June 18, 2025 • 23 mins
TMSA’s On the Move Podcast – Featuring Jasmine Martin
In this episode of TMSA On the Move, we sit down with Jasmine Martin, Vice President of Customer Success at Fortune Logistics, to explore how her commitment to people, process, and partnership has powered her career and leadership style. With a varied career in transportation, logistics, and supply chain operations, Jasmine brings a unique passion for operational excellence, customer advocacy, and team empowerment.
Jasmine will share how she approaches customer success in an industry where strong relationships are everything.
Check out the Transportation Sales and Marketing Association (TMSA) website or engage with us on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello everyone and welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,executive Director of the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and sales
professionals in transportationand logistics, and today on the
(00:43):
show I'm excited to have JasmineMartin, vice President of
Customer Success at FortuneLogistics.
How are you doing today?
Doing great, wonderful, sohappy to have you on the show
and to talk to you about allthings.
So you've been in this industryfor years, but in a few various
(01:03):
roles and companies.
So I would love if you kind ofwalk us through your career
journey and what led you to yourcurrent role at Fortune
Logistics.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sounds good.
Yeah, so I've been intransportation for about 15
years, which kind of stillsurprises me when I think about
it.
It started immediately after Igraduated college.
After I graduated college, Iwas looking to see find a job
back home and my aunt worked forSchwann's and they had a
freight payment position open.
So I went and applied and itwas actually just a temp
(01:35):
position because they weretrying to get new systems and
trying to figure all of that out.
So then I worked there forabout two and a half years, I
think, and then my now husbandgot a job out in the other side
of the state, so I decided tomove out there and follow him
(01:55):
and I worked at Coca-Cola for afew years and that ranged
anywhere from working in theirvault, which means all of the
money that you collect fromvending machines, and all of
that.
It was my job to count all ofthat and then record how much
each machine had brought backyeah, it's real fun and then
(02:18):
worked up to accounts receivable, working with some of their
bigger customers, like Walmartand that kind of stuff, and then
that slowly transitioned my wayinto routing for them, which.
So when you go and you thinkabout Coca Cola.
And you think about the smallertrucks that go and deliver to,
like the grocery stores, the gasstations, like your mom and pop
(02:39):
shops.
Well, my job was to go androute them.
So I would go and I would say,okay, truck number XYZ, you're
going to go to this customerMondays, wednesdays and Fridays
at this time and then plan itfor all locations across the
United States.
So that was fun, son.
(03:06):
And then at that point we hadour son and decided we wanted to
be closer to family because itwas a little difficult.
So we moved back and I wasalways told that when I moved
back to town, schwans would takeme back, and so I immediately
emailed them and said, hey, I'mcoming back to town, do you have
something for me?
And they said, yep, we'll takeyou.
So went back with them forabout oh man, four years ish,
(03:29):
something like that and did afew different things.
Over there was a logisticstechnician where you go and you
book the freight on carriers andall of that.
And then I focused on carrierperformance so making sure
people are picking up on time,delivering on time, taking their
awarded freight that they saythey're going to take, and then
(03:50):
worked up into like a managerrole, so overseeing that, and
then, unfortunately, my husbandgot a new job.
Yes, we move a lot.
I'm well aware and we moved toSioux Falls.
So then I was out there lookingfor a job and I saw that
Fortune Logistics, who wasactually one of our customers or
carriers at the time.
(04:11):
I said, hey, I am moving.
And I actually applied for anappointments position because
that was the only thing thatthey had open and they kind of
all talked about yeah, I thinkyou're a little overqualified
for this position.
I was like, well, just a littlebit.
So then I they created acustomer success program and so
(04:31):
since I've been there, I've beenthe one who's been developing
it and leading it and all thatfun stuff, and I've been here
for three years.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
In September, I love that journey all over the place,
many different moves, manydifferent sides of the business,
which I think really helps,especially when you're doing
things like customer success.
So that's awesome, and termslike customer success and
customer experience get thrownaround a lot.
I'm curious what they mean toyou, someone who actually works
(05:02):
in it day in and day out to yousomeone who actually works in it
day in and day out.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, so the big thing when we started customer
success is they sat me down andthey're like when you were at a
customer, what was the thingsthat you wanted to make sure
everyone gave you?
So I went through the list ofthe different things that I
wanted to make sure we had andthen we that, with doing those
different steps, that was goingto make it so we're the most
successful with our customers.
So we wanted we see them asrelationships.
(05:31):
We want the best as we can.
In order for those to be good,they're going to have to be
successful.
