly issuing the master order to the customer will not only confuse the customer, but also may lead to the customer’s complaint: My cargo is only 100kg, why do you charge me 1 ton of freight? So everyone should pay attention to this. After checking the separate order, the main order needs to be issued by ourselves. At this time, no one will check the main order, so we need to check the information on the main order more carefully and carefully, especially the number of pieces, weight and volume. It takes a few more counts to see if there are any mistakes. If your friends are like me and are poor in math, don’t be lazy, you must use a calculator, count twice, and see if the total number is correct. Because in the case of consol, no one will make an order with us. Therefore, the cost of changing the order can only be borne by us.
Well, when this shipment is being declared at customs, we can relax a little bit. But soon to be nervous again. Because we want to urge the progress of customs clearance according to flight time and order cut-off time. In case the customs clearance is late and you can’t catch the flight, it is a very troublesome thing, and it takes a long time to explain it.
I have experienced a similar situation myself. Although a shipment of goods was cleared before the cut-off, the customs declarer did not know the cut-off time, and there were other goods on hand that had not cleared customs. Take the ticket receipt that has been cleared through customs in your hand, and want to wait for all the goods to clear customs and hand in the bill together. However, it is difficult to grasp the time of customs clearance of all goods, so it is almost impossible to catch the flight with the ticket. When I heard the customs clearance, I was relieved. But after 10 minutes to check again, the order has not been handed in. I was a little flustered. Immediately called the customs broker to know that there was such a situation. So I immediately told the customs broker not to wait for other goods, and to hand over the goods that have been cleared through customs first. Otherwise, even this ticket will not catch the flight. Guys, be careful.
After the flight takes off, our work will be relatively easy. We only need to confirm that the goods are on the flight, then take a screenshot to the customer, and tell the customer that the goods have left the port according to the booking time, and our task will come to an end.
Then there is the notification of sales and follow-up of follow-up services, such as closing payments. Of course, if there is any unexpected situation with the goods, such as offloading the goods at the transfer station, or there is MSCA, then the customer service will continue to follow up. We must also show 100% professionalism and patience at this time. Explain to the customer how to do each step, and what we have done for the customer to make the customer feel at ease.
Through a customer service job, we can imagine how trivial the job content of this position is, and how much patience is required to cope with it. This is why this position is usually filled by girls. Because a boy is usually more careless and has to do customer service work, it is estimated that it is not enough. Therefore, we should usually pay more attention to our customer service girls, so that they can feel the warmth, so that they will be more comfortable with the goods.
Alright, that’s all for this issue, see you next time.