How can Refund Retriever help you?
Many third party negotiators (3PN) claim that their expertise lies in special analytical tools. At Refund Retriever, those same tools and reports are provided for you free of charge. Let’s discuss a few.
In the previous blog post, we stressed how important it is to know your shipping data. Do not go into a contract negotiation talk with a carrier representative who knows your company’s shipping data better than you do. Preparation is key, and the information you need is at your fingertips with RR analytical tools. Our shipping analysis reports can give you easy access to information such as zone/service and zone/weight summaries, cost per pound for all packages per each service, and services and discount summaries – just to name a few.
Let’s talk specifics of carrier reliability. You should review your carrier’s performance as you would an employee’s performance – after all you are paying them to provide a service to you. RR provides you with an overall carrier reliability report that shows the number and percentage of address corrections, duplicate charges, late package deliveries, residential deliveries, and how many delivery charges were voided due to non-shipment. Think of this as your carrier’s report card. Obviously the lower the number here, the more confidence you should have in your current shipping carrier. However, you may notice an area (or areas) of concern that need to be discussed with your carrier rep. Have logistics within your company changed which resulted in delivery problems? Or, are you seeing repeated statistics indicating the service you are receiving is not up to par?
The next report I want to highlight is the Services and Discount Summary report. This report shows basic discounts for each service used (you can specify accounts and date ranges). Here, you can see the total dollar amount discounted along with the discount percentage by carrier and service. Now here is where RR really stands above the crowd: You may be feeling pretty good about your rates at this point (or, maybe you’re feeling extremely frustrated!). Seeing your information in reports is one thing, but how do you compare to other companies shipping at the same volume? Wouldn’t you like to know your savings relative to others?
Enter: Benchmarking. This is our most exciting tool. The benchmark report displays data on a per-service basis allowing you to compare your savings to our other customers with similar shipping volumes. You may notice that you have a higher-than-average discount on some services and perhaps a lower discount on others.
These are just a few reports RR provides to help you make smarter decisions about your shipping needs along with preparing you for contract talks with your carrier representative. Of course, RR is not a third party negotiator; however, we provide you with the tools you need to negotiate contracts yourself with confidence. And, by the way, it’s free.
What is next?
*Contract Negotiations for Small Parcel Shipping – Is This Something My Business Should Do?
*How Refund Retriever analytical tools can assist you in negotiations
Still to come…
*Benchmarking – What is it? What can you learn from it? How do I use it?
*What types of service fees and charges are negotiable?
*How to put together Request for Proposals (RFPs)
Stay tuned!
