Thinking of Switching Telematics Providers?

The customer experience with any product or service defines the relationship. Most of the time, a horrible experience causes us to look elsewhere.

Bad customer experience is also one of the main reason’s businesses and government agencies look to switch their telematics provider. The experience falls short of expectations and causes constant frustrations.

If you are someone currently thinking about switching telematics providers, here are some key considerations to take into account when looking for the greener grass.

>>>Ongoing customer support
>>>Training resources
>>>Access to technical support

Ongoing Customer Support 
One of the biggest headaches that can happen is running into ongoing support issues. What’s your current workflow for getting support with your current telematics provider? Do you have to email a generic email address and wait 24-48 hours for a response? Do you have to call a number during specific hours and get someone different every time? Does it take a while to get to someone? And when you do finally reach someone, do they resolve your issues quickly and efficiently and the first time?

It doesn’t have to be this way.

There are telematics providers who put the majority of their efforts into their ongoing support. Dedicated account management is one of the cornerstones of this effort in providing world-class customer support. Wouldn’t it be better to have one dedicated resource you could reach out to whenever you have a question or need help with training your staff or someone that provides reviews of your account to show you areas of opportunities to improve your business?

You don’t have to be just another number.

Training Resources
There’s almost nothing worse than a company who solely cares about making the sale and putting little to no focus on the customer experience. What is it like now if you have a question over a feature or specific functionality of your telematics provider’s software? Is it easy getting the answer you need? A common frustration among people looking to switch telematics providers is that their current provider offers minimal training resources online. This lack of training support makes it difficult to get the answers you need quickly and efficiently.

Online resources like help centers or knowledge bases are invaluable tools for customers to search for the answers they need quickly. Online tutorials also become essential for organization’s that have a larger staff who need training on new software.

Technical Support 
When technical support doesn’t meet our expectations, it can be one of the biggest headaches that’s not easy to remedy. Have you ever had to call into technical support multiple times for the same issue? Have you had to wait on hold to get to someone for minutes on end? Is it common to end a support call without your problem resolved?

Nightmare.

The companies that nail technical support have a strong correlation with high customer Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and online reviews. Problems with technical support teams usually center around a few areas.

First, if they are not an in-house team and outsourced, it can cause all sorts of problems. Mainly, it makes it difficult in that case to get consistent answers. Have you ever thought to yourself, “It really matters who you get on the phone,” so your issue gets resolved? It’s usually because the support team gets outsourced to a large company that does not train all employees the same. When you have an in-house support staff, you get consistency in answers and professionalism because they receive training on company culture.

Second, if the support staff are only available during regular business hours, it can be challenging to find the time to call and get your issues resolved. You’re a mobile workforce that needs to focus on your business and your customers. It’s rare to find the time in the day to call into a support team and troubleshoot issues during your business hours. That’s why finding a telematics provider that offers technical support outside of regular business hours can be the difference between a migraine headache experience, and customer service bliss.

Making a switch in telematics providers can seem like a daunting task with uninstalling and reinstalling hardware, learning a new software product, and integrating that product into your other systems, but is not switching worth all of the current issues and headaches you currently have?

Source: Fleet Financials

I´m a Fleet Management expert, and the manager of Advanced Fleet Management Consulting, that provides Fleet Management Consultancy Services.