Case study

How an independent freight agency answers every quote call, 24/7

Company
Freight Sidekick
Industry
Freight shipping (LTL, partial, and truckload)
Region
United States and Canada

At a glance

24/7

phone quotes, with no one on the clock

3+hours a day

back for the team (company estimate)

0

hold time: every call is answered on the first ring

“Seriously impressed”

which is how customers describe the call

The problem

Every quote needed a person on the phone

Freight Sidekick is an independent freight brokerage agency with its own quoting platform. Shippers call for a price, and a freight quote is not a quick question. It takes the pickup and delivery locations, the freight's size and weight, and the right equipment, all on a live call.

Before Allison, the customer service team answered every one of those calls by hand. When the team was busy, calls were missed. After hours and on weekends, nobody answered at all, so a shipper who needed a price at 7pm had to wait until morning or call someone else.

The solution

Allison on every channel

Freight Sidekick put Allison in front of the business: on the phone, on the website, and inside the quoting tools.

Get a freight quote your way: chat, call, or upload

On the phone, 24/7.

  • Allison answers every call.
  • She collects the shipment details in conversation and quotes live carrier rates from the same rating engine as Freight Sidekick's online quote tool.
  • She can email the quote while the caller is still on the line, with a link to book it.
  • If a caller rings back, she finds their recent quote from their phone number.
  • She answers questions about fees and policies from the company's knowledge base, routes callers to the right team member, and takes messages and callback requests when someone needs a person.

On the website.

The same Allison chats with visitors. She gives bookable quotes, works out freight class from dimensions and weight, and turns a pile of boxes into a pallet plan. When a conversation needs a human, a broker can join the chat or take it over without the customer starting again.

Quote from a document.

A shipper can drop in a bill of lading, a rate request, or a photo of a load sheet. Allison reads it and picks up the quote from there, so nobody retypes anything.

For the team, too.

Inside Freight Sidekick's admin, Allison is the team's assistant. She reads an order's full history, drafts customer replies, and checks whether oversized freight fits a given trailer.

The results

  1. 01

    3+ hours a day back.

    The company estimates Allison returns at least three hours a day to the team that used to spend it on quote calls. That's before counting the calls that now get answered after hours, which used to get no answer at all.

  2. 02

    Quotes at any hour.

    Freight Sidekick now quotes by phone around the clock without adding a single staff hour.

  3. 03

    No more missed calls, no hold music.

    Every caller is answered right away, during a rush or at 2am.

  4. 04

    Customers notice.

    Callers tell the team they are “seriously impressed” by how Allison sounds, the nuance of the conversation, and how she handles their questions.

  5. 05

    Callers stay with her.

    The usual worry about AI on the phone is that customers will refuse to talk to it. Freight Sidekick found the opposite: very few callers are unwilling to use Allison once they realize how good she is.

What it means for an independent agency

Large freight brokers staff call centers. An independent agency can't, and doesn't need to. Allison lets Freight Sidekick offer the always-available, fast-answer service of a much bigger company, while the team spends its time on the shipments that need a person.

We used to miss calls every day, and nobody answered after hours. Now every caller gets a real freight quote at any hour, and my team gets more than three hours a day back.

Brian Hatt, Freight Sidekick
Freight Sidekick

See it live

Get a freight quote by phone, any hour(877) 345-3838
24/7 freight quotesfreightsidekick.com/services/24-7-freight-quotesChat with Allisonfreightsidekick.com/chatQuote from a documentfreightsidekick.com/tools/quote-from-document

Ready to Meet
Your AI Agent?

Call Allison right now. In 15 minutes, she'll know your business and your agent will be ready to configure.

Call Allison (877) 865-4440

Tell her about your business. She'll build your agent.

Sign Up

Or reach us directly at team@allisonvoice.com