The freight business is a collaboration business at its best. Also, your freight is imported to Finland or shipped abroad with the help of our partners. Therefore, we must know how to collaborate smoothly with our partners, to ensure that you get the best possible service.
First, we have to know how to choose the right agent: the best one for the transport at hand.
If a customer wants to, for example, import merchandise from China to Finland via sea freight, our customer representative finds a local agent in China that knows the ins and outs of sea freight. If the customer needs goods transported via air freight, we may choose another agent. All logistics companies do not have this much leeway.
In addition to freight formalities, the agent must be able to handle the transport in the required schedule, and for a reasonable price, as well. It is also extremely important that the interaction works without a hitch from start to finish. If a cargo ship is delayed for instance due to a storm, information about this must be conveyed rapidly to us and our customer.
Speedy negotiations and pictures of Northern lights
When we tell our customers about the demands we set for our agents, some customers ask us how our customer representatives know how to choose the right agent.
It is easy to say that successful experiences determine this when we are speaking about familiar countries and locations. Those agents that have repeatedly taken care of transportations on time and with care have met our expectations over and over again. We have a great deal of trust in these actors.
Some of these agents have even become personal acquaintances through annual logistic company events – after all, both we and the agents belong to global agent networks. In these events, we rapidly go from one meeting to the next and contemplate collaboration possibilities.
Later on, email contacts are easy: ”Hi, we met in Singapore in 2019 and I showed you pictures of Northern Lights, do you recall?”
Networks guarantee quality
What happens if we are faced with an exceptional situation, say for example that a customer wants to send cargo to a new country for us, or import merchandise from a new country to Finland?
In such cases, our customer representative asks for hints from colleagues in Finland or locates a trustworthy and competent agent from the aforementioned agent networks. Agents are made members only after going through tight screening processes.
In this business, smooth collaboration with the right agent is the core and essence of our work.
Merja Laiho
Operations Director, Ocean freight
+358 40 596 1481
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