PETALING JAYA: Fostering a diverse workforce and creating an equal and inclusive working environment can contribute to a company’s creativity, expertise, performance, innovation and productivity, as seen in the male-dominated logistics and supply chain sector where women have steadily advanced.
In tech-enabled express logistics company Ninja Van Malaysia, unit head of customer service Sandra Anne Samuel (pix) pointed out that one of the biggest challenges when it comes to customer service in logistics is to learn the ins and outs of a male-dominated industry, along with the jargon and logistics technology that can get technical and tricky.
“My advice would be to start learning from the ground up. Although customer service is just one part of logistics, we have to understand every part of the operation from warehousing, deliveries and sorting parcels to ensure we have the full picture of how the company works,” she told SunBiz.
Since its inception in 2014, Ninja Van has grown across six countries in Southeast Asia with over 1,600 hubs and more than 31,000 employees. Over the past 12 months, Ninja Van Malaysia has achieved 100% Peninsular Malaysia coverage, doubled its number of Ninja points, achieved an 80% growth in fleet size with millions of parcel deliveries monthly. Ninja Van Malaysia is the guaranteed next-day delivery partners for Lazada and Zalora.
Over 15% of Ninja Van Malaysia’s workforce are women, and they make up both its management and operations teams. Sandra, for instance, is responsible for managing overall customer satisfaction, developing and reviewing the process and innovation frameworks as well as spearheading initiatives. She manages over 120 staff across seven teams.
Ninja Van is modernising its workplace to achieve gender equality and to close the gender gap to increase productivity, and is committed to breaking down barriers in the male-dominated logistics industry. Women are succeeding at top levels at Ninja Van with their strong work ethic, passion for supply chain and logistics and have the ability to be comfortable as one of a few women in a room.
“I have learnt that it is crucial to step out of our comfort zone. It takes courage for women to strive in an environment dominated by men. However, we must not be limited by our gender. We should focus on the qualities we bring to the table and be proud of the role we can play. We must also support and empower each other. That means women working together, but also in collaborative partnerships with men – we work better together,” explained Sandra.
The logistics industry is working to make changes to attract a more diverse workforce but, in doing so, it is important that there is a focus on hiring women in positions where they have visibility to inspire and encourage other women into the industry.
Sandra, who has been in the customer service line for the past 15 years across various industries, said dealing with upset and angry customers is simply part and parcel of the logistics industry.
“Having said that, we do have processes in place to ensure we continue to provide a consistent level of operational excellence to our customers at all times. One of the ways we do this is working with our operations team to identify and analyse existing issues and how we can eradicate them.
“2020 was a challenging year due to the pandemic. As we are considered essential services, we’ve had to make quite a few changes to our process, such as implementing the practices of contactless deliveries instead of getting customers’ signatures as proof of delivery. During this time, our team played a crucial role in ensuring that we update and educate our customers on these changes and why they were required.”
She stressed that good customer service usually increases loyalty and customers will most likely return if they have a good experience.
“Being a tech-enabled company, we have improvised with tech-savvy solutions like contactless deliveries and live chat implementation to further enhance how we continue to offer hassle-free delivery services during the pandemic. During this time, we’ve also scaled up our operations and capacity to ensure that we are able to meet the demands of our customers.
“To understand a customer, the most important thing is to put ourselves into their shoes. By doing this, we actually experience what they experience, and we are able to relate to their frustrations. Then naturally, the words and actions will follow along to help resolve and offer the right resolutions tailored to their specific requests and requirements,” said Sandra.