So we just that's what weconsider it.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And who or what departments kind of go into that
overall success of customersuccess.
Like you have your team butthere are there multiple roles
that interact with the customers.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yep, so we have our appointments team.
They're the ones who set allthe appointments.
They interact with ourcustomers and their reps because
if they need date changes oranything like that, our brokers
do interact a little bit withcustomers, but that's usually
either if we have an issue afterhours or on the weekends or
anything like that.
(06:15):
But for the most part I do mostof the communications with all
of our customers.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And what are some of the biggest challenges that
you're seeing in customerrelationships today?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
The biggest thing that I am seeing is a lot of
people are wanting to shift moreto being asset heavy again,
where they had gone away fromthat over the COVID years,
because at that point you justwanted someone to pick your
stuff up.
You just wanted someone to pickyour stuff up.
So now everyone's kind ofshifting back towards that.
But at the same time everyonesays brokers are bad but they do
(06:52):
have a good place in theindustry because you can't.
So some of our customers havenot the best locations to ship
out of and they have a lot offreight that ships out of that
location.
So I can't go and say, hey, Ineed a load from Kansas to
Georgia and I'm going to havethree this week, I'm going to
(07:14):
have 16 next week, I'm going tohave 18 next week where it's
just never consistent whichbrokers are able to secure the
capacities ups and downs andthat kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So yeah, and how do you and your role kind of help
your teams navigate thosechallenges?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
A lot of times I think about when I was sitting
back in my seat, how would Iwant people to interact with me,
how would I want people tocommunicate with me?
And so it's mainly just beingupfront with everything that you
have and like all of yourissues and just making sure that
(07:55):
they don't find things outbefore you find things out.
Really, communication is thebiggest part.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Absolutely.
Communication is so important.
Making sure people know what'sgoing on, how to handle it, how
to move forward those things aregreat.
And you work with your ops,sales and marketing teams to
align the strategy, which Ithink is really, really
important, especially when we'retalking about things like
communication, making sure thatmessaging, that branding's all
aligned.
But I was looking on yourLinkedIn and stuff.
(08:26):
This really helps inform yourcustomers as well, and you guys
have initiatives like TightCapacity, tuesday and Wednesday
Weather Watch.
So can you tell me a little bitmore about these special
initiatives?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yes, Yep, so we recently just started our
marketing department at thebeginning of this year.
So we are going through andjust trying to find different
things that we thought customersor even prospects would be
interested in.
And we know you always have thebig things that are going to
(08:59):
cause issues for shippers.
So weather is one big thing, sowe like to go and provide hey,
there's a snowstorm coming upnext week, or hey, there's
tornadoes here, and then there'salso tight capacity which will
also affect them, because itmeans hey, if you got a bunch of
stuff shipping out ofCalifornia in the next how many
weeks it might be a little tightwith the boats coming in.
(09:21):
So it's just different waysthat we could go and express
things that would be useful toour customers.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And what role do you think internal communication,
cross-team collaboration play insuccessful logistics operations
?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I would have to say that it really did.
So the biggest thing for us iswe have to make sure that our
brokers are communicating withour appointments team, who are
communicating with me, so weknow if, hey, we set something
that doesn't have enough transittime, you need to fix this.
Or, hey, like this doesn't makesense, can you reach out to the
customer and find out whythey're doing stops X, y and Z
(10:07):
in this order, which it shouldbe this order?
So, really, in order foreverything to run smoothly, you
have to have good communicationbetween all sides, and I can't
go and change a date onsomething and just not tell the
rest of my team oh, hey, like,we changed the state, they just
have to magically find out aboutit.
So communication solves a lotof problems and do you think so?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
you said that you started your marketing team
earlier this year.
Is having that team there, doesthat help with that internal
communication, making surethings are aligned, or is that a
different department that helpswith that?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
That's a different department.
Our appointments team deal alot more with all the
communication.
Yep, I mean our marketing teamdoes do stuff, but it's more of
the based on the tight capacityTuesday out to our customers and
update different things onLinkedIn or different things
that go on within the industryand do you find that like that
appointments team that istalking to the marketing team,
(11:05):
to making to make sure that theyknow what to put out into the
world?
Is that communication helpfulto make sure it's kind of like
streamlined through everybody.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We actually do not do that.
Most of that stuff comes fromthe brokers, with the different
things that they're saying.
I just always like I feel likeat different companies they
different things, differentdepartments are aligned,
different communications.
