If you run a company that specializes in transportation and logistics, you should buy a top-end CRM for it. It will enable you to automate your business processes, improve your customer relations and maximize your revenue. From this article, you'll get to know how to choose a worthy CRM for transportation and how you can benefit from it. Also, you'll find a list of the six best CRMs for your industry and their characteristics.
Why Do Transport Companies Need CRM?
The logistics and transportation industry involves diverse and complex business processes:
● Agreements
● Budget approval
● Communication
● Order preparation
● Packaging
● Supply chain
● Online vehicle tracking
● Warehousing
Business owners strive to optimize their costs. Customers want to receive fast and reliable service. Thanks to CRM, you'll be able to better coordinate the interaction between various departments of your organization to meet these two goals.
Benefits of Using CRM for Logistics Companies
A powerful CRM will help you to cope with the following tasks.
Automate Request Processing
Your CRM will collect incoming messages from multiple communication channels:
● Phone calls
● Messengers
● Email
● Live chat
● Social networks
● A fill-in form on your sitу
Your staff members will be able to process these queries very quickly. They won't need to carry out routine tasks manually. A CRM can automatically assign tasks to managers and control them until the deals are closed.
Optimize Sales and Marketing
Your sales and marketing departments will benefit from the CRM because it will facilitate the following tasks:
● Managing new requests more effectively and leading potential clients to the first sale
● Assessing each stage of the sales pipeline and correcting the client's journey at the opportune moment
● Identifying the most efficient channels of attracting new clients
● Using notifications to offer services to your already existing client base
● Connecting with multiple customers via email to inform them about updates and new offers
● Reminding inactive customers about your services through different communication channels
● Making calls right from the CRM system via integrated telephony
This data will enable you to assess the level of customer satisfaction with each particular deal. Your marketing department will be able to make communication with clients more personalized, which should help you raise your sales.
Convenient Data Management
In a couple of clicks, you'll be able to access the following information about each client:
● Current and completed transactions
● Cargo status
● Order estimation
● Accepted commercial offers
● Vehicle, shipping/tracking, and customs documentation
● Payment details
● Limited commercial offers
The CRM will store exhaustive information on each of your customers in a well-structured format.
Greater Cost Efficiency
Since many of your business processes will be automated, you won't need to hire human professionals, train them and pay salaries to them. Your business won't incur losses because of the inevitable human factor.
Advanced Reporting
Many CRMs contain ready-to-use report templates and can generate custom ones on demand. You'll be able to control any aspect of your workflow, be it deadlines or changes in your payments policies. It enables you to promptly detect your flaws and take measures to improve your customer experience.
Improved Customer Service
In the logistics industry, you can achieve greater customer satisfaction in two ways. First, you can process your clients' requests faster — and this was mentioned above.
Second, you can better handle unpredictable issues. With a CRM, you can track how an emergency situation unfolds in real-time and inform your clients about it. This will partly relieve their stress and minimize their losses. Plus, it will protect you from accusations and proceedings under the law.
Enhanced Team Collaboration
All your business processes will be transparent and easy to understand for any team member. Your team will need to put less time and effort into coordinating their work. For supervisors, it will be very convenient to monitor the workflow and assess the performance of each professional and department.
How to Choose a Worthy CRM for Transportation?
To find a CRM that will help you to enhance transportation logistics service, you might want to follow five simple tips.
Investigate Your Current Technology Landscape
You should assess the age and condition of the systems that you are currently using. You need to understand whether they are sustainable or not. Try to detect their strong and weak sides and analyze their compatibility with new solutions.
If you realize that your current software is outdated, you might want to invest a large sum into buying a new system. Companies from the transportation logistics sector usually need such upgrades once in ten or twenty years. If you're satisfied with how certain aspects of your already existing system function, you might keep them. In this case, you'll need only those software components that help you to cope with the types of tasks that are not yet covered.
