Fretlink achieves record growth with Front

Fretlink connects shippers to the largest hub of local carriers in Europe through a new standard of organization for road freight and a global approach.

The startup helps shippers secure, manage, and optimize their transportation plan through their digital platform and a European network of local, reliable, and connected carriers. It also provides transportation companies with new business opportunities, on-field assistance, and a dedicated tool suite to boost performance.

As their team has quadrupled over the last year, Fretlink depends on Front to stay in sync and work together efficiently.

Challenges

Fretlink has grown at a record pace, adding new teams, growing existing ones, and expanding into new markets. Previously, they relied on email and Zendesk to communicate with customers, and used Slack to communicate delays or carrier issues internally.

Too many tools

Bridging the gap between email, Zendesk, and Slack proved to be challenging — resulting in buried information and wasted time. “We lost a lot of information in Slack or email. If we wanted to reference a specific shipper request or cargo update, it was difficult to know where to find that information,” said Lauriane Avci, Product Manager at Fretlink.

A ticketing system that didn’t scale

Additionally, admitted Lauriane, “We were not very happy with Zendesk,” outlining all of the ways that the ticketing system was falling short for Fretlink:

• did not let them work collaboratively across teams

• could not manage Fretlink inboxes (like contact@) and personal inboxes in one place

• inability to clearly differentiate requests from their VIP customers

• lack of automated rules for routing specific requests cross-functionally

The ticketing model just wasn’t working — Fretlink needed one place to centralize their customer requests, carrier updates, and internal communication.

Solution

Now that Fretlink uses Front, they’ve seen a huge uptick in their efficiency, their work output and the overall happiness of the team.

Less searching, more doing

The Fretlink team used to spend hours jumping between tools to find information. Now they have a clear system of record in Front, with customer requests, carrier updates, and internal messaging living neatly in one place.

With Front, information is easy to find, so they spend less time digging through emails and tickets to find what they need. As a result, they’re responding faster and have more time to focus on impactful work.

Front really helps us spend less time searching for things. - Clara Cottin, Operations Coordinator at Fretlink

“Before, if I needed to find a specific cost estimate for finance, I would have to look through all the back and forth between us and the customer. It would take forever,” said Clara Cottin, Operations Coordinator at Fretlink.

“Now with Front, even if I wasn’t on the original email thread, I can find exactly what I need in seconds. I don’t have to hunt down the person who was managing it originally — ‘Hey, can you send me this, can you forward me that, do you know where this is?’ — It’s right there.”

Out of office? No problem.

Previously, the Fretlink accounts team emailed customers one-on-one with their individual work email addresses. Customers got the personalized attention they needed, while account team members would use a combination of Slack, Zendesk, and CC’s to give status updates or forward requests to the rest of the team. But when an account manager was out of the office, the rest of the team was out of the loop and had no way to step in and keep customer conversations going.

Now every person at Fretlink can take time off without thinking about how it will impact the rest of the team — or their customers. “With Front, if we have someone who is sick or not there, we can easily add someone to look after their important messages,” said Lauriane. When a teammate switches to Out Of Office mode, any new replies to their messages will get automatically unassigned, and another member of the accounts team can pick up where things left off.

Working together is simple and efficient

Front allows the Fretlink team to discuss critical updates internally, ensuring that customer handoffs from one team to the next are seamless. For example, if there’s a delay with a carrier, the support agent handling it can write up an email draft to share with the customer success team to review before it’s sent to the customer.

With Front, the Fretlink team can comment on customer requests directly to collaborate and take action, rather than emailing back and forth and waiting for responses:

• They can tag teammates to share the message directly and discuss it. @tom what do you think about this pricing issue?

• They can assign emails to the right person to follow up, even across departments. @jessica, can you provide the invoice for this shipment?

VIP customers get a red carpet experience

Fretlink’s Key Accounts team takes care of their largest customers. With a dedicated inbox for each customer, they’re able to get a full picture of every interaction with their team. This clear history allows them to prioritize incoming requests, give real-time updates, and deliver superior service. Front allows them to automatically route messages from VIP customers to the right teammate, so they get a streamlined and personal response. Said Lauriane, “We’re able to answer our customers better and faster with Front.”

The Fretlink team is more engaged and less stressed because they’re working in Front, too. “People are much happier on Front,” said Lauriane, “We couldn’t go back.”