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Few managers ever think to walk out back to the rear of their facilities and ask to speak to their own truck drivers sitting and waiting in the shipping and receiving docks. Most managers would ask, “Why do that?” and then be immediately embarrassed when quickly reminded that these employees talk to their customers every day, sometimes more than the sales people.
Your drivers know your customers; they talk to them every day. Your drivers deliver goods going to and from those customers’ receiving docks and speak to their employees constantly. They speak with customer warehouse people and those plant personnel who technically know all of the good and bad aspects of your company’s products. This is why someone needs to share this dialog with your sales and marketing personnel starting with the next arriving semi-truck returning to your facility through your gate.
Ask your drivers questions about how your customers like your products. They hear and see a lot and what they know instinctively may hold insightful information about market like and dislike for your products. Drivers may be employees of the customer or may work for an independent company. No matter who the drivers work for, try to speak to them because they know a lot you do not.
Ask your drivers questions about daily issues even your sales people do not know. Politely ask them questions about how your product is moved, counted or unpackaged on the other end of the trip. You want to do this because there is no other person in your company that sees where your product goes once it leaves your parking lot. Drivers know things that are important to the selling process and to your sales department. Find out what they know if they are willing to talk.
Things to ask incoming drivers (company and 3rd party):
- Ask what is done with your product once it reaches the customer’s site?
- Do our products sit on the dock for long?
- Are our products taken to racks or handled by overhead cranes? Any problems?
- Are our products visually inspected?
- Are our products dropped or abused in any way that the buyer might not know about?
- Ask if the product is unwrapped or taken off the pallet or changed in any way once it is delivered.
- Ask if the customer’s quality control department comes and tests the product right away?
- Does the customer test count the items on the pallets that were sent?
- Is the company driver held up for any reason before signing off on the packing lists?
- Does the customer just sign the paperwork without checking the contents or any of the pallets or boxes?
- Do the customer’s QC inspectors come to check the delivered load?
- Does the customer physically open the boxes and test count any of the items shipped?
- Does the customer have any problems opening our company’s packaging, pallet-wrap, containers, etc.?
- Does the customer make out a separate receiving ticket completely different from packing list that your firm sent with the goods?
- You want to know if the expensive packaging you had designed is torn off and discarded once your product arrives at the customer’s door. Are we over-packaging our product? This would tell you to completely relook at packaging that is currently overbought and unnecessary.
- You want to know if testing occurs immediately or if this is most likely done at a later date. You want to know what the procedure is and if there is anything about your product that creates problems for handling by the customers’ employees (a potential irritating problem that needs to be eliminated before they squawk too much to the buyer).
- You want to know if your product poses any unnecessary problems for the customer. If the driver delivers to this customer frequently, ask him what other problems occur at the loading dock of this customer.
- What are the main problems that other competing vendors have? We want to know the competition’s weakness.
- Is this customer’ dock a difficult place to unload?
- Does this customer seem organized or sloppy and unsupervised?
- Did the customer ever comment about what is wrong with our company’s products?
- What else could our company do to improve the product, packaging, packing list information (what info is missing?)?
