How Fracht Australia is using technology to redefine great customer experience

Privately owned and launched in Australia in 1987, Fracht Australia – like their Fracht Group peers across 115 offices worldwide – is dedicated to delivering the best possible service to their customers.

Michel Scheuble, Director, Fracht Australia, says whether you are senior management or an operator in one of three main local offices, their collective focus on putting the customer at the center of everything is unwavering.

As a result, Fracht Australia has been at the forefront of identifying and implementing market-leading technology solutions, that optimize productivity and keep them one step ahead of competitors.

“CargoWise has helped us grow in a way that wasn’t possible before. Having all the information on the same database at your fingertips when you need it, is priceless.

“Fracht Australia really led the way for the Fracht Group when it came to implementing CargoWise as our core freight forwarding platform, and we jumped at the chance to showcase the value of the software to our colleagues around the world.

“It’s been a huge step forward for us, and we’re excited about more and more Fracht offices worldwide adopting CargoWise and enjoying similar operational efficiencies,” Mr Scheuble says.

According to George Koutroulis, Director, Fracht Australia, using CargoWise’s powerful workflow and automation tools to streamline and optimize their logistics operations has unlocked significant and often unexpected productivity gains. 

“Over the past four years, we've invested a lot of time, money and training within our team to roll out the use of workflows and tasks within CargoWise.

“We’re almost at the stage now where we can’t go back to the way we were working before. It’s such a refined process where all our business rules are in the workflows, and we can really pick up on any errors in advance, before anything happens.

“It allows us to be very proactive and has totally changed the way we operate. It’s freed up people to do more important things, such as bringing better solutions to our clients or coming up with new ideas that add more value to the business.”

This sentiment is echoed by Mr Scheuble, who said CargoWise’s productivity tools help them visualize employee workloads and ensure they have sufficient resources in the right place, at the right time.

“Using CargoWise, we can sort of look into the future, with our own little crystal ball, and use all this data to make the most informed decisions possible.”

Delivering first-class customer service

Mr Koutroulis explains that working with CargoWise has eliminated manual processes, enabling the business to provide a consistently high level of customer service to their clients.

“The technological advancements we’ve made mean we’re able to be more productive within our team. We follow the business rules we have in place through our workflows, which eliminates the need to sift through paperwork, and gives our people more time to focus on providing outstanding service to our clients.”

Mr Scheuble adds “This has also been very valuable during COVID, where we’ve had a lot of our staff working from home, and they can use the system to stay focused and connected on the task at hand, even though we weren’t physically together in the office.”

Reflecting on some of the disruptions experienced by the logistics industry over the last 18 months, Mr Scheuble says the importance of supply chain visibility and resiliency had never been clearer or more important to his customers.

“There’s been a shift over the last few years in what customers expect from their freight forwarder.

“They want much more engagement from us. They expect the information to be pushed through to them or available at the touch of a button, any time, any day. CargoWise enables us to have all data available at our fingertips, for whatever we need.”

Continuing their digital transformation journey

When it comes to digitalization, both agree it’s no longer an industry buzzword, but a must-do if freight forwarders want to remain successful amid so much uncertainty and disruption.

“If you don’t do anything or you don’t change, you’re going to be left behind,” says Mr Koutroulis.

“Fracht Australia has made major investments to stay at the forefront of technology. Initially we were using CargoWise as a freight forwarding tool, but as the software grew and developed further, we started using more and more of the modules in the system.

“Having CargoWise as the main source of all our data and information, helps this process and allows us to have the information to support our clients with what they need,” he says. 

Mr Scheuble agrees and says a commitment to really listening to customer feedback, combined with the right technology tools, meant you would be well-placed to respond to any disruptions from a position of strength. 

“In our industry, it's very important to be aware of trends and make sure that we're aware of past history and what potentially could come in the future. 

“WiseTech Global continually improves and invests in technology, driving the development of CargoWise. It sort of revolutionized the way software applications were used in the freight forwarding industry, and I’m proud that Fracht was along for that journey,” Mr Scheuble concluded.