Best Practices for Improving Customer Satisfaction for Your Fleet-Based Business
By Pankaj Sharma, Vice President of Marketing for NexTraq
Today’s customers expect a lot from the companies with which they do business. When information is literally at the tips of their fingers for many things they need to know daily, customers expect that same level of immediacy for everything else in their lives. How they are treated can make or break a business.
When the business involves a fleet of vehicles to deliver services from companies that offer exceptional landscaping, good housecleaning services, plumbing and electrical contracting, installation, food delivery, construction or other types of services, an extra element of complexity is added. Instead of being an on-demand service, such as when a customer goes to a physical store to buy a product or service, a schedule is involved, and the customer must wait for the business to come to them. It’s a process that can be fraught with errors and delays, and often can mean that a customer walks away less than satisfied.
Therefore, fleet-based businesses need to master the art of customer service even more than other types of businesses. Providing good customer experiences isn’t difficult, but you need to have the right tools for the job. Just like a landscaper would never show up at a jobsite without a shovel, fleet-based businesses need to utilize tools that will help them manage their schedule, track the best routes and provide data that helps with reporting at the end of the day. For many, that tool is a GPS-based fleet-management solution.
Best Practices
So, how can fleet-management help deliver a better customer experience and long-lasting customer relationships? There are six customer service best practices that fleet management can enable. They include:
- Moving beyond “the service window.” One of the most frustrating experiences a customer can face it taking a morning or afternoon off from work for a four-hour service window for a delivery. They’re forced to clear their schedule to wait…and wait. Oftentimes the eventual service—whether it be a delivery, installation or other type of home service—is delayed beyond that window anyway, creating a frustrating customer experience. A fleet management solution can change the game on the traditional service window, allowing fleet managers to better pinpoint when a driver will arrive at a customer location, providing an estimated time of arrival (ETA) to the customer that reduces the service window to mere minutes.
- Make room for emergency service. Many companies cannot offer same day or emergency service because they have no clear picture where their vehicles are at any given time. Once the schedule is set of the day, and the driver leaves headquarters, they follow the pre-determined schedule. If something pops up, the manager may need to call drivers’ cell phones to see where they are, and determine who best can handle an unscheduled stop while still servicing scheduled customers. A GPS fleet management system helps fleet owners know at all time where their vehicles are, know the drivers’ next scheduled stops, and can easily determine who should be rerouted to deal with the emergency service.
- Track arrival and departure times. There’s nothing worse than having a customer who claims that a service was not delivered on time, that the driver “never came” to perform the service, or was only there for a short period. This can impact invoicing and payment, along with creating a dissatisfied customer. A GPS fleet management solution can help fleet managers prove their driver was at a site during a specific window by tracking arrival and departure time stamps.
- Plot the most-efficient routes. A company’s service area could stretch 100 square miles or more, and span dozens of customers. Getting off to a good start means plotting the most-efficient routes between location based on customer specifics. The scheduling capabilities within a fleet management solution can help fleet managers and even drivers themselves establish the best route for the day. However, you may set the perfect schedule in the morning, then something happens to disrupt it. Traffic, roadwork, weather and other issues can slow down a driver anywhere along their planned route. A fleet management solution can help managers make adjustments as issues arise, and alert customers in any change of arrival time.
- Invoice correctly, and in a timely manner. Customers expect accurate invoices. By knowing when and where your vehicles are, you can determine how much time they are spending at each customer site (and how many miles per day, or between sites, were driven). That makes accounting and invoicing incredibly easy. Two bonuses:
- If vehicles travel across state lines, fleet management solutions also make International; Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) reporting easy as well.
- Timesheets are also simplified because fleet managers can tell down to the minute how long employees spent doing their jobs.
Category: General Update, News
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