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October 16, 2023

4

min. read

Meet the Logwardians - Sonja

Meet Sonja, one of our Caretakers on our Customer Success team. Our Allocation Management expert explains how she helps Logward’s customers.

Hi Sonja, thank you for this chat. Let’s start by learning a bit more about what you did before joining Logward.

I did a Duales Studium in logistics, which is like a traineeship, and my title is Betriebswirt. Before Logward I worked at Leschaco, which I joined in 2010, and there I also worked with Allocation Management for the customer I'm now supporting at Logward. However, before working in Allocation, I was in the Intermodal Department, where some of our responsibilities were, for example, procurement, batch tracking, and organisation for pre- and on-carriages.

What are your responsibilities now at Logward?

I’m on the team lead by Olli, and I’m responsible for Allocation Management for one of our biggest customers. For example, I help with troubleshooting, and I’m always happy to lend a hand to my colleagues with any other topic or issue.


What do you like about your role?

I love that every day is completely different. We have a framework for outlining our day, but every case is different. I also like the contact with customers -  I’m always in touch with the customers' people responsible for allocation and control tower.


What is the most challenging part of your job?

Having to be patient! Often things don’t go as fast as I want them to. I often have to wait a couple of days for answer from carriers, and maybe I even have to send reminders to receive these answers.


Where do you see the biggest advantage for customers using Logward?

Logward is like a business partner for its customers, and they can count on us. In my specific case, we support with the whole allocation process, providing valid numbers and figures that, for example, the procurement team of our customer can use to negotiate rates for their tender.


Talking more specifically about customer success, what is its importance at Logward?

We provide answers to our customers using our the logistics expertise. If we find options to solve their issues, we suggest them, and we try to optimize their workflow. For example, Olli knows everything about freight forwarding, while Bianca is a specialist about one of our customers, since she worked with them also before joining Logward. We can give answers about documentation, topics, or pre-carriage issues. In my case, we also advise freight forwarders working for our customer.

What skills do you think this role has helped you develop?

Self-confidence. Self-confidence in knowing what I’m doing and knowing that it’s correct.

I also learned how to establish mutual trust. It's fun to search and agree on the best possible solutions directly with the customers. You could call it a kind of symbiosis, because we stand together for one thing.


Can you describe your typical day?

In a typical day, our customer asks if we have options or suggestions to solve an issue. Right now, for example, there are construction works for the railway near Basel, which means that we have to find vessel space to make up for the transports that can’t take place there by starting at another POL like Rotterdam or Antwerp, instead of German ports. Another issue we had to deal with, recently, was the lack of truckers available during Easter, so we found alternatives.


What is something that can’t miss from your daily routine?

Drink a lot of coffee and still have a short, virtual chat with colleagues, especially because of the time spent in the home office.You’ve been working mostly from home, what are the pros and the cons?The main pro is that I don’t have to use the car, and it takes 45 minutes to go to the office because of traffic. This is great, but on the other hand, I can’t see my colleagues, there’s no coffee chat, and it is difficult to understand how people are really doing.


What do you like to do in your free time?

I love pilates, I’ve been doing it for 3-4 years. I also love cooking and baking. I never cook the same thing twice and I never stick to a recipe - I have to add a twist. Now that we can meet again in person, I also love to meet with my friends, and we recently adopted a dog.


Rapid fire:

Pool or beach? Beach

Card games or board games? Board games

Winter or summer?  Winter

Coffee or tea? Coffeee!

Cycling or driving? Driving


Logward is a Hamburg & Bangalore based logistics technology company.

We build software, move containers, and change mindsets.

If you have any questions or just want to say hi, reach out to mail@logward.com. Or you can book time with one of our logistics experts here.

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