I think whatever works for thecompany is what's important as
long as it's working, as long aswe're making sure that those
communications, whoever it is um, because I do think sometimes
people aren't talking to thebrokers or whatever um, yeah,
(11:43):
like, what is your capacity andis your marketing highlighting
the places you have capacityversus the ones that you don't?
And because that type ofmisalignment is bad, because
then we're promoting things wecan't actually do and we don't
want that at all.
So I just like hearing aboutinternal structures and how to
set that up, especially when amarketing department is new.
(12:03):
How does that all kind of fittogether?
What shifts or trends in theindustry right now are you
keeping a close?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
eye on.
I'd say the newest one that weare doing is a lot of stuff with
API.
So we're doing a lot of lookinginto automated bidding on spot
markets and automated rates intorouting guides and we do that
side.
But then we also do some AI.
We have a little Alex that wecall him that goes, scans emails
(12:36):
with part of the team and goesthrough and we'll try to book
freight that way so the repsdon't have to deal with so many
different emails.
So pretty much just yourautomation of things is the
biggest thing that we'refocusing on, which I think
everybody at this point is kindof focusing on.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So I like that you mentioned utilizing AI, but in a
way that like is going throughemails, doing checking that kind
of stuff.
How do you think that companiescan better balance using
technology and human connection,especially in these customer
facing roles?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
For me that's when I kind of struggle with, because
to me I don't think you can getas emotional with someone, with
the emotional connection, whereI don't think a bot is going to
go and ask your customer um hey,how many kids do you have so
you can get to know them on abetter um level.
(13:35):
I mean, you're, you can gethigh level stuff, but it won't
have the true customer successstuff that I guess I look for in
my team.
I want everything to beextremely personable and you
know when someone's birthday isso you can wish them a happy
birthday.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I don't think you utilizing that tech, utilizing
AI, to do the admin stuff, sothat you can get to that, so
that your teams can focus onthat human piece.
If we can take away like themonotonous piece of like making
sure all the information is upto date, how can we do that part
(14:17):
quicker?
How can we get there faster?
How can we make sure, once wehave that information, that it's
tracked in the system so peopleknow?
So that way, like if yourcustomer is calling and it is
their birthday, but their normalperson isn't there, we can
still wish them a happy birthday, because we're all looking at
the page that says that.
I think that's where we canreally utilize it, and I almost
feel like sometimes peopleforget that piece and they just
(14:40):
think about efficiency butthey're forgetting about the
humanity of it.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, I would say, I definitely did not think about
that part, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I feel like it's how can we?
You know, technology can makeus move faster, move more
efficient, but how can we dothat by keeping our humanity at
the same time?
Because I do.
I mean, we talk a lot about,especially on the marketing and
sales side of things.
People care about people.
People don't care about yourlogo, they care about the people
(15:11):
behind the logo.
So how can we utilize them more, utilize those relationships
more, but still be moreefficient by utilizing tech?
And so I feel like that's whatI'm interested to see, where we
go.
Or, like I love I nerd out aboutlike sentiment analysis, like
analyzing the sentiment of yourcustomers when they call in,
because then you know, oh, thisperson's happy, so like let's be
happy with them.
(15:31):
Or, oh, no, this person's nothappy, let's make sure we talk
in soft, calm tones, like youknow.
But I feel like that kind ofstuff is cool because then
you're able to better match thatwith your empathy, with your
humanity, um, and that wewouldn't have that if it wasn't
for the technology.
So that's where I think thingsare cool and where we can
(15:52):
utilize it, switching gears alittle bit, um.
So last week you attended thetmsa elevate conference for the
first time, which is reallyexciting.
Um, I think we are obviouslyprimarily sales and marketing
the tmsa elevate conference forthe first time, which was really
exciting.
Um, I think we are obviouslyprimarily sales and marketing as
tmsa states.
But when we met at women intrucking last year I was like I
think this could be a great fitbecause we talked about like
what your role is and how it'sevolving and, um, how you were
(16:14):
growing a marketing departmentcoming up in the the months and
things like that.
We're definitely seeing morecustomer experience success
teams coming into theassociation, coming to
conference.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So I'm curious what your perspective was, what drew
you to conference besides metexting you asking if you were
coming, um, but what you learnedand how you felt about it yeah,
no, I immediately when I gotback, I told, um, my boss, I'm
like, hey, like I'm prettycertain this is the most notes
I've ever taken at a conferencethat I've been to.
Like, I've been to a lot ofconferences but this is the most
(16:46):
that I actually got stuff thatwere relatable and it wasn't
high level, like industry stuff.
