Simon-Kucher found that freight forwarders from Canada, China, Brazil, Germany and Poland, as well as other key economies, performed more than half of the six sales tasks insufficiently. Plus, they failed to distinguish themselves from the competition in four of the six sales categories, according to the press release.
Philipp Biermann, a partner at Simon-Kucher, explained that these results are disappointing since “companies have to seize this opportunity to differentiate their services, which in turn will boost their returns.” After all, the study found, the influx of freight forwarders in the market renders their services interchangeable — “making them a commodity product,” according to the press release.
Although all the forwarders contacted in the study wrote down information about the shipment, they used varying methods to collect the mystery shoppers’ data; typically, e-mail was used as a follow-up method. Therefore, the phone called served purely as way to make initial contact and relay e-mail addresses, according to Simon-Kucher.
Biermann believes this process should be enhanced. “Far too often, forwarders pass up the opportunity to consult their customers — all because they did not pursue it during that initial phone contact. In fact, they do the opposite: The calls are ended as quickly as possible,” Biermann stated. “China or Canada, Germany or Poland — no matter the country or continent, that’s an industry-wide issue.”
Even so, the majority of the forwarders succeeded in cross-selling air and seafreight services. The same sales rep provided the mystery shoppers with combined offers for both cargo routes, according to the press release.
Simon-Kucher found that freight forwarders from Canada, China, Brazil, Germany and Poland, as well as other key economies, performed more than half of the six sales tasks insufficiently. Plus, they failed to distinguish themselves from the competition in four of the six sales categories, according to the press release.
Philipp Biermann, a partner at Simon-Kucher, explained that these results are disappointing since “companies have to seize this opportunity to differentiate their services, which in turn will boost their returns.” After all, the study found, the influx of freight forwarders in the market renders their services interchangeable — “making them a commodity product,” according to the press release.
Although all the forwarders contacted in the study wrote down information about the shipment, they used varying methods to collect the mystery shoppers’ data; typically, e-mail was used as a follow-up method. Therefore, the phone called served purely as way to make initial contact and relay e-mail addresses, according to Simon-Kucher.
Biermann believes this process should be enhanced. “Far too often, forwarders pass up the opportunity to consult their customers — all because they did not pursue it during that initial phone contact. In fact, they do the opposite: The calls are ended as quickly as possible,” Biermann stated. “China or Canada, Germany or Poland — no matter the country or continent, that’s an industry-wide issue.”
Even so, the majority of the forwarders succeeded in cross-selling air and seafreight services. The same sales rep provided the mystery shoppers with combined offers for both cargo routes, according to the press release.