Define Your Budget
Most CRMs today are available on subscription. You won't need to pay the full price of their license upfront. The price of the subscription might vary depending on how many people will be using your CRM and how many functions you need.
Normally, only cloud-based CRMs offer subscriptions. If you prefer an on-premise one, you might need to purchase its license.
Choose Your CRM Type
Now, let's discuss the difference between cloud-based, on-premise, and custom-built solutions.
On-premise platforms are off-the-shelf products that you can customize. You pay for them only once. You can train your in-house IT team to take care of them. You will need to update such a CRM only when it fails to cope with certain tasks or integrate with other solutions that you need in your workflow.
Cloud CRMs usually allow limited customization. You'll get access to the same functionality as all the other businesses that use that platform. You should be ready for frequent updates — and this means, you might need to contact the support of the CRM each time you face any technical issues because your in-house IT department might be not too efficient.
A custom-built CRM might seem a very tempting idea at first sight. You can get all the features you need and such a product will require only a one-time cost. But such solutions involve a significant failure risk. It might be challenging to integrate a custom CRM with third-party software. Plus, you might miss out on the best industry practices.
Outline Your Goals
These are just a few examples of goals that logistics limited companies might want to achieve by implementing a CRM:
● Save time
● Cut down expenses
● Make their business processes more transparent
● Integrate diverse solutions that they rely on and make them accessible through one interface
You might want to make a table to compare how different CRMs help you meet these goals. List your objectives in the first column. Assign a column to each of the CRMs and tick the box if a certain product enables you to achieve a specific goal. Instead of ticking the boxes, you can rate the efficiency of each product by a certain parameter with one, two or three plus marks.
Compile a List of Questions to Ask Providers
Before buying a CRM, you should read all the information about it that you can find. Apart from its official site, you should check sites with impartial reviews. Make a list of questions that you don't have answers to and ask them the support team of the CRM — these are a few examples that might inspire you.
● Can you provide case studies/success stories for companies similar to mine?
● What differentiates your CRM from your competitors?
● What kind of ROI can we expect and over what time period?
● Can you provide a list of references I can contact?
You should record the conversation and put down the answers in the table where you compare the efficiency of different CRMs.
Top Transportation CRM
When looking for a top-notch platform, you don't need to search exactly for "CRM transportation" or "CRM logistics". Most top CRMs were designed to cater to several different industries. Below, we'll list the solutions that have proved the efficiency in the transportation sector. All of them can boast a convenient UI/UX and have user-friendly mobile apps. They will give you a 360-degree view of your prospects and guarantee the highest level of data security. Which of these CRMs will seem the most appealing to you will depend on the individual needs of your company and the software that you're already using.
Bitrix24
This is one of the most famous CRM brands in the world. It hit the market in 2012 and now, over 9 million companies from different regions consider it their favorite CRM. Bitrix24 is a large and versatile platform that caters to businesses of any size and industry, including transportation. It is available both in cloud and on-premise formats.
This platform is perfect for lead acquisition, lead management, and sales automation. Users love its workload management and visual project management opportunities as well as time management and scheduling tools. You'll be able to track your team's KPIs and employ sales intelligence to increase your revenue.
You can use the Bitrix24 contact center both for in-house discussions and communications with clients. Up to 48 people simultaneously can take part in a video conference. When you need to launch a new site or landing page for your business, you'll be able to do it with the Bitrix24 website builder even if you lack programming skills (and you'll get free hosting and a custom domain name).
You might want to start with a free plan that allows an unlimited number of users. The most expensive plan with the most extensive functionality costs $199 — but you might benefit from frequent discounts.
Freshsales
Over 18,000 businesses have chosen this CRM. It was launched in 2010 as Freshdesk and underwent a rebranding seven years later.
The developers promise that thanks to this product, companies can enhance transportation in the era of digital transformation. It should be easier for you to handle new market entrants and new business models. Plus, you'll be able to better react to changing customer expectations.