Yes, there was stuff thattalked about the industry, but
it wasn't just.
That's not all it was, and soto me, the biggest thing that I
think that it brought up for meis how much more that was a
(17:09):
really bad phrase we need tocombine our sales, marketing and
customer success team comparedto how we currently have it
built.
It made me think of differentthings that I hadn't thought
about before and some thingsthat we can change on our side
to make things more efficient.
I'd say communication makingsure everyone is relaying the
(17:32):
same message is something thatwe've struggled with.
So seeing all the differentpeople talk about how important
that was it made me think thatwe need to fix that stuff on our
side.
And, yeah, it just overall.
It gave me a lot of differentthings to think about, from the
marketing perspective to thedifferent things that we can try
out to see if I get surname outthere more.
(17:54):
Yeah, there was just so manythings.
I had a call earlier today andI was going over and with my
boss too.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Well, I love that and I love getting the different
perspectives.
I know we talked a little bitafter conference when I was on
the bat tour.
We were texting but topics, butalso make that.
And that was like one of theattendees came up to me.
(18:24):
They're like we see what you'redoing here, like you're talking
about the topics that theindustry is dealing with, but
you are putting a sales andmarketing spin on it, like why
is it important in relating itto those teams in a way that
they may not have processedbefore, and like those are the
comments that like always warmmy heart because, yes, that is
in fact what we are trying to do.
And just like you said,alignment like last year I did
(18:47):
quite a few speaking topics onthe alignment of these teams and
I remember doing it at oneconference and I just asked
people from the audience to comesit on stage.
Like you don't have to doanything, promise, all you have
to do is sit in thesecomfortable chairs behind me.
I'm like I need four people.
I should do that on camera.
Four people and two people cameup and I'm like, well, perfect,
sales and marketing is here.
(19:08):
Customer support and billingdidn't show up to the
conversation.
This is what we're kind of usedto and so I used that to.
Like that, like people notwanting to stand up to the point
, but it like kind of emphasizedit.
Yeah, you're not going to havea unified message, you're not
going to have that same quality,that same customer support,
that same customer experience ifall those departments aren't
communicating.
(19:28):
So I love that that was one ofyour takeaways, because I think
it is really important andsomething that we try to
highlight at conference, and howto kind of take those steps to
get there.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, that was one of the biggest things too is you
go over all of the differentthings that people may struggle
with or think about, but then,at the same time, you're giving
multiple options for solutions.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yes, I have a minute.
Mommy is recording a podcastright now.
What do you need?
Yes, that's fine, cool, okay,continue on.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I have three boys.
I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
He was also at Elevate, but then he saw the
opening and then I was like youcan go on your way, you don't
need to learn about sales andmarketing and customer support
alignment quite yet.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I don't know.
My kids probably would have satthrough there.
They are little salesmen, butit doesn't help that their dad
works in sales either, sothey're just kind of that's what
they're going to get.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yes, yes, but I'm glad that that was like part of
your takeaway is how to do that,and I do, like I remember when
I told you hey, I would love foryou to come on the show Like
you're a newer member of tmsa,you're getting involved in
things like that, but I do wantpeople to have these roles that
don't say sales or marketing.
Understand that there's stillvalue here, especially because
(20:49):
we're trying to.
You know you all have commonrevenue goals and you all want
the team to be successful andwant those messaging pieces to
come out.
So how do we do that?
So I was really excited for youto come, come to conference and
get value from it and then talkabout it.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yes, of course, I really, really enjoyed it, and I
think you jinxed me with goingto Denver.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
But we're going to go .
It's going to be great.
So thank you so much for comingon the show today, coming to
Elevate last week.
I do have one more question foryou.
It's the thing I ask much forcoming on the show today, coming
to elevate last week.
I do have one more question foryou.
It's the thing I ask everyonethat comes on the show and if
that's, if you could go back intime and advise a younger
version of yourself anythingpersonally or professionally,
(21:31):
when would you go back to andwhat would you say?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I would definitely go back to college and I would
tell myself to be moreadventurous and go out and do
more things, just meet morepeople, talk to more people, all
of that.
I was a little shy and didn'tgo out much.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Well, sometimes it takes us a little bit more time
to come out of our shells, but Ithink that's good, good advice.
Get out there, talk to peoplemore, expand your network, which
is all kind of what we do here.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
So I think that's great, great advice.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, for
being a TMSA member and ifanyone is interested in joining
us.
Next week we're talking toAngelica Brooks with Wemos.
Tmsa and Wemos are doing awebinar in August together where
we're talking about the wholeprocess of freight from the
ports through the pavement.
