Company Background

FreightSideKick is a national provider of transportation and logistics services with customers across the country. They offer freight services through a network of trucking companies and assist shippers with finding spot-market capacity for LTL and truckload freight. With such a large customer and carrier base, the company faced challenges in managing inquiries and support requests efficiently.

Challenge

Companies like FreightSideKick receive thousands of calls every day from carriers, coordinating empty trucks with freight that is on the ground and ready to ship. When truckers call in, they need all kinds of information about the shipment in question, like product information, dimensions and weight, equipment that is required to carry the load, and so on. The dispatch team was struggling to handle the high volume of calls, leading to long wait times, frustrated truckers, and lost opportunities. The dispatch team required a solution to streamline inquiries, allowing them to manage more requests without juggling phone lines.

Solution

The ideal solution required an IVR system and a chat interface where agents could handle multiple bookings. The goal was to automatically provide callers with information about the shipment without having to wait for an available agent, and then facilitate a "hand-off", switching the caller to SMS, where they complete their booking via text.

Results

Implementing an IVR system and agent chat console solved all of the operations challenges they faced.

• 1. Improved caller satisfaction

  No more waiting on hold for information that could be easily read directly from the database, which truckers calling in need in order to make important, last-minute decisions concerning their next job.

• 2. Reduced Call Volume

  Because 90% of the information a caller needed was available to them on demand, agents were freed up from having to juggle phone calls and fulfilling requests one at a time.

• 3. Increased Efficiency

  By having the IVR system "hand off" the caller to SMS-based booking, agents not only eliminated having to handle phone calls, but can now handle multiple conversations with less effort.

• 4. Cost Savings

  By eliminating most inbound calls, fewer agents were needed and the company was able to meet increasing demand while reducing their dispatch staffing needs.

Conclusion

The implementation of an IVR system helped FreightSideKick to improve their caller experience, reduce call volumes, increase efficiency, save costs, and operate under less stress. The success of the IVR system demonstrates how businesses can leverage technology to improve their operations and meet the needs of their customers.