How Rheinland Manufacturing stopped fielding shipment status calls

Company Overview

Rheinland Manufacturing ships to around 400 trade customers. Customer service spent most of every morning answering one question, which was where a particular delivery had got to.

Challenge

• Customer service handled 60 to 80 status calls a day, and each one took two further calls to answer
• Answers were already stale by the time they reached the customer
• Genuine problems were buried under routine status questions, so real exceptions were spotted late
• Two people were effectively employed relaying information that already existed somewhere

Solution

• FerroTrack gives every shipment a live tracking page customers can open themselves
• Customers receive automatic notifications at dispatch, on the road and on arrival
• Exceptions are separated from normal progress, so customer service only handles what actually needs a human
• Our own team sees the same view as the customer, which ended a lot of confusion

Results

• Inbound status calls fell by around 90 percent within one quarter
• Customer service redirected roughly 30 hours a week to order management and claims
• Delivery exceptions are now spotted an average of four hours earlier
• Two customers named the tracking page as a reason for expanding their contract

Customer Testimonial

"We were not answering questions, we were relaying data that already existed. Once customers could see it themselves the calls just stopped. I expected to save time. I did not expect customers to start describing our tracking as a reason to give us more volume."

Stefan Bauer, Logistics Manager, Rheinland Manufacturing

Key Benefits

• A live tracking page for every shipment
• Automatic notifications at each milestone
• Exceptions separated from routine progress
• One shared view for us and the customer

Ferro & Sons Logistics gave Rheinland Manufacturing's customers the answer before they had to ask, and removed ninety percent of status calls in a quarter.