Which I'm really excited about,wemos is the women in maritime
(22:32):
operations, and so we're excitedto have a full conversation
around that and just to hearmore about that organization as
well.
Thank you for coming on theshow and I will see everybody
next time.
Thank you, thank you.
Hello everyone and welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,executive Director of the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and sales
professionals in transportationand logistics, and today on the
(00:43):
show I'm excited to have JasmineMartin, vice President of
Customer Success at FortuneLogistics.
How are you doing today?
Doing great, wonderful, sohappy to have you on the show
and to talk to you about allthings.
So you've been in this industryfor years, but in a few various
(01:03):
roles and companies.
So I would love if you kind ofwalk us through your career
journey and what led you to yourcurrent role at Fortune
Logistics.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sounds good.
Yeah, so I've been intransportation for about 15
years, which kind of stillsurprises me when I think about
it.
It started immediately after Igraduated college.
After I graduated college, Iwas looking to see find a job
back home and my aunt worked forSchwann's and they had a
freight payment position open.
So I went and applied and itwas actually just a temp
(01:35):
position because they weretrying to get new systems and
trying to figure all of that out.
So then I worked there forabout two and a half years, I
think, and then my now husbandgot a job out in the other side
of the state, so I decided tomove out there and follow him
(01:55):
and I worked at Coca-Cola for afew years and that ranged
anywhere from working in theirvault, which means all of the
money that you collect fromvending machines, and all of
that.
It was my job to count all ofthat and then record how much
each machine had brought backyeah, it's real fun and then
(02:18):
worked up to accounts receivable, working with some of their
bigger customers, like Walmartand that kind of stuff, and then
that slowly transitioned my wayinto routing for them, which.
So when you go and you thinkabout Coca Cola.
And you think about the smallertrucks that go and deliver to,
like the grocery stores, the gasstations, like your mom and pop
(02:39):
shops.
Well, my job was to go androute them.
So I would go and I would say,okay, truck number XYZ, you're
going to go to this customerMondays, wednesdays and Fridays
at this time and then plan itfor all locations across the
United States.
So that was fun, son.
(03:06):
And then at that point we hadour son and decided we wanted to
be closer to family because itwas a little difficult.
So we moved back and I wasalways told that when I moved
back to town, schwans would takeme back, and so I immediately
emailed them and said, hey, I'mcoming back to town, do you have
something for me?
And they said, yep, we'll takeyou.
So went back with them forabout oh man, four years ish,
(03:29):
something like that and did afew different things.
Over there was a logisticstechnician where you go and you
book the freight on carriers andall of that.
And then I focused on carrierperformance so making sure
people are picking up on time,delivering on time, taking their
awarded freight that they saythey're going to take, and then
(03:50):
worked up into like a managerrole, so overseeing that, and
then, unfortunately, my husbandgot a new job.
Yes, we move a lot.
I'm well aware and we moved toSioux Falls.
So then I was out there lookingfor a job and I saw that
Fortune Logistics, who wasactually one of our customers or
carriers at the time.
(04:11):
I said, hey, I am moving.
And I actually applied for anappointments position because
that was the only thing thatthey had open and they kind of
all talked about yeah, I thinkyou're a little overqualified
for this position.
I was like, well, just a littlebit.
So then I they created acustomer success program and so
(04:31):
since I've been there, I've beenthe one who's been developing
it and leading it and all thatfun stuff, and I've been here
for three years.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
In September, I love that journey all over the place,
many different moves, manydifferent sides of the business,
which I think really helps,especially when you're doing
things like customer success.
So that's awesome, and termslike customer success and
customer experience get thrownaround a lot.
I'm curious what they mean toyou, someone who actually works
(05:02):
in it day in and day out to yousomeone who actually works in it
day in and day out.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, so the big thing when we started customer
success is they sat me down andthey're like when you were at a
customer, what was the thingsthat you wanted to make sure
everyone gave you?
So I went through the list ofthe different things that I
wanted to make sure we had andthen we that, with doing those
different steps, that was goingto make it so we're the most
successful with our customers.
So we wanted we see them asrelationships.
(05:31):
We want the best as we can.
In order for those to be good,they're going to have to be
successful.
So we just that's what weconsider it.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And who or what departments kind of go into that
overall success of customersuccess.
Like you have your team butthere are there multiple roles
that interact with the customers.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yep, so we have our appointments team.
They're the ones who set allthe appointments.
