Commercial passenger transportation services are constantly under pressure to provide excellent service to clients while effectively managing logistics, coordination, and safety. This is especially true with chauffeur and limousine companies, as their clients have higher expectations and demands.
In their efforts to meet these expectations and demands, drivers and managers may neglect comprehensively completing their Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs). This can lead to compliance issues, vehicle breakdowns, safety incidents, and degraded customer service. In an effort to help, let’s discuss how digital inspections improve customer service for chauffeur and limousine companies.
DIGITAL INSPECTIONS
Chauffeur and limousine companies can use stand-alone, fleet inspection software with cloud capabilities to transform their paper-based inspection processes into paperless digital processes. There are many helpful benefits of making this upgrade, including:
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Improved customer service delivery
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Real-time visibility with inspection processes
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Automation capabilities to streamline manual inputs and redundancies
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Centralized access with aggregate fleet inspection processes
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Real-time syncing functionality
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Resources and tools to stay compliant with national and local regulations
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Remote capabilities with cloud access
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Enhanced analytics and reporting for strategic development
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Reduces risk by improving safety compliance
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Improve fleet compliance and maintenance
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Essentially, digital inspections save time and money while improving daily operational workflows and compliance adherence. The level of improvement gained, ultimately, depends on factors such as the software’s quality and perspectives of chauffeur and limousine companies. Those who have the vision to make inspections a profitable process will see the potential in digitization. For instance, they’ll see the potential it has to improve customer service.
CONSISTENT SERVICE DELIVERY
When inspection processes are optimized with digital solutions, managers will have enhanced visibility and management capabilities with fleet inspections in real-time. This will give drivers the incentive to adhere to inspection checklists and managers the ability to streamline operational workflows.
The end result of optimizing inspections with digital solutions is more consistency with service delivery. This includes improvements with cleanliness, functionality, safety, punctuality, and aesthetics. Vehicles will look nicer, smell nicer, run better, and be safer when they are properly inspected, fixed, and maintained on a regular basis.
In an article found on LCT, Randi Busse, president of the Workforce Development Group Inc., shares her experiences with inconsistent service delivery with limousine services:
I had another driver who put on classical music, which was nice. He then changed it and put on rock music. That was not my taste of music. The ride should be about me, not about him.
…Another driver on a ride was wearing heavy cologne. That bothered me because I have a sensitivity to smell. It was a long car ride. One had a jacket, the other didn’t. One had a newspaper in the back of the car, the other one didn’t. