Customer Service In the Shipping Industry

Customer service in the shipping industry.

Customer service is a long-term skill set that takes years to master, no matter which job you work in. In the shipping industry, there are major shipping entities in the United States where people send items to different destinations on a daily basis. The major companies are United Parcel Service (UPS), United States Postal Service (USPS), and FedEx, among other companies. People usually ship items such as documents, apparel items, office supplies, electronics, jewelry, perishables, school supplies, and any other additional items allowed by the shipping rules and policies to arrive fast and safely from the sender to a receiver's business or personal site of residency. The job of in-store associates is to greet the customer, ask questions about shipments, such as returns or new shipments, what product the customer is sending to a destination, dimensions, weight, insurance, and time frame for arrival.

Some companies like UPS have different franchises, and some policies are not the same as others, but the brand and service are equally distributed to make sure customers get the best services from beginning to end, which includes, from processing, to financial transactions, to shipping, to sending air or ground, and delivering to the receiver. Other shipping companies like FedEx are corporate owned business, and the Post Office is an independent federal agency of the U.S. Government, which provides public service and is mandated to deliver mail to every personal and business address.

Sales is the beginning part of what customer service is, where sales transactions are met, and the product is placed for delivery, organized in warehouses, all items individually checked, and mailed to a destination. One of the biggest challenges of customer service is not only selling a product, such as shipping, office supplies, printing, notary, packaging, and mailboxes; it's also troubleshooting issues where a shipment gets lost, damaged, or where something doesn't arrived a time where expedited shipping is guaranteed.

Associates and Management are in-charged to troubleshoot shipping issues such as insurance claims, expedited forms, and refund processing. Every company has its own way of dealing with unexpected issues where customers create doubt about a service, shopping around other franchises or different companies that may offer more affordable and more effective service support on-site and online, both (phone, email, and web).

In conclusion, after working in customer service in printing and shipping for over 8 years for different agencies, I have understood that listening to your customer, developing empathy, finding solutions, cross-selling and upselling additional products that benefit a customer, you can not only let the customer speak well about your company, giving recommendations to new upcoming customer, but also retaining that same customer. There's always going to be good customers, bad ones, and ones that are wondering, but it's our job to make sure a customer understands our products, our vision, and culture.