They interact with ourcustomers and their reps because
if they need date changes oranything like that, our brokers
do interact a little bit withcustomers, but that's usually
either if we have an issue afterhours or on the weekends or
anything like that.
(06:15):
But for the most part I do mostof the communications with all
of our customers.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And what are some of the biggest challenges that
you're seeing in customerrelationships today?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
The biggest thing that I am seeing is a lot of
people are wanting to shift moreto being asset heavy again,
where they had gone away fromthat over the COVID years,
because at that point you justwanted someone to pick your
stuff up.
You just wanted someone to pickyour stuff up.
So now everyone's kind ofshifting back towards that.
But at the same time everyonesays brokers are bad but they do
(06:52):
have a good place in theindustry because you can't.
So some of our customers havenot the best locations to ship
out of and they have a lot offreight that ships out of that
location.
So I can't go and say, hey, Ineed a load from Kansas to
Georgia and I'm going to havethree this week, I'm going to
(07:14):
have 16 next week, I'm going tohave 18 next week where it's
just never consistent whichbrokers are able to secure the
capacities ups and downs andthat kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So yeah, and how do you and your role kind of help
your teams navigate thosechallenges?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
A lot of times I think about when I was sitting
back in my seat, how would Iwant people to interact with me,
how would I want people tocommunicate with me?
And so it's mainly just beingupfront with everything that you
have and like all of yourissues and just making sure that
(07:55):
they don't find things outbefore you find things out.
Really, communication is thebiggest part.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Absolutely.
Communication is so important.
Making sure people know what'sgoing on, how to handle it, how
to move forward those things aregreat.
And you work with your ops,sales and marketing teams to
align the strategy, which Ithink is really, really
important, especially when we'retalking about things like
communication, making sure thatmessaging, that branding's all
aligned.
But I was looking on yourLinkedIn and stuff.
(08:26):
This really helps inform yourcustomers as well, and you guys
have initiatives like TightCapacity, tuesday and Wednesday
Weather Watch.
So can you tell me a little bitmore about these special
initiatives?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yes, Yep, so we recently just started our
marketing department at thebeginning of this year.
So we are going through andjust trying to find different
things that we thought customersor even prospects would be
interested in.
And we know you always have thebig things that are going to
(08:59):
cause issues for shippers.
So weather is one big thing, sowe like to go and provide hey,
there's a snowstorm coming upnext week, or hey, there's
tornadoes here, and then there'salso tight capacity which will
also affect them, because itmeans hey, if you got a bunch of
stuff shipping out ofCalifornia in the next how many
weeks it might be a little tightwith the boats coming in.
(09:21):
So it's just different waysthat we could go and express
things that would be useful toour customers.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And what role do you think internal communication,
cross-team collaboration play insuccessful logistics operations
?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I would have to say that it really did.
So the biggest thing for us iswe have to make sure that our
brokers are communicating withour appointments team, who are
communicating with me, so weknow if, hey, we set something
that doesn't have enough transittime, you need to fix this.
Or, hey, like this doesn't makesense, can you reach out to the
customer and find out whythey're doing stops X, y and Z
(10:07):
in this order, which it shouldbe this order?
So, really, in order foreverything to run smoothly, you
have to have good communicationbetween all sides, and I can't
go and change a date onsomething and just not tell the
rest of my team oh, hey, like,we changed the state, they just
have to magically find out aboutit.
So communication solves a lotof problems and do you think so?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
you said that you started your marketing team
earlier this year.
Is having that team there, doesthat help with that internal
communication, making surethings are aligned, or is that a
different department that helpswith that?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
That's a different department.
Our appointments team deal alot more with all the
communication.
Yep, I mean our marketing teamdoes do stuff, but it's more of
the based on the tight capacityTuesday out to our customers and
update different things onLinkedIn or different things
that go on within the industryand do you find that like that
appointments team that istalking to the marketing team,
(11:05):
to making to make sure that theyknow what to put out into the
world?
Is that communication helpfulto make sure it's kind of like
streamlined through everybody.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We actually do not do that.
Most of that stuff comes fromthe brokers, with the different
things that they're saying.
I just always like I feel likeat different companies they
different things, differentdepartments are aligned,
different communications.
I think whatever works for thecompany is what's important as
long as it's working, as long aswe're making sure that those
communications, whoever it is um, because I do think sometimes
people aren't talking to thebrokers or whatever um, yeah,
(11:43):
like, what is your capacity andis your marketing highlighting
the places you have capacityversus the ones that you don't?
And because that type ofmisalignment is bad, because
then we're promoting things wecan't actually do and we don't
want that at all.
