‘Customers tend to help themselves for routine info’

CUSTOMERS GENERALLY prefer to help themselves for routine tasks like checking schedules, rates and cargo status, says Safmarine’s eBusiness executive Jan van Dooren, “and the line’s personalised interface MySaf enables them to do this. “This has freed up our sales staff so that they have more time to help clients with specialised requirements.” Giving customers a one-stop overview of their previous bookings with Safmarine – whether made offline or online – is one of the line’s e-business offerings. Previous bookings can be retrieved online and saved as a template in the user’s ‘favourites’ menu. “This means that when booking a similar consignment only the relevant fields need to be updated with fresh information,” says Van Dooren. “Users have a fast way to check up on the progress of bookings – trace their submission and receipt, and secure confirmation.”