The key to a successful aggregate hauling operation is keeping your customers happy so they keep asking you to do more work for them. This short article contains five things you can do to improve your chances of being the first hauling company they call when they need a hauling service.
1. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
The quickest way to destroy a customer relationship is to promise and miss a delivery. It is better to pass on the order than to take one that you have little chance of getting to. If you take the order, be sure they know that you might not be able to get to it today and when you expect to be able to deliver.
Do you take your orders on paper? If someone places an order for next week, how do you keep track of that order? Do you need a better process to keep up with these future orders to ensure they aren’t missed when creating the schedule for the next day? Are there ways that you can improve the utilization of your trucks?
How do you keep track of the days off your drivers have requested? Do you ever find trucks sitting even though you had scheduled them to make deliveries? These easily avoided scheduling issues can get your day off to a bad start and cause late and missed deliveries.
2. Make it easy for them to do business with you.
Different customers like to place orders in different ways. Older customers may prefer to place an order via phone, while younger ones may want to text or order online. Is your order process designed for your convenience or theirs?
3. Keep them updated on the status of their order.
Often, your customer may have to have someone available when the delivery arrives. It helps them to know when your truck will be arriving and if there are any delays. If your customer calls you frequently for updates, this is a sign that they aren’t being kept updated adequately. This also means that you are spending time communicating when you could be doing something else.
Are there some processes you could implement to update your customer without being interrupted by a call? Could you implement some automated processes?
4. Consistent pricing and correct billing.
Is the salesperson sending out job quotes well before the material is ordered? Or does a prospect call in to get a price and then tell you not to place the order until they have called around for other prices? When they call back a day later, can you ensure you give them the same price you previously quoted?
Frequently, DOT-related jobs are quoted months before the job begins. How does the dispatcher know about these quoted prices when a customer finally calls in? Customers aren’t happy when the price is more than they had originally been quoted.
5. Easier reconciliation with their own data.
Your larger customers frequently take your invoice, the invoice they got from the quarry, and the images of the tickets you sent them to reconcile. Can you make it easier for them to do this than having to step through each ticket and compare it to the line items on the invoice from you and the quarry? Remember, they may also be doing this for other aggregate hauling companies.
How can you stand out and make it easier for them to do this reconciliation? Can you provide them with a spreadsheet that has this ticket information in a format that they can search and sort? Or, even better, can you give them online access to a customer portal that has this information available?
If you are interested in how Dump Truck Dispatcher can help you delight your customers, visit our site at https://dumptruckdispatcher.com. Then click the big red demo button to request a demo.