So I just like hearing aboutinternal structures and how to
set that up, especially when amarketing department is new.
(12:03):
How does that all kind of fittogether?
What shifts or trends in theindustry right now are you
keeping a close?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
eye on.
I'd say the newest one that weare doing is a lot of stuff with
API.
So we're doing a lot of lookinginto automated bidding on spot
markets and automated rates intorouting guides and we do that
side.
But then we also do some AI.
We have a little Alex that wecall him that goes, scans emails
(12:36):
with part of the team and goesthrough and we'll try to book
freight that way so the repsdon't have to deal with so many
different emails.
So pretty much just yourautomation of things is the
biggest thing that we'refocusing on, which I think
everybody at this point is kindof focusing on.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So I like that you mentioned utilizing AI, but in a
way that like is going throughemails, doing checking that kind
of stuff.
How do you think that companiescan better balance using
technology and human connection,especially in these customer
facing roles?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
For me that's when I kind of struggle with, because
to me I don't think you can getas emotional with someone, with
the emotional connection, whereI don't think a bot is going to
go and ask your customer um hey,how many kids do you have so
you can get to know them on abetter um level.
(13:35):
I mean, you're, you can gethigh level stuff, but it won't
have the true customer successstuff that I guess I look for in
my team.
I want everything to beextremely personable and you
know when someone's birthday isso you can wish them a happy
birthday.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I don't think you utilizing that tech, utilizing
AI, to do the admin stuff, sothat you can get to that, so
that your teams can focus onthat human piece.
If we can take away like themonotonous piece of like making
sure all the information is upto date, how can we do that part
(14:17):
quicker?
How can we get there faster?
How can we make sure, once wehave that information, that it's
tracked in the system so peopleknow?
So that way, like if yourcustomer is calling and it is
their birthday, but their normalperson isn't there, we can
still wish them a happy birthday, because we're all looking at
the page that says that.
I think that's where we canreally utilize it, and I almost
feel like sometimes peopleforget that piece and they just
(14:40):
think about efficiency butthey're forgetting about the
humanity of it.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, I would say, I definitely did not think about
that part, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I feel like it's how can we?
You know, technology can makeus move faster, move more
efficient, but how can we dothat by keeping our humanity at
the same time?
Because I do.
I mean, we talk a lot about,especially on the marketing and
sales side of things.
People care about people.
People don't care about yourlogo, they care about the people
(15:11):
behind the logo.
So how can we utilize them more, utilize those relationships
more, but still be moreefficient by utilizing tech?
And so I feel like that's whatI'm interested to see, where we
go.
Or, like I love I nerd out aboutlike sentiment analysis, like
analyzing the sentiment of yourcustomers when they call in,
because then you know, oh, thisperson's happy, so like let's be
happy with them.
(15:31):
Or, oh, no, this person's nothappy, let's make sure we talk
in soft, calm tones, like youknow.
But I feel like that kind ofstuff is cool because then
you're able to better match thatwith your empathy, with your
humanity, um, and that wewouldn't have that if it wasn't
for the technology.
So that's where I think thingsare cool and where we can
(15:52):
utilize it, switching gears alittle bit, um.
So last week you attended thetmsa elevate conference for the
first time, which is reallyexciting.
Um, I think we are obviouslyprimarily sales and marketing
the tmsa elevate conference forthe first time, which was really
exciting.
Um, I think we are obviouslyprimarily sales and marketing as
tmsa states.
But when we met at women intrucking last year I was like I
think this could be a great fitbecause we talked about like
what your role is and how it'sevolving and, um, how you were
(16:14):
growing a marketing departmentcoming up in the the months and
things like that.
We're definitely seeing morecustomer experience success
teams coming into theassociation, coming to
conference.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So I'm curious what your perspective was, what drew
you to conference besides metexting you asking if you were
coming, um, but what you learnedand how you felt about it yeah,
no, I immediately when I gotback, I told, um, my boss, I'm
like, hey, like I'm prettycertain this is the most notes
I've ever taken at a conferencethat I've been to.
Like, I've been to a lot ofconferences but this is the most
(16:46):
that I actually got stuff thatwere relatable and it wasn't
high level, like industry stuff.
Yes, there was stuff thattalked about the industry, but
it wasn't just.
That's not all it was, and soto me, the biggest thing that I
think that it brought up for meis how much more that was a
(17:09):
really bad phrase we need tocombine our sales, marketing and
customer success team comparedto how we currently have it
built.
