Logistics Case Study: Proactive Shipment Notifications
How a customs broker and forwarder cut "where is my container" calls by three quarters, with milestone updates that reach the customer before they think to ask.
Overview
The client is a customs brokerage and freight forwarder in the Los Angeles port area, clearing and moving several hundred shipments a month for importers. The operations team spent a large part of every day answering the same question by phone: where is my shipment? The answer was usually on a carrier portal or in the customs system, but the customer did not have access, so they called.
Gain Rhino built milestone notifications into the CRM. Each shipment carries its carrier reference and entry number; the system watches the carrier and customs feeds and sends the customer an update at each milestone: departed, arrived, customs released, out for delivery, delivered, in the channel the customer chose. Exceptions, such as a customs hold or a missed connection, notify the customer and the operator at the same time, with what happens next.
Research
We counted inbound calls and emails for two weeks: about 45 status inquiries a day, roughly a third of the operations team's time. Nearly all could have been answered from data the company already had. Customers said the silence between milestones was the problem, not the transit time.
We mapped the milestones that matter to an importer, in plain language, and wrote the messages with the operations lead. Exceptions got their own messages with an honest explanation and an expected resolution. Customers chose their channel at onboarding; most picked WhatsApp or SMS. Every notification is logged on the shipment record so an operator can see exactly what the customer has been told.
Result
Customers now know where their shipment is before they wonder. The operations team answers exceptions and questions that need a person, not the same status question fifty times a day. When something goes wrong, the customer hears it from the company first.
By the numbers (first 90 days):
- Status calls and emails per dayabout 12, down from 45
- Shipments with milestone notifications100%
- Exceptions communicated to the customer before they asked100%
- Operations time recoveredroughly a third of the team's day
- Customer satisfaction scoreup from 3.9 to 4.6 out of 5
Client identity withheld at their request. Figures reflect the first 90 days after launch.
