AAA of Alabama — Increasing Installs and Improving Member Service

Company Profile

AAA is North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization. Founded in 1902 they have been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. As a part of this dedicated team, AAA of Alabama sought to raise the bar even higher with Actsoft’s Comet Tracker.

Challenges

AAA of Alabama maintains approximately 24-30 different battery models. With this variety, it is important to be able to identify which models are in low supply, so that they can reorder accordingly. Because the inventory of batteries within each truck was not accurately maintained, it caused longer wait times for the members, which resulted in higher service costs. Additionally, the missed installs due to lack of supply was hurting the contractor’s bottom line. Each battery replacement yields a profit. Prior to developing a solution, contractors had no method of monitoring the loss of revenue and simply weren’t able to see why their lack of an inventory system was costing them money.

A final concern was the 90-120 day battery life cycle. If the battery exceeded its expiration, they couldn’t install it in a member’s car and were forced to absorb the costs of the battery. AAA needed a way for providers to monitor each battery for freshness and rotate them in a timely fashion.

Benefits

Actsoft was able to help by developing a program that was complex enough to handle the job but hassle-free enough for field implementation. Comet Mobile Inventory or Battery Inventory Manager (BIM), as AAA of Alabama calls it, is now a new product offered by Actsoft. The program was specially tailored for AAA’s battery inventory, as the job required, yet the software can manage mobile inventory in any company.

BIM streamlines information gathered in the field, via mobile handsets, and updates inventory accounting. Rich in features, BIM has been able to address the concerns of AAA of Alabama, saving their contractors time and helping them capture additional revenue.

Arab Pest Control — Questions About Service Are No Longer Bugging This Company

Company Profile

ARAB Pest Control is a service company that has been in business since 1929. They operate branches throughout the United States and service both residential and commercial customers. Their Evansville branch has been in business since 1965 and has approximately 11 mobile workers. On any given day, ARAB Pest Control makes 10-12 client stops and takes a tremendous amount of pride in customer service. The name Arab Pest is viewed as a standard of excellence and the Evansville branch sought new ways to uphold this level of service.

Challenges

Before learning about Comet Tracker, ARAB Pest Control had challenges fulfilling their goal of providing outstanding customer service. Too often, accounts receivable met payment refusal based on the perception that minimal (or no) time was spent on site. ARAB Pest Control had no way of verifying the actual time spent per client. Often, services occur when the customer is not present, so it was important to have proof.

If a solution were in place to clearly validate the time on site, these issues could be resolved quicker and with less finger pointing.

Accounts receivable also faced challenges in field data collection, most specifically the time it took to translate into existing systems. Additionally, ARAB Pest Control needed to know where their technicians were so that they could dispatch the closest truck to a job, and what and their driving speeds were, to satisfy safety and fuel consumption concerns.

Benefits

Comet tracker is a staple in ARAB Pest Control’s success in achieving the high levels of customer service they desired. Using Comet Tracker, they can provide accurate reports of stop time and easily resolve disputes. By utilizing the “Closest To” feature, ARAB Pest Control can provide prompt responses to urgent client calls by sending the closest technician to the job. This eliminates unnecessary travel and fuel costs. Speeding disputes have also been resolved using the data provided by Comet Tracker in the individual tracking reports.

ARAB Pest Control has experienced an immeasurable boost in the quality of their customer relations, reduced unnecessary travel and decreased hefty fuel expenses.

Moores Refrigeration — Comet Tracker Keeps Employees Hone

Company Profile

Moore’s refrigeration is a locally owned and operated HVAC contractor that provides state of the art services such as repair, installation and chimney sweeping to businesses and residents of Harvest, Alabama. With more than 34 years of experience, Moore’s objective was to improve work flow, hold employees accountable and improve customer service.

Challenges

Moore’s refrigeration had no way of knowing employees’ whereabouts during work hours. This caused a problem when Moore’s needed to decipher who would be the best person to route to which job. Additionally, there was no way to verify if the company’s vehicles were being used for other than company business, because employees took the vehicles home with them.