It made me think of differentthings that I hadn't thought
about before and some thingsthat we can change on our side
to make things more efficient.
I'd say communication makingsure everyone is relaying the
(17:32):
same message is something thatwe've struggled with.
So seeing all the differentpeople talk about how important
that was it made me think thatwe need to fix that stuff on our
side.
And, yeah, it just overall.
It gave me a lot of differentthings to think about, from the
marketing perspective to thedifferent things that we can try
out to see if I get surname outthere more.
(17:54):
Yeah, there was just so manythings.
I had a call earlier today andI was going over and with my
boss too.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Well, I love that and I love getting the different
perspectives.
I know we talked a little bitafter conference when I was on
the bat tour.
We were texting but topics, butalso make that.
And that was like one of theattendees came up to me.
(18:24):
They're like we see what you'redoing here, like you're talking
about the topics that theindustry is dealing with, but
you are putting a sales andmarketing spin on it, like why
is it important in relating itto those teams in a way that
they may not have processedbefore, and like those are the
comments that like always warmmy heart because, yes, that is
in fact what we are trying to do.
And just like you said,alignment like last year I did
(18:47):
quite a few speaking topics onthe alignment of these teams and
I remember doing it at oneconference and I just asked
people from the audience to comesit on stage.
Like you don't have to doanything, promise, all you have
to do is sit in thesecomfortable chairs behind me.
I'm like I need four people.
I should do that on camera.
Four people and two people cameup and I'm like, well, perfect,
sales and marketing is here.
(19:08):
Customer support and billingdidn't show up to the
conversation.
This is what we're kind of usedto and so I used that to.
Like that, like people notwanting to stand up to the point
, but it like kind of emphasizedit.
Yeah, you're not going to havea unified message, you're not
going to have that same quality,that same customer support,
that same customer experience ifall those departments aren't
communicating.
(19:28):
So I love that that was one ofyour takeaways, because I think
it is really important andsomething that we try to
highlight at conference, and howto kind of take those steps to
get there.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, that was one of the biggest things too is you
go over all of the differentthings that people may struggle
with or think about, but then,at the same time, you're giving
multiple options for solutions.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yes, I have a minute.
Mommy is recording a podcastright now.
What do you need?
Yes, that's fine, cool, okay,continue on.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I have three boys.
I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
He was also at Elevate, but then he saw the
opening and then I was like youcan go on your way, you don't
need to learn about sales andmarketing and customer support
alignment quite yet.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I don't know.
My kids probably would have satthrough there.
They are little salesmen, butit doesn't help that their dad
works in sales either, sothey're just kind of that's what
they're going to get.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yes, yes, but I'm glad that that was like part of
your takeaway is how to do that,and I do, like I remember when
I told you hey, I would love foryou to come on the show Like
you're a newer member of tmsa,you're getting involved in
things like that, but I do wantpeople to have these roles that
don't say sales or marketing.
Understand that there's stillvalue here, especially because
(20:49):
we're trying to.
You know you all have commonrevenue goals and you all want
the team to be successful andwant those messaging pieces to
come out.
So how do we do that?
So I was really excited for youto come, come to conference and
get value from it and then talkabout it.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yes, of course, I really, really enjoyed it, and I
think you jinxed me with goingto Denver.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
But we're going to go .
It's going to be great.
So thank you so much for comingon the show today, coming to
Elevate last week.
I do have one more question foryou.
It's the thing I ask much forcoming on the show today, coming
to elevate last week.
I do have one more question foryou.
It's the thing I ask everyonethat comes on the show and if
that's, if you could go back intime and advise a younger
version of yourself anythingpersonally or professionally,
(21:31):
when would you go back to andwhat would you say?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I would definitely go back to college and I would
tell myself to be moreadventurous and go out and do
more things, just meet morepeople, talk to more people, all
of that.
I was a little shy and didn'tgo out much.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Well, sometimes it takes us a little bit more time
to come out of our shells, but Ithink that's good, good advice.
Get out there, talk to peoplemore, expand your network, which
is all kind of what we do here.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
So I think that's great, great advice.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, for
being a TMSA member and ifanyone is interested in joining
us.
Next week we're talking toAngelica Brooks with Wemos.
Tmsa and Wemos are doing awebinar in August together where
we're talking about the wholeprocess of freight from the
ports through the pavement.
Which I'm really excited about,wemos is the women in maritime
(22:32):
operations, and so we're excitedto have a full conversation
around that and just to hearmore about that organization as
well.
Thank you for coming on theshow and I will see everybody
next time.
Thank you, thank you.
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