Getting the basics right expands Safmarine's 'fan' base

Sustainable profitability are more than buzz words. They are possibly the best solution for business scalded and still reeling from the after-effects of the global economic meltdown of 2009. As the market place remains turbulent and forecasters hesitant in their predictions, the world of containerisation, heavily dependent on global supply and demand, probably needs to find sustainable profitability more than anyone, says Safmarine global head of customer experience & brand, Russell Gillespie. “Finding a way to operate in such a way that we, as a smaller brand, can be protected from the supply and demand commodity scales remains a key target for us even though we have made money every year in the past 12 years bar two,” he says. The company failed to make a profit in 2009, as did other businesses globally, while in 2011, its second loss year, a valuable lesson was learnt. “We chased volumes too much and it affected our profitability negatively. We have since refocused and believe there are two angles to remaining profitable – the first is to get one’s customer mix right and the second, to drive customer loyalty.” According to Gillespie, optimising who and what is on board their vessels and focusing on achieving higher levels of customer loyalty provides more protection from the economic swings. “Customer loyalty is something to which we are paying particular attention and we have embraced the Net Promoter system,” he says. “This system is globally applied by many businesses and effectively measures customer loyalty.” Off a simple set of questions, businesses can track how likely a customer is to recommend a business. This is crucial information because once customers start making referrals you have their loyalty as they are staking themselves on it. Generating a score that can be benchmarked against other companies, this system allows businesses to see where they stand in terms of customer loyalty. “We are taking a very in-depth look at what drives our customers to recommend Safmarine and we have found that it comes down to getting the basics of shipping right – all the time,” says Gillespie. “When we get the basics right, only then do we have the ‘permission’ to create fans. And to ensure we have sustainable profitability we have to build as big a fan base as possible.” He maintains that the level and size of the Safmarine fan club has increased tremendously in recent years, something that is supported by the fact that their business has grown. “We are proving the science in a way,” he says. “To make it all work one has to equip employees all the time with the necessary means to deliver on the basics – such as accurate documentation, equipment availability etcetera – and to do the basics well. “As an industry we are not good at consistently getting these basics right, so it is important for Safmarine to keep pushing the boundaries and finding ways of improving our service delivery." CAPTION Russell Gillespie … measuring customer loyalty.