Second, they vowed to handle customer problems with far more honesty than what they experienced. Dom recalls:
“It seemed impossible to get a straight answer from any of these companies when things went wrong. This always surprised me because those are the times reputations are made in any business.”
Judy contributes: “Hypothetically, if a customer calls at 8:00 am and they need something done by 9:00; we size up the situation at that moment and if it looks like the best we’re going to be able to guarantee is 10:00, we’ll tell them that. This is another area where
our competition fails. They are obviously thinking they’ll just take the order and figure it out later; hoping that they will get away with it, but most of the time they don’t. So this level of honesty (before we even take the job) gives the customer the opportunity to make other arrangements to keep their customer happy.”
Dom adds: “...and if we are in the middle of a delivery and something goes wrong beyond our control that will result in a missed deadline, we immediately inform the customer of this also. This is another occasion when we give them the opportunity to implement an alternate plan for us to follow that could work better for them in the long run.”
Third, they vowed to provide customers with Delivery Personnel that present a positive appearance while always demonstrating professional, cooperative, and courteous attitudes. While working with these Graphic Arts companies Judy remembers: “I was surprised to see just how many people the Courier companies had representing them that had poor grooming habits, and some with attitudes to match. So customers would complain. Owners of these companies obviously still don’t get it, because new customers continue to switch to us just for this reason alone.”
Dominick personally spends all the time necessary with each and everyone that delivers for them to ensure they always demonstrate the differences that Crystal Cargo provides. He believes: “One of the key components to our success is maintaining an environment of mutual respect for absolutely everyone that drives for us, free of discrimination, where everyone is treated as the integral part of the Crystal Cargo family that they are. Our customers see the drivers every day, which is a lot more than they see us, so it’s important they give our customers what they expect and deserve…every day.”
The responsibilities of the Driving Personnel are constantly reinforced with regular company notices, which not only serves to keep them in the loop with what’s going on in the company, the industry, the economy in general and the effect it has on their business; most importantly it consists of reminders of “all the differences we offer when compared to the competition and what the drivers must do to prove these differences each and every day.”
Fourth, they vowed to provide all these radically upgraded services while saving their customers money.
How do they do this? They work their own business, they have no rents, mortgages or leases to pay on real estate, nor do they owe on any of their constantly upgraded equipment; so everything they use, they own. This keeps their overhead to the lowest of any of their competition of equal and greater firepower.
So any of the competition (that operates as totally legal as Crystal Cargo) with all the proper licenses and insurances necessary to protect their customers and their customer’s customers in every state of the U.S., find it near impossible to compete; especially with what Crystal Cargo offers.
In addition to receiving all the above,
“…you’re going to have to speak to a real live person if you want to do business with us.”
Everyone is experiencing the recent rapid decline in service with absolutely every business today; and it’s no different in the transportation industry.
When you need something delivered in an hour, it’s aggravating to spend all that time pressing one for this, two for that, entering your customer number or name and password, etc, etc, etc; all the while hoping something doesn’t go wrong with this extremely impersonal way of doing business. This is what FedEx, UPS, and the USPS practices.
Dom says: “But we’re not even in the same business. We deliver in hours. They don’t. They can’t compete with us, and we don’t compete with them. Nonetheless, many of our competition spend an enormous amount of time and effort copying everything FedEx, UPS, and the USPS does. This includes doing just about everything that they can not to speak to you. While we do everything we can to do just the opposite. So we apologize for not having an order form on our website (like everyone else does); you’re going to have to speak to a real live person if you want to do business with us.”
This means that when you call Crystal Cargo, the person answering the phone will always identify themselves each and every time, so you don’t even waste that second of time asking: who is this? And the order literally takes seconds because once they do a delivery for you, they obtain (on their own) every bit of information concerning your origins and destinations which is kept in their extensive database.
So it’s not as though Crystal Cargo is against the latest technology, quite the contrary, they just know when and where it needs to be applied to make things easier for their customers, not themselves.
But if your preference is to email an order (like some of their customers do); feel free. If you prefer to receive your bills electronically every day (like some of their customers require), no problem, they have all the technology necessary.
They also constantly upgrade their communication systems, so all driving personnel are always utilizing the latest that technology has to offer so
you get immediate answers to all your questions, all the time.
They have even made it easier for you to understand the confusing names of your service that all the competition has always followed
(the extra, the special, the rush, the direct, the etc,
etc,) by simply labeling them Priority #1,2,3,4…that’s it. Where number one is the quickest and number four is all day. |