Freshsales gives you tools to track the progress of your deals and the performance of your business. You'll be able to nurture your customers, analyze their feedback and use their opinions to improve your business. You can conveniently work with multiple pipelines simultaneously and the platform will generate insightful reports for you.
The Freshsales prices vary from $0 to $69 per user per month. The free trial lasts 21 days.
Hubspot
This brand was founded in 2006. Today, over 121,000 businesses use its CRM.
The Hubspot CRM is available for free, without any time limitations or limits on the number of users. Its database can contain up to 1 million contacts and your contact records will be automatically enriched with data from over 20 million businesses. Lead management and tracking, contact management, document tracking, pipeline management, ticketing, email marketings, forms, ads, reporting dashboard — you won't need to pay for any of these functions.
You'll be able to scale seamlessly and use almost 900 integrations. The latter means that you can synchronize Hubspot not only with Gmail and Outlook but with hundreds of other third-party apps. The CRM will generate exhaustive analytical reports for you with crystal clear metrics. You can rationally distribute tasks among your staff members and analyze the performance of each professional.
Pipeliner
This CRM is purposefully targeted at the transportation and logistics industry. It allows you to review your pipeline, forecast sales, manage revenue risk, and collaborate with your sales team. Your sales will become uniform and predictable, it will be easy for you to focus on the right leads. You'll get access to real-time data to analyze win/loss rates, leading and lagging indicators. You'll be able to review sales by a professional team, and territory as well as set realistic key sales metrics and goals.
The Pipeliner developers claim that their easy-to-use, easy-to-learn visual sales tool intelligently cuts through the noise and concentrates on high-value activities. It should provide you with a clear pathway through the sales cycle and give guidance on corrective actions and activities. This CRM facilitates the process of identifying buyers and their roles in a sales process. You can integrate Pipeliner with MS Outlook and Gmail. To grab data off the web, you can use either Google Forms or Web Clipper. The free trial lasts 14 days. Then, you'll need to switch to a paid plan — the most expensive one costs $115 per user per month.
Salesforce
This company was launched in 1999 and has over 150,000 customers. Salesforce offers industry-specific solutions for businesses that work in the transportation and logistics sector. It can streamline the entire shipping experience by integrating all of your systems and data onto a single platform. Using this CRM, you'll be able to track shipments, check cargo conditions, and communicate with shippers to discuss pricing. You'll be able to provide proactive service and benefit from targeted marketing.
Plus, you can use Salesforce to increase your driver engagement. The platform will provide complete visibility to your staff members throughout their employment journey. Once prospects are hired, you can digitize their onboarding and training, empower them with real-time dashboards and improve retention. To get a free trial, you should answer 8 short questions on the Salesforce site. The price of paid plans starts at $25 per user per month.
Zoho
This one has been in the game for over 12 years and over 250,000 businesses worldwide use it. Its developers accentuate the fact that Zoho is fully customizable.
This CRM is indispensable for integrated document management, campaign management, vendor and contractor management. You can rely on it to process your billing and payments and automate your marketing to generate leads. Zoho is great for single-system omnichannel communication. Plus, you can use it to generate sales and purchasing orders. If your business is based in the EU, this CRM will help you to comply with the regional privacy regulations.
Your managers will appreciate Zoho's efficiency in assigning and tracking tasks. It has a convenient scheduling tool and keeps all your finances in one place. Contextual subscriptions will enable you to make the right offer at the right time to the right people.
To get started with Zoho, you can get a 1-hour demo session. The price of paid plans varies from $7 to $52 per user per month.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article comes in handy, and now you better understand the importance of a CRM for the logistics and transportation business. Such a platform will help you to get additional competitive benefits, enhance your customer relations and earn more money. Among all the products that are available on the market, you might want to choose Bitrix24. This powerful and versatile CRM is available in cloud and on-premise formats and has an excellent mobile app. It will enable you to streamline your business processes, increase your team's performance and boost your client satisfaction. You can try the basic features of Bitrix24 for free and then upgrade to a paid plan with extensive functionality at a reasonable price.
