Are you a parcel shipper feeling overwhelmed by the shipping industry's complexities, difficult-to-work-with carriers, and the always-rising costs to ship a package? You're not alone! Businesses are often left in the crossfire of balancing rising costs and ever-increasing customer expectations. In this article, we'll discuss 5 shipping-related headaches that businesses face and how Business Intelligence (BI) software can help you confidently navigate these challenges.
Surcharges
Carriers like UPS and FedEx may add additional fees for services that you may not even know exist, such as fuel surcharges, residential delivery fees, additional handling surcharges, and more.
BI software easily identifies and lists all surcharges, allowing you to track them and make adjustments to optimize efficiency. In some cases, these charges may be bogus, and having a tool to keep carriers honest and show where adjustments are needed is invaluable.
Honoring Service Guarantees
UPS and FedEx both offer service guarantees, but they don't always live up to them. If your package is late or damaged, you may be entitled to a refund, but getting that refund can be complicated. UPS and FedEx won't give it to you automatically; they require you to go through a complicated request process. If you ship a lot of packages, this could be a major problem.
BI software can automate this entire process, instantly showing you all potential refunds. Some platforms can even automatically retrieve the money you are owed. Gone are the days of searching invoices line by line and requesting credits manually.
Delivery Speed
Your customer’s time-in-transit expectations are trending towards faster/quicker, and many want shipping included for free. Failing to meet those expectations can lead to lost business.
BI software can provide powerful insights to ensure your customers are getting their purchases on time and at the best rates. You can compare modes of transport and determine which is best based on all variables. Did you know that in some cases, ground can be as fast or faster than air, and is almost always a fraction of the cost? BI software can identify when it makes more sense to use one method over the other. This can produce some serious savings and could mean your packages getting to their destinations faster.
Simplify Billing
The carriers seem to intentionally make invoicing complicated and difficult to understand. Not only does this make it hard to track shipping expenses, but it can also make it tough for Accounting to get the approvals they need to pay an invoice on time. This could mean avoidable late fees imposed on your business.
With BI software all of your chaotic historical shipping data and invoices are pulled into one place and presented in an easy-to-understand, organized manner that enables you to take action and take back control. All late payment fees will be clearly identified, helping you avoid them in the future. The software can also automate a lot of your manual entry processes such as GL coding, creating custom reports, and more. This can add up to massive amounts of time saved.
Staying Competitive
It can be tough to stand out in a crowded market, but it's essential to differentiate yourself if you want to succeed. To gain a competitive edge, it's crucial to seek out every possible opportunity to offer unique value propositions that your competitors aren't currently providing. For your customers, expedited shipping and shipping rates can be the difference between choosing you over the competition.
BI software offers a holistic view of your shipping health so you can manage every aspect of it from an informed position. This can include showing where you’re overspending, refunds you may be entitled to, avoiding unnecessary late payment fees, identifying the opportunity to negotiate better shipping rates, invoice errors, automating manual processes to save you countless man hours, and so much more.
Lojistic is a shipping business intelligence platform designed for companies big or small. Looking to make sense of all your shipping data? With Lojistic, you’ll have instant access to actionable shipping insights and automations you may never have thought possible. Creating an account takes less than a minute, requires NO conversation with a representative (unless you want to talk to us 😊), and is ABSOLUTELY FREE!
You’re minutes away from all the tools you need to control and reduce your shipping costs. Check out our demo to see how it works.
Have Questions? Call us at 800-783-5753 or send us your questions here. Our shipping gurus are always here to help.