Customer Expectations are High
The strategy for any service business is to provide great customer service, while keeping costs low and maximizing revenue opportunities.
Nothing could be truer for companies that service heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems.
Since the industrial revolution, these systems have been at the heart of each building. For most, they’re systems we don’t think about while they are functioning properly, but people tend to notice when they aren’t.
As the weather heats up each year, there’s always a flood of service calls from residences and businesses. Many HVAC companies struggle to handle the high call volumes only to disappoint clients and push them away. And who can blame them? How patient are you when it’s 88 degrees inside your house? Or 48 degrees?
Maximizing your resources is critical throughout the year, but especially important during seasonal changes and peaks. Without a clear strategy in place, managing your business is chaotic at best. There are many technological innovations that can help you put together a strategic plan for your business, including a GPS fleet tracking solution.
In this report, we’ll visit some challenges for HVAC service companies and then look at how a cloud-based GPS vehicle tracking solution can help solve many of those issues.
Many HVAC companies struggle to handle the high call volumes only to disappoint clients and push them away.
How Fleet Tracking Can Help Your HVAC Business
Fleet tracking technology is based off of three basic systems: Global positioning satellite location services, wireless data transfer and mapping through web applications. A box installed inside a vehicle reads its GPS location, direction of travel and speed. The box then uses a connection with cell towers to relay the GPS information to a data server, where it is translated by software into an interface that can be understood by an end user.
Even though it harnesses many different technologies, the power of a fleet-tracking solution lies in the software’s ability to compile many pieces of data and turn it into valuable, actionable information. problems facing HVAC companies today.
When it comes to creating daily routes or adjusting schedules on the fly, a fleet tracking system is an invaluable tool. Using mapping interface, dispatchers can create custom directions based on scheduled appointments. Dispatching applications bring turn-by-turn voice-guided direction to drivers, almost completely eliminating wrong turns and unnecessary delays.
One of the most valuable benefits of a fleet tracking solution is being able to manage your entire workforce without having to physically be in the vehicle with them. Using alerts and real-time location tracking, managers can see where their vehicles are, where they are headed and how fast they are going. You can see if an employee is taking extra-long breaks or making unapproved stops between jobs.
Even your best technician can be a danger on the road if they aren’t driving safely. Fleet tracking allows you to monitor driving behavior and decide how you want to reward the good and address the bad. Once you begin tracking vehicle data, many insurance companies will give you a discount on your premiums.
GPS-based fleet tracking is also easy to integrate into your business strategy. When dealing with multiple technicians servicing a large area, assigning territories and working hours to each van makes managing your fleet easier. There’s also no need to hover over the screen to get great tracking benefits. By utilizing alerts, the system can let you know when a vehicle leaves or enters a designated area or moves outside of set business hours using email or text messages. This is especially helpful in curbing moonlighting and recovering stolen equipment.
But for many HVAC companies, what a fleet tracking solution brings to their customer service is the greatest benefit.
For customers, vague service windows are an annoying part of contracting with any company. What if you were the first in your area to offer accurate arrival times? By being able to plan routes quickly and efficiently, you can schedule appointments or even reroute a less busy technician to help one that might be overbooked. You can even dispatch the closest technician to emergency calls, helping to create loyal customers for your business.
By removing the annoying parts of driving, your techs will be happier and more relaxed – giving better on-the-job performance and leaving your clients with a great lasting impression. Those positive experiences will help grow business through word-of-mouth, which is some of the strongest marketing around.
Fleet tracking solutions will help you save money and let you pass those savings on to your consumer. When you cut down on overhead costs like gas, insurance and maintenance, you’ll start seeing your expenses shrink and profits increase. Extra savings will even help you be more competitive in your marketplace as you can offer a level of service unparalleled at your price.
Fleet tracking allows you to monitor driving behavior and decide how you want to reward the good and address the bad.