Traditional freight forwarding relied on manual data entry, phone calls, emails, and spreadsheets to manage freight enquiries, rates, bookings, and documentation. These manual processes were slow, prone to human error, and hard to scale as the volume of shipments grew. The inefficiency of managing operations manually led to delays, lost business opportunities, and high operational costs.
Freight tech software has emerged to help forwarders manage freight enquiries, collaborate with partners in real time, and provide quick and accurate quotes to customers.
According to a 2018 BCG report , traditional freight forwarding processes, such as manual documentation and customer interactions, can be time-consuming and costly. When forwarders rely on emails, it leads to inefficiencies that digital tools can address. For instance, streamlining the communication process could reduce back-office costs by up to 40%.
Let`s look at how modern freight technology can help freight forwarders manage freight enquiries.
1. Share Enquiries with Your Partner Agents Sharing enquiries with partner agents extends your reach and improves your ability to respond to customer requests. By sharing -rates through platforms like Freightify, you benefit from your partners' local expertise, building trust with customers and providing quicker, more accurate responses.
For example, a freight forwarder in the US shares an enquiry about shipping to Asia with a local agent in China. The agent provides real-time quotes and insights on regulations, enabling the forwarder to offer faster, competitive quotes to the customer. This collaboration helps forwarders manage freight enquiries efficiently.
2. Receive Rates Quickly In freight forwarding, the faster you can provide accurate rates to your customers, the higher your chances of increasing your quote-to-win ratio. Freightify helps forwarders manage freight enquiries by automating rate retrieval from multiple carriers and agents, eliminating the need for manual input.
Automation allows forwarders to manage freight enquiries in less time, helping them win more quotes and process bookings swiftly, ultimately leading to revenue growth. Also, by instantly comparing rates from various sources, forwarders gain a competitive edge in providing the best possible options to their customers.
For example, a customer requests a rate for a shipment to Europe. Instead of waiting days for manual rate confirmations, the forwarder instantly pulls real-time rates from Freightify, presents the most competitive option to the customer within an hour, and wins the quote because they were the first to provide a detailed, cost-effective solution.
3. Chat, Negotiate, and Build Relationships Building long-term relationships with customers and partners requires constant interaction, which is why integrated communication tools in freight tech platforms like Freightify are invaluable.
Such tools allow forwarders to better manage freight enquiries by negotiating rates, discussing shipping options, and resolving issues in real time. Consistent and transparent communication also builds trust with customers and strengthens partnerships.Â
For example, after receiving a customer's shipping enquiry, the forwarder uses the platform to compare and negotiate rates with carriers in different regions. The process takes minutes, and forwarders are guaranteed to secure a competitive rate.
Also, the forwarder builds stronger relationships by consistently sharing transparent rate options and updates with customers through the customer portal, fostering trust. As a result, the forwarder can provide customized, cost-effective quotes, improving their chances of winning more quotes and retaining loyal customers.
4. Quote Faster to Your Customers and Win Deals Freightify’s automation tools enable forwarders to better manage freight enquiries by quickly generating accurate quotes based on live rates and customer preferences. This reduces human error and ensures competitive pricing, improving the likelihood of winning quotes.Â
In addition, quoting faster to customers gives freight forwarders a competitive edge by allowing them to respond before others. For example, if a customer needs a shipping quote urgently, a forwarder using an automated freight tech platform can generate an accurate, tailored quote within minutes. Meanwhile, competitors still relying on manual processes might take hours or even days.
McKinsey’s research reveals that automation has improved logistics costs by up to 15%. By maintaining data consistency across the organization, automated communication workflows allow streamlined use of sales team resources and reduce response times, increasing your quote-to-win ratio.
5. Analyze Reports & Dashboards Freight tech platforms like Freightify provide detailed reports and dashboards that offer insights into performance, enabling forwarders to track key metrics such as quote-to-win ratios, average response times, and customer preferences.
Visual data at hand allows forwarders to monitor how well they manage freight enquiries and refine their strategies for better results. Tracking enquiries in a centralized platform ensures everything is looked into, enabling forwarders to follow up on every lead and prioritize high-potential opportunities.
For instance, after analyzing your dashboard, you might discover that enquiries responded to within the first hour have a 50% higher chance of being converted into confirmed bookings than those who responded after 24 hours. This insight can highlight the critical importance of fast response times and encourage your team to change how they manage freight enquiries.
This insight helps forwarders refine their process to manage freight enquiries, optimize team workflows to reduce response times, and set automated reminders or priority flags for urgent freight enquiries.
6. Track enquiries in One Place Manually managing multiple freight enquiries can be chaotic. Scattered data, missed enquiries, and delayed responses often result in lost sales. Freightify helps forwarders manage freight enquiries in one platform, making it easier to track enquiries from start to finish.
By logging every enquiry in a centralized system , forwarders can ensure they never miss an opportunity. Freight tech platforms allow users to manage freight enquiries, monitor response times, and analyze win ratios, providing valuable insights that help manage freight enquiries. Additionally, centralized tracking enables forwarders to prioritize high-potential leads, ensuring that they focus their efforts on the most profitable opportunities.
For example, when a freight forwarder receives multiple freight enquiries in a single day from different clients looking for competitive shipping rates. One of these enquiries comes from a potential high-volume client looking to establish a long-term partnership. However, because the forwarder fails to log this enquiry into their system, it gets lost among emails or verbal communications.
When the client fails to receive a timely response, they reach out to a competitor who can respond quicker and offer a competitive rate. The forwarder not only loses the immediate business opportunity but also the potential for a long-term, lucrative relationship with that client. This could result in the loss of tens of thousands of dollars in revenue over time, as well as damage to the forwarder's reputation for reliability.
7. Increase Revenue by Carefully Logging Every Freight enquiry Logging every freight enquiry detail is crucial to better manage freight enquiries. Centralized digital platforms like Freightify ensure no enquiry is missed, as everything is consolidated in one place, whether it comes through email, phone, or web form.
Each enquiry is logged with complete details like customer name, contact information, cargo details, origin and destination, preferred shipping method, and deadlines. The more detailed the log, the easier it is to follow up accurately.
By capturing each enquiry in a centralized system like Freightify, forwarders can efficiently track, prioritize, and follow up on leads. This organized approach helps improve visibility, streamline communication, and manage freight enquiries efficiently.Â
For instance, a freight forwarder receives an enquiry for a high-value, urgent shipment from a new client. They log the enquiry in Freightify, ensuring all details are entered, retrieve live rates from carriers and send a quote. This systematic logging process, combined with reminder settings in quotes, allows freight forwarders to follow up promptly with their customers and increase the quote-to-win ratio.
By integrating platforms like Freightify into their operations, freight forwarders can manage freight enquiries by automating manual tasks like data entry and rate calculations, sharing enquiries between partner agents, and facilitating real-time updates. This enables faster, automated quote generation with accurate rates and better collaboration with global partners, helping forwarders respond to freight enquiries competitively, and increasing their chances of winning more quotes.
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