ThoughtSpot - The Digittori Blog

Operating a world-class port is a continuous process – the activity never stops. 

Businesses and travelers worldwide rely on port operations for accurate information about when a cruise ship or cargo vessel is estimated to arrive at a port—whether it is shipments containing goods or travelers with complex itineraries. 

Port operators are increasingly adopting smart technology powered by AI and ML to replace time-consuming manual port operations and move to digital port operations.

A smart port is more efficient and economically viable — handling higher tonnage while offering competitive rates. 

Technology for smarter port operations

Port efficiency is critical for competitiveness. Operators rely on frequently updated data to optimize time and revenue. And AI and automation are helping them to transform their operations into smart initiatives that use data to impact efficiency.

Similarly, port operators can also intelligently leverage customer data to maximize profitability and achieve business growth.

Every port customer engages with multiple agencies from when they book an order with a port to the time they finally clear their goods through it. They talk to port sales teams for order placement and purchase orders and engage with operations over the Bill of Lading. In addition, they interact with customs authorities and police agents until their shipment is cleared through the port.

Customer data for port operators

Port operators and logistics partners must constantly manage and convert leads to customers through multiple channels. They communicate with customers through their official website, port community systems, social media pages, intranet, or direct sales conversations. But tracking and monitoring customer data across an omnichannel environment can be challenging and sometimes even chaotic.

A customer record is of prime importance to businesses of all kinds. But for port operators, it is particularly transformative as it brings together data from across the customer lifecycle — it goes far beyond the information that can be gleaned from an ERP or a TOS system. 

Why customer centricity is crucial for port operators

Customer centricity is critical for port operations. But few ports currently give the CRM the status it deserves in a port environment. For port operations, a CRM can function as a single source of truth - an overarching record system that can feed real-time status updates to different departments across the port ecosystem. As per IBM, if implemented right, a CRM can deliver over 245% ROI. 

Change management is a long and tedious process. For port operations, it is critical that any changes to the tech landscape must be non-disruptive. A CRM can be implemented and integrated without disrupting existing software and tech stacks. 

HubSpot's CRM platform leverages powerful automation to manage leads, qualify and convert prospects, close deals, and leverage customer-centric information for operations - all from a single trusted source of truth. 

Gartner has positioned the HubSpot CRM platform as a Leader in the 2022 Magic Quadrant for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms for its offering, Marketing Hub.  HubSpot's Operations Hub syncs data from disparate apps in your IT landscape with the CRM. It can also clean customer data and automate processes as well.   

Want to learn more about how HubSpot's CRM platform can help port operators to leverage customer-centric data? Connect with us here. 

How a CRM helps port operators and logistics providers to scale and achieve profitability

Are you struggling with interoperability or working with data in siloes? 

Data silos — that is, data in various disparate applications in your IT landscape may be costing your organization dearly. They degrade your organization's data quality and negatively affect data integrity.

• You need an automated CRM platform that supports disparate marketing & sales applications and diverse functions across operations and logistics. A CRM helps monitor customer behavior throughout the customer journey. Leverage CRM functionality to nurture leads, monitor customer lifetime value (CLV), and for after-sales customer support.
• A centralized CRM platform makes data interoperable between systems. An automated CRM can extract, validate, and update information throughout the customer journey. 

Unified customer records help break down data silos and improve the customer journey experience in meaningful ways. 

Do you lack a single source of truth for customer-centric information?

Committing to a customer-centric view helps to realign existing processes and allows the company to deliver improved experiences at both levels, EX (employee experience) and CX (customer experience). 

For example, billing and credit operations might see themselves as removed from frontline delivery — but for a customer, isolated or non-aligned experiences across commercial and operational teams can create negative CX.

Enabling cross-functional collaboration is key for ports that are looking to scale operations and improve profitability. But how do you maintain a single source of truth for ALL customer-related data from disparate applications or functions - marketing, sales, finance, customer support, yard operations, resource planning, and more?

Look at all data points from the customer lifecycle viewpoint. 

The HubSpot CRM platform produces a single integrated record at the customer or company level, lets them assess the situation, and enables effective decision-making across organizational hierarchies.

It gives decision-makers a 360-degree view of customer behavior and unveils insights that increase customer retention and enhance customer experience. Per a report by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, keeping an existing customer is 6 or 7 times cheaper than getting a new one.

Customer-centric data can be used to optimize yard operations and mine new opportunities.  Most importantly, the HubSpot CRM platform rollout is a largely non-disruptive upgrade that can potentially reduce the cost of inducing change and standardize customer-centric information that is generated or updated by different departments.

An Intuitive CRM UX that can be federated across the enterprise 

Adopting a CRM platform with an intuitive UX is your answer to scaling efficiently. HubSpot's CRM has an intuitive UX that improves your team's efficiency and helps manage customer journeys.

• Strategically consolidate your data from existing apps in your IT landscape and achieve significant reductions in the total cost of ownership.
• Reduce the time and effort your team expends in extracting, qualifying, and reporting data acquired from disparate sources, including social media, intranets, and operational systems like an ERP or TOS.
• Optimize your operational costs and improve visibility across transactions for existing customers and potential new MTs that are expected in the coming month or quarter. Easily create customer visibility across transactions.

📌 ADAPT - A CRM platform should be customizable without compromising data security and quality. Interoperable data produces richer insights.

📌 ALIGN – A CRM system that can pull data from other functional systems allows businesses to view the entire customer lifecycle and interactions with various departments within the company. 

📌 ADOPT - A CRM platform should enable customer-centric records of all activities, updated automatically instead of manual data entry or manual reports from each department or function.

Digittori: Your partner in implementing HubSpot's automated CRM platform

Digittori's industry consultants are at hand to discuss your ideas about the need for customer-centricity in port operations.

Let's discuss how a customer lifecycle view helps port operators get insights about improving the customer experience with rich, enterprise-wide customer records management.

We can help you adopt HubSpot's best-in-class CRM platform that is carefully crafted to mitigate your operational risks and help you build a single unified customer records management system. 

Our CRM experts work closely with you to understand your current challenges and customize the CRM platform to record customer-centric information in a way that optimizes operations, reduces costs, enhances customer experience, and curbs customer attrition.

Schedule a 30-minute consultative call with us to discuss the award-winning HubSpot CRM platform and how port operators can leverage its functionality to achieve operational efficiencies.