Unishippers Invests $6 Million in Customer Relationships

Looking to provide a consistently higher service experience for its customers, to increase customer retention, to ensure customer satisfaction, and to grow profits as a result, in 2002 shipping company Unishippers launched its UONE initiative. Unishippers implemented Siebel Systems' Siebel Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Siebel Analytics hosted by IBM to support UONE. Unishippers, with 283 franchises that service approximately 50,000 customers and produce more than $250 million in annual revenues, invested about $6 million in its CRM system. UONE helps Unishippers' customers manage their cash flow better by billing them according to their needs. It allows shipping consultants to analyze recent trends for each of Unishippers' customers, to find better solutions to their individual shipping requirements. And UONE gives the staff immediate access to specific customer information. For example, if a customer uses Unishippers for shipping express services, but not for ground freight, UONE can quickly determine the time-and-money savings of consolidating all of that customer's shipping needs. "By implementing UONE, we've been able to create more consistent processes so all of our customers receive an even higher level of assistance than they have in the past," says Debbie Brown, communications program manager. "The comment so far has been pretty positive. [Everyone in the company] sees the potential." One reason Unishippers chose Siebel PRM and Siebel Analytics was to give its customers the power to track their packages and manage their accounts directly from the Unishippers Web site, regardless of the carrier used. "The beauty of this system is that it enables us to provide truly automated shipping to our customers," says Kevin Lathrop, executive vice president and CIO of Unishippers. According to Lathrop, the PRM and analytics tools also will enable Unishippers to improve its business processes, work more effectively with partners, and "provide us with a more comprehensive understanding of our customers' needs." The Payoff UONE allows Unishippers to

help customers manage their cash flow better by billing them according to their needs;

guide shipping consultants in analyzing recent shipping trends for each of its customers, to find better solutions to their individual shipping requirements;

give its staff immediate access to specific customer information.