Most selling efforts focus on price and service. The often neglected, but critical differentiator that separates great service providers from plain old good service providers is Quality.
Relentless emphasis on quality helps build a sustainable organization that delivers value – to customers, partners, and people working within the organization.

Quality is a long-term strategic differentiator.

There are telltale signs within an organization to determine whether an organization has a built-in quality mind-set; a quality-oriented culture.
Consider these hot buttons:

• Does the organization launch into process reviews and improvement drills when there is a crisis, or does the organization have steady processes for continual improvement that are constantly scanning for opportunities?
• Is root cause analysis the key objective, or are members of the team running fire drills? If you are pursuing anything challenging – anything worthwhile – you will run into challenges. The right question to ask at those junctures – “How can we make this work better next time?" The inadequate question is: “How can we fix this fast?”
• Do process improvement groups have the capacity and the necessary time to properly evaluate, test and proceed, or are they under the gun for immediate results – ‘quick fixes?’

Quick fixes won't built a lasting customer-centric organization.

I see it in our quality differentiators every day. Many of our competitors are focused solely on price; some also consider service metrics – but, I don’t see the quality emphasis. By contrast, our team has an acute cultural awareness of the importance of people, process and technology.

The right combination of people, process and technology is critical.

In our business, like many others – on-time delivery is imperative. But, it isn’t all about making sure that ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease.’ It’s about a quality process that includes a full team with technology that supports the mission.
Let me provide one example of the many processes that make on-time delivery a quality-oriented process. For our team, one important area is carrier management – that is managing our activity with our transportation partners.
I will simplify the process a lot, but it still provides a good example of how the quality is built into the business. Each Tuesday, a cross-functional team that includes members of our consolidation program management team, leaders of our operations team, our transportation management team, our senior logistics supervisors, and our customer service representatives meet. We review the critical items:

• What are the needs of our partners; including pick-up time adjustments, carrier diversification requirements to accommodate growth, carrier changes instigated by inability to properly service particular lanes, and consideration of destination delivery issues. If warehouses' needs have changed those are reviewed – Are there dock space constraints? Will there be appropriate drop trailer equipment ready in a time-perfect scenario.
• We review carrier performance with a service review that might require that certain carriers are put on probation or removed. These decisions are not taken lightly or in a vacuum; they are data-based and consider our full relationship with our partners in balance with the demands of quality by our customers.
• With the support of the technology platform, we review lane-by-lane EVERY WEEK. Are there issues that need addressing – impending weather issues or destination distribution center obstacles that might have developed? If a certain carrier cannot provide faultless service due to capacity issues, alternatives are devised.
• Even in the face of busy schedules, we don’t succumb to the “If it ain't broke, don't fix it” school of thought. Let’s fix it anyway – it can always be better. For example, each week the entire schema for large programs is in play: If major ‘sailing schedules’ or lane changes would improve quality – they are on the table.
• There is a keen awareness that things DO change all the time, and we have predictive models to determine whether those will impact our clients’ needs, and remedies are in place to fix those issues prior to impact. In this particular process, that might come down to proactive management of produce season, peak season, weather-capacity issues, or regression analysis of carrier lane performance trends.
• And, of course – the fire drill issues are managed, but that’s a no-brainer. It’s table-stakes that we’ll handle the particular carrier, customer, partner, and other issues that arise for each particular load.

Let’s fix it anyway – it can always be better.

Each area that is covered during this one quality process meeting is reviewed and change is implemented based on the merits of each particular circumstance. The group members will challenge each other, but in aggregate a balance between caution and aggression is attained. We aim to make any change that improves the current state, but are aware of possible ripple effects that can be caused by ‘knee-jerk’ reactions. Many times, multiple factors need to be considered before making a change with the carrier base or the mechanics of the respective consolidation program. Once a course of change is determined, the leader accountable for the recommended change coordinates and implements the solution/corrective action.
This process of continuous feedback and improvement is an integrated process which regularly occurs to address the evolving needs of the consolidation program management function.
And, this is just the on-going part of one process. There is also a quality set-up process that assures that each new collaborative consolidation programs is properly set up for success. It covers too many issues to list, but some include:

• Prioritized pickups – Same-day delivery destinations and high mile destinations pick up first.
• Planning for early delivery – Late never works, but sometimes early is okay. It changes constantly, but the team will assess where early deliveries are allowable, and those are built into the plans.
• Realistic planning to parameters – The transit planning shoots for about 500 miles per driver per day as a realistic goal.
• Preferred status – We want our customers to prefer us, and we want their customers to prefer them. That starts with trying to be a shipper of choice for our carrier partners. The team is constantly considering what will keep us a preferred customer for our partners - attractive lanes, fair but challenging terms, drop & hook opportunities at origin and/or destination, we’ll own the back-haul where we can (no wasted miles here), no multi-stops or breaking freight at any points, driver safety, no touch freight, low claims, sealed loads, shipper load and count, loads ready on time, and even facilities that are easy to enter/park/exit, etc.

As Colin Powell said, "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
The team commits to understanding the realities of an ever-changing market, so we can work seamlessly with partners on a path to success. We understand the effects of tighter DOT hours of service regulations, labor challenges, breakdowns, traffic, and other carrier planning issues. The awareness of what it’s like in our partners’ shoes isn’t just an attempt at quality partnering; it has a big tangible benefit – When issues arise, we’re ready with collaborative recovery or contingency plans for execution that protects the core of quality service.
It’s a detailed look at just one process that maintains one programs price, service and quality, but it provides an inside view of where quality comes from. It comes from thousands of processes that happen each day that protect a key differentiator.