CSI Elevates its Commitment to Creative Solutions Using Digital CX
Cargo Services Inc. is a freight forwarding company with a team that has seen firsthand the challenges and opportunities digitization has brought to the logistics industry. Pairing industry expertise and amazing customer service with the right digital solution has proved to be a winning formula for retaining business and building relationships with new customers.
About Cargo Services Inc.
Cargo Services Inc. (CSI) is an international freight forwarder and logistics services provider with a “3C Philosophy: customer focused, creative solutions, and community driven.”
Based in Indianapolis, CSI is known among customers for its tenured and trusted team of success-driven and customer-centric industry experts who provide customized services and creative shipping solutions. Employees work in partnership with clients to provide shipping options and solutions designed around each customer’s specific requirements. What’s unique, in an age of high-tech, the company doesn’t have voicemail to ensure high touch. When customers call, they get a professional who answers the phone and their questions.
The company is community driven. For 16 years in a row, CSI has been the title sponsor of the Books for Youth program in partnership with the NFL Indianapolis Colts. Books for Youth gives 25 age-appropriate books to Indiana foster youth in a backpack. The partnership expanded in recent years to include older youth in foster care through Project Open House, which recognizes and celebrates foster youth graduating high school.
The team’s commitment to community, people and service stands out to customers and prospects alike. Yet like most companies, they’ve faced recent pressure to continue to elevate their customer service experience – specifically through customer access and visibility.
To fulfill that item on the customer wish-list, CSI leadership began to look outward for the right digital partner.
Facing The Challenge of Rising Customer Expectations
As a Descartes OneView customer, CSI struggled to offer the visibility they wanted for their customers directly through the TMS. They created their own manual processes for customer-facing visibility through Google Sheets to ensure they could give customers the updates and data they needed.
But the manual processes that come with managing visibility through a spreadsheet brought time-consuming workflows and increased the chances of data entry errors. The new system ate up time that team members could’ve spent scaling their workload, including focusing on higher-value customer tasks.
Pressure from customers also ensued. One of CSI’s largest customers decided to try half of their orders with another forwarder for better digital customer experience offerings, while another began to discuss the allure of a tracking map within another competitor’s offerings. CSI knew they needed to find a solution, whether it be a new TMS, a new in-house-built solution, or finding a way to add the digital components they needed to their current framework.
Winning Back Customers and Landing New Business with Logixboard
Pairing the industry expertise of the CSI team and their dedication to customer service with the Logixboard platform was the perfect equation to win back the business that customers were shopping with competitors, along with winning new customers and retaining business. Specifically, using the Logixboard’s digital offerings, CSI was able to win back the other half of the business that one of their largest customers that had decided to test with a competitor.
The best part, technically speaking, was the seamless integration. Logixboard’s customer experience platform integrates directly with Descartes OneView, removing the need for a painful jump from one TMS to another. “When we made the decision to move to Logixboard, we knew we didn’t have to switch everything we were working on,” Jefferson Clay, CSI Director of Global Sales, said when discussing eliminating the pressure to switch from their current TMS.
From speaking to that customer, CSI learned that their exceptional service and industry expertise had already differentiated them from the pack. Elevating their digital customer experience offerings created a step forward in the evolution of their business, securing customer business and continuing to build the foundation of trust.
The other customer, who was previously interested in the maps and live-tracking options of other forwarders, was also delighted by Logixboard’s live tracking and visibility features.
After adding the Logixboard customer experience component, the CSI team was crossing off every item of their customers’ evaluation list.
Adding easily accessible technology gives CSI customers the transparency and visibility they need at their fingertips, while still having the expert CSI team at their disposal with direct messaging on the platform.
Time stamps, exceptions visibility, and insight into ETA variances has offered better understanding and transparency for customers. These live visibility tools can also be used by customers to provide visibility farther down the line to their own stakeholders.
Increasing Internal Efficiency and Scalability
The CSI team was not only able to provide a superior overall digital customer experience with the Logixboard platform, they also were able to leverage the software to boost internal efficiency and productivity.
CSI leadership says the shift to the platform has compressed work processes with data showing the Logixboard software saves an average of 12 steps on every shipment/container managed by their operations team. Additionally, by removing manual data entry, they’ve also reduced chances of error and given time back to the team.
Proudly Equipping their Team with Digital Partners
During conversations with prospects, CSI’s sales team highlights Logixboard as a digital partner. Sales members share how they have leveraged the added tracking system tool and how it gives customers direct access to view shipment status.
Since its founding in 1992, CSI has taken pride in being a company that offers the best people and customized solutions for logistics. Now, leaders are proud to have partnered with the right technology company to align with their philosophy of creative solutions for customers.
Logixboard helps CSI meet the needs of prospects and customers with the technology element that has steadily become foundational for freight forwarders.
Logixboard’s goal is to pair seamlessly with freight partners to enhance the stellar customer service they already have.
Do you want to learn more about how Logixboard can elevate and streamline your customer experience? Watch our quick product demo to learn more or schedule a demo with one of our team members.