Moore’s needed a proven solution that could improve customer service, improve daily work flow and hold employees accountable for the use of company assets.

Benefits

Comet Tracker by Actsoft was a solution that met all of their needs. From dispatching work orders to basic vehicle location, the robust Comet Tracker application was the ideal product for efficient mobile field force automation. Moore’s chose to use the Comet Tracker application on handsets that were mounted in their vehicles. By doing so, they have increased productivity by assigning jobs to the closest worker and now they can view the location of their entire workforce at any given time.

Moore’s has also increased their customer service by reducing their customers’ wait time. Vehicle speed is monitored daily by using the Comet Tracker dashboard and speed reports insure safety. A report is generated every Monday to verify the use of vehicles over the weekend. The “Closest to” feature is invaluable for day-to-day operations, which they use to find the closest worker to a specific job, which ultimately reduces mileage and fuel costs.

By utilizing all of the Comet Tracker features, Moore’s Refrigeration has experienced a decrease of fuel costs, payroll and overall operating expenses.

JAN-PRO Commercial Cleaning — Cleaning Up The Bottom Line

Company Profile

JAN-PRO Commercial Cleaning offers a professional touch to the cleaning industry by providing customers with well-trained franchise business owners who focus on customer appreciation and possess the attitude, desire and determination to maintain superior quality cleaning. For the past 5 years, JAN-PRO has been recognized as an emerging brand in Entrepreneur Magazine’s annual 500 franchise ranking.

Additionally, they were ranked number 1 in franchise growth in 2006 and number 15 in the top 100 franchises overall. Their goal is to provide the highest quality, the most up to date cleaning service and the very best prices. The company tailors each cleaning program to meet the customer’s needs assuring the best value for the money. The customers pay only for the cleaning services they want.

Challenges

JAN-PRO had no way of knowing where their workers were at any given time. Moreover there was no way of identifying the best person for a specific job without knowing each worker’s geographical location. It was difficult to verify appointments and work that needed to be performed.

Benefits

Jan-Pro chose Actsoft’s Comet Tracker due to the fact that the application is used right on their mobile handsets. They were also able to export data from Comet Tracker to their back-end Order Entry and CRM system. The data from Comet Tracker is now helping with route optimization and directions, which saves time, fuel and wear & tear on the their vehicles.

They also import orders from custom built internal software to dispatch to drivers using Comet Tracker. The drivers get the orders via their handsets with all the relevant information including order number, due date, customer addresses etc. They can transmit back to the office once orders are completed. The administrators rely on Comet Tracker and the dispatcher to make decisions on job assignments as well as set the expectations of the customers.

Additionally, they use mileage reports to calculate expenses, location reports to make sure the driver was where he or she was supposed to be and speed reports to make sure the employees are law abiding. The product has helped them control payroll and provide outstanding customer service making them one of the best in the industry.

Halter Tree Service — Going Out On A Limb To Save Costs

Company Profile

Since 1982, Halter Tree Service has worked with government agencies, utility companies, and homeowners in Indiana. In that time, their business has evolved into a major contractor for clearing power lines in the state. They currently have a majority of their workers in the field and travel throughout the state is continuous.

Challenges

Halter Tree Service allowed their employees to take their work trucks home. By doing so, there was no accountability for the trucks. They were experiencing skyrocketing fuel costs and were suspicious that use was not directly connected to business. To correct this, Halter Tree Service investigated their monitoring options with Comet Tracker.

Benefits

Since deploying the Comet Tracker solution Halter has seen a number of benefits. They gave the application to their biggest customer, a utility company. By utilizing the “Closest To” feature, the dispatcher can identify a Halter truck in an area where a power line is down and communicate with the truck directly. This has increased efficiency and enhanced customer service, which has in turn allowed Halter Tree Service to double the amount of guaranteed business and double their fleet.

Additionally, by tracking their trucks on nights and weekends, Halter has been able to identify and curtail non-business truck use, which cut their fuel cost from $15K per month to just under $13K…a savings of over 15%...or approximately $25,000 a year.