How to choose a car shipping CRM for your brokerage

A good car shipping CRM covers your desk's whole day without side apps: leads in, quotes with a carrier price, follow-ups by text and email, calls, e-sign, card payments, posting to Central Dispatch and a view for the owner. Compare CRMs against the checklist below, and judge each one on what the vendor shows you on screen.

Start with your own desk

Before the first demo, answer five questions about your brokerage. How many salespeople take leads, and during which hours? Which lead vendors do you buy from? Which phone and texting app does your desk use now? Do you post to Central Dispatch, dispatch through Super Dispatch, or both? Who needs to see the numbers, and how often? The answers tell you which items below to test hard and which to check quickly.

The car shipping CRM checklist

What a Central Dispatch integration should do

Brokers post loads to Central Dispatch so carriers can pick them, which makes it the integration to test hardest. Check it in both directions. Before the quote, the CRM should show what carriers were recently paid on the same lane, so a salesperson does not promise a price no carrier will haul for. After the customer signs, the load should post from the order with one button and move to a posted list, without a second copy if someone presses the button again. Ask where you would see that the connection has stopped working. If you dispatch through Super Dispatch, ask how the CRM connects to it. More in what a Central Dispatch integration should do.

Calls and texts through the phone app you already use

Changing phone systems to get a CRM turns one project into two. Ask whether the CRM connects to RingCentral or whichever calling and texting app your desk runs on, and whether a salesperson can call or text with one button from the customer's record. Then test the dialer. Does the call list show each customer's last message? Can a salesperson drop a recorded voicemail? Is there a list of missed calls nobody returned? Read what a broker dialer needs.

Follow-ups that know when to stop

Customers compare several quotes, so the desk follows up for days. The CRM should run that schedule by text and email, let each salesperson pick the send times and templates, and pause when the customer writes back so a person answers. TCPA and carrier rules restrict texting people who opted out, so a number that sent STOP should never get another text from anyone on your desk. A number that cannot take texts should get email instead. See how automated follow-up should work.

E-sign and payments on the order

When the customer says yes, the quote should become an order in one step. Check that the contract goes out for e-signature from that order and that you can change the terms first. The order should hold the tariff, the required deposit, carrier pay and COD to the carrier, and the deposit should be charged and logged in the same place. Ask, too, whether a manager gets an alert when someone tells a customer to pay an account that is not the company's. More in e-sign and payments and payment fraud protection.

An owner view and lead distribution rules

The owner should open one screen and see each salesperson's leads, quotes, booked orders, calls and texts, plus whether phones, email, Central Dispatch and follow-ups are working. Ask to see which lead vendor's leads end up delivered. For lead distribution, ask how the CRM picks who gets the next lead, whether you can set a daily limit and hours for each salesperson, and what happens when the same customer comes in from two vendors. Read what an owner should see every day and how lead distribution should work.

AI that hands off

AI is most useful at night, when customers text and nobody is at the desk. Ask what it does on its own. Does it answer on the salesperson's line, quote by your company's rule and take the booking details? Then ask what it hands to a person. Choosing and dispatching a carrier should stay with your team. See what AI can and cannot do in a broker CRM.

Questions to ask on a car shipping CRM demo

1. Show me a quote with the carrier price on that lane. Where does the number come from, and can the customer ever see it?
2. Post a load to Central Dispatch from an order. Where does it show afterwards?
3. Call and text a customer from the CRM through our phone app. Where are the call and the text saved?
4. Show me the follow-up schedule on one quote. What happens when the customer replies, and when they text STOP?
5. Send a contract for e-signature with changed terms.
6. Charge a deposit on an order and open the payment log.
7. Show me the owner's screen for today. How would I know a connection stopped working?
8. Set a daily lead limit for one salesperson. Where does a returning customer go?
9. What does the AI do after hours, and what does it hand to a person?
10. Which of these will you set up with us, and what do we need to bring to that call?

Print the checklist, take it to each demo, and mark what the vendor showed on screen apart from what they only described. To go through the list with Leader CRM, book a live demo.