Running a trucking business is not all fun and games; sometimes, it can even feel like the complete opposite, and you might even be wondering what you can do to make money in other industries. This is a shame, and although turning your back on your business might actually sound quite appealing at times, you probably shouldn’t give in. You should try and power through, persevere, and conquer, and if that’s the path you’d rather take – here are some ways you can do that.
Why is it so difficult to find shipping work?
This, as you know, is so much easier said than done. Firstly, you need to find the work. Secondly, you need to find a way to keep your customers coming back for more, and as you would expect, this is more difficult for trucking businesses.
With retail companies, for instance, especially the ones that sell cosmetic or food-based products that have a shorter lifespan, their customers will return regularly to top up their purchases. With trucking businesses, you have to rely on the fact that at least one person, somewhere, needs something shipped. You also have to rely on the fact that they are going to invest in your business and not somewhere else.
What can you do to find this work and make sure it stays with you?
Among other things, this is one of the greater frustrations of having a trucking business, so here is how you can push that business into the spotlight and get your brand more widely recognized as a reliable and popular shipping company.
#1 Look for extra work
This sounds easy enough, and if you look in the right places, it is. If you are finding yourself on the wrong end of busy and this month is already not looking all too great, you might want to look into the shipping work available on load boards, and you can try it now or look when you have more time.
No matter what you specialize in (if you specialize in anything at all), using these load boards can help you find truck loads near you and pays too. This can help you if you are only doing a couple of trips a month instead of anything weekly, which you might feel is preferable.
#2 Make sure that your customer service is highly amiable
Customers expect a good all-around experience. This can be a vital way to make them think of your business when it comes to shipping their items, whether they are a small business or are shipping birthday gifts to their loved ones across the States. You might even find that this is beneficial for you when it comes to them recommending your business to others, too, meaning that you might even be able to pick up bigger loads in an area due to having more work available to you. Here is how you might improve your customer service:
- Work on your communication with clients
Keep communication free-flowing. ETAs (Estimated Time of Arrival) can be a great way to keep your business and your customer close. Most delivery businesses do this to help customers work around their package’s arrival time, and it can be really important to make sure that customers are satisfied with what the business offers.
- Be friendly with customers
Make sure that you are friendly if meeting the client face to face. This can help you have a friendly ‘face’ to your business which can help you improve customer relations.
- Take care of your vehicles
Keep your machinery well maintained. This can be an important part of a customer’s interaction with your business. It won’t be very good if your truck breaks down while holding a package of theirs, and someone has to miss out on a present (or something for their course that they needed last minute) because you haven’t checked the health of your vehicle in a while.
What this does for your business:
These are the kinds of things that keep your customers coming back for more. Reliability, excellent service, and communication are what make a trucking business truly amazing, and an amazing trucking business gets talked about.
#3 Improve your brand reach
This one can be a difficult hurdle to get over, and it can be stressful to get your head around. However, there are some ways that can help you get your brand name ‘out there’.
- Work on your business’s website
Working on your business’s website is a really important way to increase the profile of your business. You need to make sure that you are investing in website maintenance to make sure that your website is easy and intuitive to use. If it is laggy and slow, people won’t take it seriously and will just click away, looking elsewhere. Another knock-on benefit is that keeping everything updated will also help with your website’s overall security. You could also invest in SEO to help you get higher on results pages for relevant search terms.
- Make sure that you are wearing custom swag
Wearing a snapback with your business’s logo on it or a shirt can make your brand more memorable to your customers. Delivering their packages with a friendly face, as mentioned above, can help you make sure that your brand logo is associated with good service. It is a good little trick to use and can come in useful for first-time customers.
- Advertise on your vehicle
Advertising your business on your vehicle can be important to companies. Not only will you be able to catch the eye of other people on the road, but it can also be a little puzzling to some people if an unmarked truck pulls up outside their house and delivers a package. Having your logo on your vehicle helps your customers know what is happening, and it can help you and your employees when it comes to driving more professionally on the road, as people will associate how you drive with your business, which is important to some people.
- Invest in social media
Investing in your business’s social media accounts can be a good way to help you find a good customer base for your business. You can go one of two routes in your business’s social media campaign:
- Optimization. Get your content out there and hope that someone who needs your services sees your posts. This can be trends, “for you” tags, etc.
- Or targeting. Targeting means that you are picking out your target audience and selling your business where they are most likely to see it. This is using niche tags and making your business page all about elements of your company.
To sum it all up
When it comes to getting your trucking business in the spotlight, you are going to have to make sure that you get some things right:
- You should be investing in social media and your business’s website to help you get the most out of your online presence that you can.
- Working on your customer service, so think about your communication and how you present yourself to clients.
- And making sure you are finding work wherever you can to make sure that you can take care of your business properly.
By doing these things, you can help your trucking business get the attention that it deserves.
