How customs agents win a first shipment and keep the account

The first shipment is won in one phone call, usually from an importer whose regular agent has stopped answering while charges accrue. He is not comparing fees. He wants to know whether you are reachable, whether you have handled his commodity, and what he should do in the next hour. Ask three questions and answer them and the job is yours. Then it becomes an account only if he hears from you while the consignment is sitting under examination, which is exactly when most agents go quiet.

The call that decides it

An importer ringing a new agent is anxious and short of time. He will usually open by asking your rate, which is the wrong question, and your answer should move him off it quickly and kindly.

Ask what the goods are and what the supplier's invoice describes them as. Ask where the consignment is now and when it landed, because the clock matters more than anything else in the conversation. Ask what documents he has in hand and what is missing. In three questions you have told him you know the work and you have the information to be useful. He has probably rung two other agencies that asked for an email.

Quote in two columns, always

The most avoidable thing that goes wrong between an agent and a new client is a number that grew. It grew because the first figure mixed your fee with duties, port charges, transport and whatever else was coming.

Send it as two lists with your total under the left column and an estimate marked as an estimate under the right. Say in one line that the right column is not yours to control, and that you will share every receipt. An importer who has been burned before notices that paragraph more than your rate.

The first shipment is an audition, so narrate it

Importers do not judge an agent on how fast a consignment cleared, because they know you do not control that. They judge you on whether they knew what was happening.

So send a short note at each change of state. The checklist is filed. The documents have gone up. It has been marked for examination and here is what that means for the timing. Examination is done. Out of charge received, transport arranged for the evening. Six messages across the job, each of two lines, from one number. That is the whole thing, and it is the difference between an importer who gives you a second container and one who thanks you and goes back to his old agent.

When something goes wrong, say it first. An importer who learns about a query from you at four in the afternoon stays. One who learns about it from his transporter the next morning does not.

Say what you are good at, and never say what you cannot stand behind

Most agencies describe themselves as handling all commodities at all ports, which is a description of an industry rather than a business. The importer searching for somebody who has cleared machine tools at Chennai, or who understands plant quarantine for a food consignment, cannot find you in that sentence.

Write down the four or five trades you genuinely know best, the ports you work at, and the schemes and licences you handle regularly. Put them on your site in those words, and say the same thing when you meet a forwarder or a trade association. Specialists get recommended by name. Generalists get recommended as "a CHA I know".

This trade also carries more risk in its marketing than most. Four rules worth keeping.

Do not promise a clearance time. Examination, queries and documentation decide it, and the one shipment that goes wrong defines you. Do not give a classification or duty opinion in an advertisement, a brochure or a social media post. Do not describe any scheme, exemption or rate as settled, because notifications and procedures change and differ by commodity and situation. And do not write anything that suggests you can arrange a favourable outcome.

Where an importer needs a position he can rely on, send him to his own adviser, or take the question into a proper engagement with the documents in front of you. The caution itself is persuasive. Importers who have been promised the earth recognise an agent who will not.

Turn one job into an account

The conversation that builds an account happens on the day the first container is delivered, when the importer is relieved and well disposed, and almost nobody has it.

Ask what else he imports and from where. Ask how many consignments he expects over the year and which ports they land at. Ask whether he exports too, because the documentation side is work you can do between his imports. Then ask who else in his trade is importing the same goods, because an introduction from a relieved importer is the best lead this business produces. How that cycle is organised is set out on our page for customs clearance agents.

For example, a two-partner agency at a container freight station

Take an agency with two licensed partners and four staff, clearing mostly engineering goods, with new work arriving entirely by word of mouth. The details are illustrative. One partner's phone is the office number and it goes to voicemail after eight.

Two changes cost nothing. The partners split evenings so that one of them answers, and the number is on the website and the Google Business Profile with the ports listed beside it. Then a two-line status note at each stage, which the office assistant sends from a shared number. First shipments start becoming second shipments, and the agency learns which referrals were worth having.

What to do next

Take the last ten first-time clients you handled and mark which of them gave you a second consignment. Then look at the ones who did not, and ask yourself what they heard from you between the checklist and the delivery. In most agencies the honest answer is nothing. If you would like us to build the status routine and the account conversation with you, book the free audit.