In an industry where customer experience is not a focus, Beech Hill’s goal is to be different.
Greg Cox, President and CEO of Beech Hill Freight, has been accustomed to the trucking industry his whole life. Cox’s father was a truck driver, who would sound the horn of his truck as he drove down Beech Hill Drive, the street of Cox’s childhood home in Echo Lake, Nova Scotia. In fact, one of his earliest memories was hearing the sound of his father’s truck backing into their driveway at dinner time. Cox had then gone on to work in freight brokerage for 12 years before starting his own brokerage firm.Cox loved the history and tradition of the trucking industry, yet found it surprising that so much of the industry was rooted in providing transactional orders, rather than building strong relationships. He started Beech Hill Freight to be different and to offer more.
Differentiating through customer experienceTo build a strong customer strategy that would offer value beyond transactional orders, Cox knew he needed the right team and the right tools. After hiring his first team member, Jamie Bracegirdle, to be his VP of Operations, they explored software that would help them operationally, while helping to improve customer experience. They found a partner in Rose Rocket.
Beach Hill implemented Rose Rocket’s TMS and the Shipper Portal. The results were more streamlined operations for Beech Hill, and more visibility for their customers. Through the Shipper Portal, Beech Hill’s customers can submit orders, track statuses, and obtain documents – all at their own convenience. The orders are connected to the Rose Rocket TMS, reducing order entry time for Beech Hill.
For Bracegirdle, offering a self-service element doesn’t take away from good customer service – it elevates it. It allows Beech Hill to refocus the time savings into optimizing rates for the customers, which creates a more meaningful relationship.
“When we get our customers to do more for themselves through Rose Rocket, like sending in orders or checking for a POD, it saves us time. Time we reinvest to find better rates for them.”
Software that helps you winThe ease of use of the Rose Rocket Customer Portal gave Beech Hill confidence that customers would find value in the software. Beech Hill particularly liked how easy it was to set up portals for customers. It was important to them that any software they introduce to partners or customers be easy to implement, and would not require extra work to install, train, or use it.
The Customer Portal also acted as concrete proof that Beech Hill was serious about being customer-centric. They were able to show their customers that they reinvested in them through equipping them with state-of-the-art technology. They rolled out the Shipper Portal to existing customers as a value add, while actively promoting it as a selling feature for new customers.
The Customer Portal was an instrumental tool that helped them scale their book of business. It ultimately made order management simple, and differentiated Beech Hill to help them win more business. Today, several of their customers now use the Customer Portal regularly to submit orders, and considers Beech Hill as a broker of choice because of how easy it is to work with them.
“It adds validation to what we say we are. We say we are customer focused, but when we show them a product like the Rose Rocket Customer Portal, it backs up what we say.”
"We get orders because of our exceptional customer service, but we have customers who are now using us pretty exclusively because we’ve just made it so easy for them with Rose Rocket."
Jamie Bracegirdle, VP of Operations of Beech Hill Freight
Improving operational efficiencies
Aside from leveraging Rose Rocket as a customer experience solution, Beech Hill also uses the Rose Rocket TMS as the primary tool to manage its daily operations.
They save a large amount of time within the order management process by being able to duplicate orders, eliminating the need for double-entries. With invoicing, they are able to easily sort and consolidate invoices, saving time and making it easier for the customer’s accounting team.
Looking forwardBeech Hill is continuing to introduce the Shipper Portal to new customers as a value add and a selling feature. They will also be leveraging Rose Rocket’s integration capabilities to connect their TMS to their receipt management system, accounting system, and payment system.This will simplify their accounting and invoicing workflows to save even more time – time they will use to further reinvest in their customer relationships.
Beech Hill is continuing to introduce the Shipper Portal to new customers as a value add and a selling feature. They will also be leveraging Rose Rocket’s integration capabilities to connect their TMS to their receipt management system, accounting system, and payment system.This will simplify their accounting and invoicing workflows to save even more time – time they will use to further reinvest in their customer relationships.
"We get orders because of our exceptional customer service, but we have customers who are now using us pretty exclusively because we’ve just made it so easy for them with Rose Rocket."
Jamie Bracegirdle, VP of Operations of Beech Hill Freight
