It would not be right to say that Tommy Skinner gets excited when his employees at SHIFT Freight are sad. But he does take a certain level of satisfaction when he witnesses how much his people care about their customers.
And when the occasional problem occurs with moving a product from point A to point B, and Skinner sees how his employees feel about that problem having occurred, it does have a way of making him smile.
“I think it voices the true care we have and the empathy we feel for our customers, their product and the general experience they have with our business,” says Skinner, who leads the organization as vice president. “The team does a really good job of coming together and resolving problems as best we can. Everybody goes home at night knowing we did the best job we could.”
SHIFT Freight was formed in 2013 to “change the way companies think about moving freight.”
“I’m from outside the industry,” Skinner says. “Investors approached me who are seasoned veterans in the LTL (less than truckload) space and they said, ‘Hey, we’re looking to do something different.’ That alone piqued my interest.”
So Skinner climbed onboard and set out to do what many companies try, but fail to achieve — bring real change to an industry.
Measure value of customer satisfaction
One reason companies struggle to resonate with customers is the attitude they take toward customer service.
“A lot of it is just the perspective with which companies operate,” Skinner says. “If you were to go to your average widget maker, I believe they would likely consider themselves a widget maker as opposed to a provider of a premium service demanded by the customer.
“A lot of it is simply perspective. On a board level, it’s a little bit harder to quantify the results of a uniquely special customer experience. So dollars and resources and a cultural commitment are placed in other facets of the organization.”
It may be easier to put a number on how much money you’ll make selling this product or how much you’ll save by switching from this vendor to that one. But there are also ways to measure financial metrics when it comes to customer service.
“We have found some interesting ways to quantify our success, and really look at churn rate and customer loyalty,” Skinner says. “See the dollars that are a return on the investment in a customer. It’s so fundamentally core to what our business is.
“If you asked me what is SHIFT, I’d say it’s similar to a motto that Zappos has. We’re a customer service company that does a really good job at moving our customers’ products timely and safely.”
You’ve got to get everyone involved in the effort to please your customers, whether you’re talking about employees on the front lines or the people in the corporate office who answer the phones.
“Break down any wall or barrier between the two,” Skinner says. “I’m a liaison between the dock and the office. The values and those key performance indicators that we talk about in the office, we also talk about on the dock.
“There’s no separation, and I think that’s important. As an organization, we get into trouble if we’re not setting forth that same customer-focused vision operationally as we are in the front office.”
Focus on service
Of course, at the end of the day, you can be the nicest company with the nicest employees, but if they can’t do their job, you won’t be getting much return business. So you have to look beyond the smiles and energetic words and find the passion that exists in people to do the job right and do it with the right attitude.
“We’ve done a good job of finding creative ways to assess the talent,” Skinner says. “At the end of the day, there’s a lot of smart talent and a lot of proficient talent out there. You really need to find those individuals who are passionate and believe in what you’re doing.”
Ask questions that clue in to the person’s personality or help you know what they like to do away from the job or with their friends and families. Get to know the real person and you’ll have a good sense of whether they are being real with you or putting up a false front.
Do your homework before you get to the interview stage to help you bring the right people in for a deeper conversation.
“It’s often not until I’m sitting down with someone that I can really get an idea of who they are and what they are striving to do and how they’ll fit into the organization,” Skinner says. “To get that person in the chair, it’s often a matter of how many follow-ups they have sent me. What are the ideals with which they are interested in the position? That can say a lot about whether it’s worth the time to sit down with that person.”
The effort to hire employees who can bring strong passion to their work and create that difference in the logistics industry is showing signs of paying off. SHIFT Freight opened a number of locations in 2013 and expects to quadruple in size this year.
“When you start a company, you define processes and you map out every operational function,” Skinner says. “But it’s been great to watch the team adapt those processes and build on them in new and interesting ways. The ways our team feels invested in our organization is invaluable.” ●
How to reach: SHIFT Freight, (888) 439-4241 or www.shiftfreight.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shiftfreight
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/shift-freight-llc?trk=company_logo
Twitter: @SHIFTFreight
