This post is a part of our series, Samsara: Your Partner for the Road Ahead, that provides insights and examples from our customers on how Samsara can help you transform your fleet operations. To learn more, visit our in-depth online guide.

According to a recent study, 89% of customers have switched to a competitor following a poor experience. Because of this, delivering outstanding customer service is a critical differentiator for your business. And now more than ever, businesses are focusing on quality customer service in order to keep customers happy and improve retention.

Regardless of your industry, exceeding customer expectations is no easy feat. But thankfully, fleet technology is here to help. A fleet management platform can help you increase driver efficiency and keep customers informed, so you can better meet your customers’ demands and even secure new business. Read on to learn four ways you can leverage a fleet management platform to improve your fleet’s quality and retention. 

1. Improve driver productivity and efficiency 

Because drivers are often the first people to interact with your customers in-person, it’s important to equip them with the tools they need to maximize their efficiency. Without proper technology for routing or capturing documents, drivers may struggle to hit their stops on time. This can damage customer relationships and increase the opportunity for churn. 

With a fleet management platform built with drivers in mind, your drivers can easily respond to changing conditions on the road and ensure on-time service. For example, the Samsara Driver App offers drivers real-time route information and two-way messaging, helping your back office easily re-route vehicles remotely and send messages to drivers to keep them on time. Additionally, with mobile documents and paperless e-signatures, drivers can let customers accept and approve agreements on the spot, further improving the customer experience. 

For California-based Sunrise Produce, increasing driver productivity meant better understanding route inefficiencies. By leveraging historical trip data in Samsara, Sunrise Produce was able to improve routes for their drivers, enabling them to complete their stops on time and reducing the average time to complete each route by 47 minutes. Not only did this improve their customer experience, but this reduction in time spent on the road saved an additional $50,000 in fuel costs for their fleet.  

2. Keep customers informed 

With 69% of businesses expecting an Amazon-like buying experience with real-time ETAs, it’s important to have technology that allows you to communicate real-time information to your customers.  

With Samsara real-time GPS tracking, geofences, and Live Sharing, you can create a smoother customer experience and minimize the need for customer calls.  

This was true for MacAllister Machinery, a construction and heavy equipment dealer with more than 3,500 vehicles and 650 drivers. To ensure that customers have complete visibility into delivery status, MacAllister sends Samsara Live Sharing links to provide real-time ETAs. 

MacAllister was able to use Samsara to draw geofences around every customer and branch location, as well as specific drop off spots for larger locations. This way, they could tell exactly when a vehicle arrived for delivery. By using Samsara geofences and Live Sharing, MacAllister streamlined communication and completely eliminated phone calls between customers and back office staff. Now that their delivery ETAs are automated, they’ve been able to strengthen their customer service and improve ETA predictability by 80%.

3. Ensure product quality 

If your fleet transports sensitive cargo such as food and beverage, or dairy, it’s critical to ensure product quality in transit in order to avoid lost or rejected loads. Furthermore, keeping accurate logs of temperature and humidity data is critical to maintaining customer trust.  

With remote temperature controls and additional wireless sensors—including door, cargo, temperature, and humidity monitors—your fleet can minimize customer complaints and reduce rejected loads. For example, Samsara’s wireless Environmental Monitors and Asset Gateways give you and your drivers real-time visibility into reefer temperatures. Automatic alerts notify you of reefer failures before they impact your business so you can ensure product quality, reduce rejected loads, and keep customers happy. 

Based in Sonoma, CA, Clover Dairy would sometimes receive calls from customers complaining about late deliveries and spoiled goods. With no way to prove when deliveries arrived and were unloaded, Distribution Manager Paul Drake had no choice but to accept the costs of the rejected loads. With Samsara wireless Door Monitors and Cargo Sensors, Drake can now track loading and unloading times at delivery locations in order to ensure product quality and save thousands of dollars per load.

4. Provide exceptional customer service 

Above all else, the key to keeping customers happy is providing customer service that goes above and beyond. From fast response times to accurate documentation, leveraging a fleet management platform will help set your drivers and support team up for success.  

With a dedicated Driver App, drivers can capture e-signatures, proof of delivery, and more in order to digitize your documents and make information sharing more accessible. In addition, with access to all of your data in one dashboard, your back office staff can quickly investigate claims of overages, shortages, damages, and missed delivery windows and easily communicate information with your customers. This helps your staff resolve issues faster, leading to a more positive customer experience. 

GP Transco, a Samsara 2020 Top Fleet Award Winner, achieved a 99% on-time delivery rate thanks to real-time ETAs and insight into drivers’ live locations. Not only does this help GP Transco improve their customer service, but it also helps strengthen their brand’s reputation.

We invite you to hear directly from our customers

We invite you to watch our on-demand webinar: Inside Look: Secrets from Top Fleets. This exclusive webinar gives you direct access to four of our most accomplished customers—ArcBest, GP Transco, Sprint Waste, and Athens-Clarke County—recent winners of the 2020 Samsara Top Fleet Awards. During the 90-minute webinar, leaders from these fleets share insider tips for leveraging Samsara to drive next-level efficiency and safety.

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