FleetFocus Fleet Tracking Blog

Using Customer Feedback to Better Your Business

Posted on 06/17/2013  |  0 Comments

If you can’t tag along with your employees to every service appointment, how can you be sure they are delivering exceptional service?

Ask your customers.

Customer feedback can be very valuable to your business because it helps you to see where you’re succeeding and where you need improvement. For instance, if you notice multiple comments regarding late arrival times, then you know that’s an issue that needs to be addressed immediately. Utilizing customer feedback and making suggested changes and tweaks not only helps to improve service for future customers, but it shows current customers that you truly value their opinions.

Here are 4 simple ways to get customer feedback:

1. Surveys: Surveys can be very effective in getting customer feedback. You can even add incentives to get your customers to fill out the surveys, such as discounts or special offers. 
2. Social Networks: Consumers tend to be very vocal on social networking sites. By simply posting a question or poll on Facebook or Twitter, you can find out what people really think about your products and services.   
3. Face-to-Face: Do your field employees interact with your customers face-to-face? If so, they probably have some valuable information they could share.  Ask them what some common customer questions are. 
4. Testimonials: Contact customers after a service order has been completed and get their feedback. Testimonials are a great way to gather honest feedback. Consumers often use this information to determine whether or not to request services from a specific company.

Along with customer feedback, you can use GPS fleet tracking technology to help improve your customer service levels. It allows you to monitor vehicle and driver location, so you can ensure your employees are getting to their scheduled appointments throughout the day. Not only that, but you can provide your drivers with efficient routes, so they can get to jobs quicker. When you provide your customers with accurate ETAs, they will view your business as reliable.

It’s National Safety Month: Keep Your Employees Safe.

Posted on 06/14/2013  |  0 Comments

June is National Safety Month. And this year, the National Safety Council is celebrating 100 years of safety! So what exactly is National Safety Month? It’s an “annual observance to educate and influence behaviors around leading causes of preventable injuries and deaths” (NSC). The theme this year is “Safety Starts with Me,” and focuses on encouraging organizations to get everyone involved in safety and creating a culture where everyone is a safety leader.

While the main focus of this year’s theme is OSHA and onsite safety, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t address offsite safety too. After all, your employees do have to drive from job to job, don’t they?
It’s not always easy addressing driver safety issues, but a driver safety solution can help.  Here’s a look at what a complete driver safety solution includes and how it can help:

1. Online Driver Training Courses: with online training courses, you can proactively engage and coach your drivers to be safer behind the wheel, reducing risks and saving your company money.

2. Distracted Driving Solution: utilizing distracted driving technology that prevents your drivers from using their cell-phone will not only keep your drivers focused on the road, it ensures driver safety and can help reduce at-fault accident rates.

3. Driver Safety Scorecard Report: a driver safety scorecard report provides insight into how your employees drive by identifying aggressive driving behaviors like speeding, harsh braking, sudden corning etc. Being able to pinpoint drivers that are in need of coaching and improvement can help increase driver safety and reduce the number of driving-related incidents.

Help the National Safety Council celebrate 100 years of safety. Click here to learn more.

The Days of Vague Service Windows are Over

Posted on 06/12/2013  |  0 Comments

As a business owner, differentiating yourself in a crowded marketplace is crucial to your success. So, how do you build and retain a customer base and untarnished reputation? You provide superior quality of service.  And how important is the customer experience?

According to Help Scout, consumers tell 9 people about positive experiences and 16 people about negative experiences. And this has only been magnified with services like Angie’s List and the use of social media. So how do you ensure excellent customer service? While you always want your employees to be courteous and professional, providing accurate ETAs is key.

Potential customers aren’t going to accept a five hour vague service “window” when they can quickly move on to one of your competitors. Improving customer communication and letting them know when the technician will be there via a phone call or text improves your service levels, customer retention and bottom line. Point in fact: eight out of 10 U.S. consumers say they would pay more to ensure a superior customer experience.

Telematics provides more than just a “track and trace” solution. GPS fleet tracking solutions are an important business tool to compete with other service and distribution companies and to leverage technology to your advantage.

4 Warm Weather Vehicle Maintenance Tips

Posted on 06/10/2013  |  0 Comments

Now that the warm weather has kicked in, it’s important to take extra precaution to avoid heat-related vehicle breakdowns. As the temperatures rise, your vehicles can suffer. Not only can the heat affect vehicle performance, but also the interior and exterior finishes of your car. In order to keep your vehicles off the side of the road, preventive maintenance is crucial. The four main areas to pay close attention to during the hot summer months are batteries, tires, radiators and air conditioners.

Here are 4 maintenance tips to help keep your vehicles running smoothly as the mercury rises:  

1. Battery: Since extreme heat can speed up internal corrosion, it’s important to clean up the battery connections by removing any corrosion, lead oxidation, paint or rust from the top of the battery.
    
2. Tires: Tire care is critical in warm weather because long trips, heavy loads, high speeds and rising temperatures all add additional stress on your tires. Since heat raises tire pressure, it’s important to check your tires regularly and be sure they are properly inflated before each trip.
    
3. Radiator: Be sure to check hoses, belts and coolant levels. Hot weather can lead to the coolant in your engine becoming low. Belts stretch and hoses deteriorate with age, only worsening when combined with high heat.
    
4. Air Conditioning:  When you can’t take the heat, you probably turn the air conditioning on full blast. Since this puts extra strain on the cooling system, it’s important to get your air conditioning checked to make sure it’s working properly.

With a GPS fleet tracking solution, you can use automated maintenance scheduling to ensure maintenance is occurring on schedule. This allows you to catch and fix any vehicle issues before they become more severe. You can use automated maintenance scheduling to keep up with maintenance and prolong the life of your vehicles all year round.

The 4 Fundamentals of Customer Retention

Posted on 06/07/2013  |  0 Comments

Customers = sales. It’s simple: the stronger your relationship is with your customers, the higher your chances are at sales.  In fact, it costs more to acquire new customers than it does to satisfy and retain your current customers. 

A recent IEC Insights article entitled, “Communication Keeps Customers,” states that customer retention marketing is the most cost-effective marketing you can create. It’s all about communicating with your customers, whether that’s in the form of a follow-up phone call, a customer newsletter or sending a reminder email.

So how much will all of this cost you? According to the IEC Insights article, it will cost you maybe about 6 bucks per customer. And if you’re wondering how much that investment is going to pay, you can figure that out by knowing  that repeat customers spend an average of 67 percent more than new customers. What if you don’t invest in retention marketing? How much will you pay then? You can get that cost from the lost sales and referrals that went to your competitors who actively work to keep their customers.

To help you get started with a customer retention program, here are the 4 fundamentals of customer retention, courtesy of IEC Insights:

1. Regular communication: It’s all about staying in touch and keeping the name of your business in front of your customers.
2. Respect your customer: In order to build loyalty, you have to show your customers that you appreciate their loyalty. One way to achieve this is rewarding them with customer-only offers.
3. Collect customer information: Your customer database should be current with every interaction—service history, installations, upgrades, etc.
4. Serve your customers: Exceed your customers’ expectations. Going the extra mile will show them that you value their business.