CHAPTER 3: SOLUTIONS AND SOME RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE
3.2. Some solutions to improve freight forwarding activities at E.I freight
3.2.1. Retaining old customers, searching for new customers
Objective: to maintain long-term relationship with customers, this is the solid base makes the most stable and sustainable success of the company.
Retaining old customers
The company has always been interest to the customer’s requirements and keeps good bilateral relationship, and regularly communicates with customers to capture the feedback from customers to the more rational policies.
For longtime client, on holidays the company should have presents. If the customer has a burial ceremony or risks the companies must dispatched to visit or write to express condolences, in both the business as well as in life let them know they were always considered to be divine.
Searching for new customers
E.I company should participate in freight forwarding association such as VIFFAS (Vietnam Freight Forwarders Association) to take additional market situation logistics services in the country as well as abroad, as well as receiving support from the Association. The company's principal market is the US, France and Canada, what about the other markets account for only a very small proportion, in the future if it wants to expand business operations, requires the company to expand its market. As a company that specializes in making nominated goods, so company cannot sign a contract with the customer, but through the branches of Expeditors, affiliates will be in charge of finding clients and signed a contract with them, and then the client will specify the import and export of them right through the company E.I. Therefore, the sales department can seek prestige or newly established exporters, there are many goods going to the market that the company
49 wants to extend, and then refer to branch of Expeditors in the market so that the branches can search the partners who have needs. As such, it can be more active in finding customers that not too dependent on the designation of the Expeditors branches.
3.2.2. Upgrade professional competence for employees
Objective: in order to complete forwarding competence and enhance sense of responsibility for staff through raising awareness, organizing syllabus or discussion period.
Human is an important factor determining the success of an organization or a company. Therefore, to enhance the effect of service must enhance the quality of human resource of company. Moreover, to own professional staff with high sense of responsibility and dedication with work E.I needs to:
o Frequently celebrate period of discussion about forwarding service to help staff quickly achieve new experience and knowledge.
o Frequently invite foreign experts for technical training to staffs.
o Encourage staff further study foreign languages not English at all by sponsoring tuitions.
o Have program that update knowledge about more and more diverse information technology for staff.
o Recruit outside personnel with capacity.
o Periodically organize the course for training problem solving skill and ability to do the job.
o To organize the examination to eliminate the irresponsible employees and work ineffectively. On that basis, the company will understand the professional qualifications of the staff and give solution to improve.
o Have policy for remuneration, rewards, and punishments to encourage the spirit for employees.
Besides, raising the spirit of accountability for staffs is essential that will contribute to improving the work efficiency. Employees should consult the customer's goods as his property to be able to work more carefully, more seriously, and minimizing the risks arising in the course of work.
3.2.3. Enhancing initiative in service operation
Objective: To minimize the influence of seasonality to gain initiative in the operation of the company.
As analyzed above, a peculiarity which is also a exist shortcomings of freight forwarding is seasonality. Seasonality of service operations comes from the
50 seasonality of the import and export cargo operations by volume of goods import and export. However, while our country is increasingly integrated into the economic region and the world, the flow of goods will be increasingly promoted. Although there is a drop in cargo volume but it does not means have no good, if knowing how exploit, E.I company can still have a stable source of goods , thereby taking the initiative in production and business activities.
To do this, the company could carry out methods as follows:
o Reducing price at off-peak times: In the field of service delivery, the prerequisite is quality but for many customers the price factor bearing an important in the process of decision-making. Consequently, discounts in every off-peak time will be effective measures to attract customers, bring employment and source of income for the company. When conducting a discount, the company will probably fall into bad loans without interest, even holes. Nevertheless, if doing nothing, the company will still have to pay employee salaries, depreciation of machinery and equipment. If done strategically off the company also have a benefit is maintaining and expanding relationships with clients, this is potentially profitable ones, hardly nothing to buy.
o The company could provide customers with services like:
- Consult customers about competitive situations in the market, foreign trade, and international law.
- Consult customers about potential and trustful exporting counter partners in the market.
- Consult customers about trustworthy ocean liners, rational routes, and necessary procedures for smooth import export.
3.2.4. Improve online relationships with customers
Objective: To build business creditability and to retain customers’ trust.
The company should polish its image via setting up a website with good design in order to attract customers’ attention.
In addition, the company should give customers feedback as soon as possible, have specific regulations of its own policies, contract terms, and instructions, and give preferential treatment to long-term customers.
3.2.5. Improve the quality of service
Objective: To improve service quality of export merchandise exchange, to extend forms of exchanging service so as to enhance the company’s competiveness.
51 In fact, service quality has played a more and more important role in the market economy. It is an effective strategy in competition and probably influences on the existence of enterprises in the future. The company, therefore, need to invest more in improving service quality.
At present, the price of E.I is still higher than that of other companies.
Therefore, E.I needs measurements about price fixing so that its price is reasonable and suitable for each market and different kinds of customers. To the market shares getting increasing turnover, the company should make a reduction in price to stimulate and attract customers. Moreover, the key issue is that the company has to implement research and apply measurements to lower down service price, which can lead to stronger competiveness in the market. In the current situation of skyrocketing price, a good price policy with professional working style will easily receive the likeness from customers.
To new clients, the company should create policies about preferential price to be able to establish long-running relationship with them.
In addition, can apply a policy of enhancing service quality without price increase, bringing long-term benefits to the company.
3.2.6. Expand the relations
Objective: To complete the ability of conducting export exchange through participating in specialized organizations and associations.
To play its part, the exchange company has to have a wide relation of acquaintances with many people, circles, and governmental organs. Particularly, it has to a connection with exporters and importers to seek for source of goods supply, with ocean liners and airliners to hire means of transportation, with banks and financial organizations to carry out credit and payment transaction, with customs to conduct merchandise import export procedures, with other secondary contractors to hire value-added services (packing, storing, or sterilizing).
3.2.7. Promote and improve Marketing activities
Objective: enhancing marketing activities, advertise service and brand name to attract more customers.
As mentioning above, E.I company does not have the marketing department and sale staffs take over for marketing activities, but it is quite simple and does not have specific plan and strategy. E.I company should establish a marketing department to make marketing plan and strategy to advertise for the company. The marketing team can have three to four people; to organize successfully market research, the Marketing department should capture the following functions:
52 - Market research, analysis of potential, demands for freight forwarding and
predict prospect.
- Strengthen services business to adapt to regular fluctuation of the market.
- Satisfy the rapidly growing demand in the field of logistics, organizing and improving the system of distribution, coordinated planning business.
- Enhance business performance
3.2.8. Improvement to booking process and export documentation procedures
Objective: limit shortcomings when performing the process, to fulfill the exporting process.
Booking:
Build the system of customer’s order-form control. With this system, it will help to find the up-to-date order-form, true or false, sufficient or insufficient. Staff can update possible information immediately and contact with customer to check and fix for better.
Documentation:
Update system about frequent unchangeable data such as name of Shipper, Consignee, Notify Party, place of receiving, packing goods and all kinds of procedure. This will save a considerable amount of time in doing FCR and Bill for customers.
Negotiate with customer without original procedures, scan document (copy) instead, turn on edoc system, then distribute. It is not like using express delivery that may take time, cause delay in shipping and costs.