At Twill we are always working hard to deliver for our clients around the world. The shipping industry relies on thousands of different people doing many different jobs and each person and job is important in the chain – without one, none of the others can succeed. This couldn’t be more true than when it comes to our Customer Care team – they keep our entire operation ticking.
So how do they do it? We recently spoke to Javier Pedrajas from our Import Customer Care team about his day-to-day working. This week we spoke to Fitria Lestari who works in our Export Customer Care team in Indonesia to see how her working day compares:
7:30am – Arriving & carrying out checks
“I tend to arrive at the Twill office at around 7:30am each morning – so it’s an early start, but I quickly feel ready for the day and ready to help our customers with their export journeys, queries and everything in between!
“The first thing I do after settling down is to log-in to the Twill platform and check on the various shipments that are already on their journey and those bookings that have been made since I was last in the office. In the export team we work particularly closely with shippers and suppliers – so our relationship with them is really important.
“Given that we have worked with some of them a number of times, they have come to know us well – but there is always the chance that a new shipper or supplier will be working with us for the first time, so I try and approach them all the same way and help make their booking as simple and smooth as I can.”
11am – Idea generation & checking workload
“After I’ve made sure our customers are happy and any immediate issues have been resolved early in the morning, it’s then time for me to get together with my colleagues to discuss our workload and spot any pressures some of us may be under. At Twill we understand that we have offices in a number of countries and each of those countries might have their own processes and way of doing things (not to mention time differences!), so while we have a global Customer Care Huddle – more on this later – we often gather together internally within our own offices to catch up on workload.
“Before lunch, we will have our idea generation meeting – which is a really unique and exciting opportunity provided by Twill as part of our job. Held once a week, the idea generation meeting is our chance as the customer care team, to feedback any issues we have spotted with the Twill platform, or even better, input to any new improvements or changes we have spotted that could be made. Sometimes these changes come through conversations with shippers and suppliers – which means they feel as though they are being heard – and for us it shows that the leadership at Twill know that we can provide interesting insights as the people who work with the platform every day.”
2pm – Helping our customers
“After a break for lunch, I get back down to the day’s tasks. That will sometimes involve picking up new enquiries, confirming new bookings or generally liaising with our customers. It could also be reviewing and uploading documents like the Bill of Lading – which will be crucial for cargo to complete the various steps on its journey through ports and customs.
“We have in the past communicated with our customers via telephone or email – and this is still the case sometimes, especially when we need to provide an urgent update. However, at Twill we have technology on our side and we are continuing to push towards a more digitised world in which we can unburden our customers with unnecessary emails and calls. If I can provide our customer with a smooth and hassle-free service then that is great for our relationship with them. As we expand to new countries and add new features to our platform these relationships will really be important so I always take special care in these conversations.”
4pm – Customer Care Huddle
“As it is near the end of the day I will have dealt with a host of customers and hopefully helped them all in some way, big or small. It is around this time in the day that we have the ‘Customer Care Huddle’ which is when all the different Customer Care teams around the world gather to discuss their workload, any issues they have and it is generally a good way to ensure everyone feels part of a global team.
“We hold these three times a week and due to time differences they offer different opportunities for each country – for example in the Netherlands the meeting occurs in their morning, whereas for us it is at the end of the day, so where they are looking ahead it is more of an opportunity for us reflect on our recent work and perhaps give them a heads-up on any issues if necessary.”
5:30pm – End of the day
“I head home around 5:30pm after what has been a busy day. If I have helped my customers in their journey then it will have been a successful day and I can look ahead to providing that same level of service tomorrow!”
-Fitria Lestari, Twill Customer Care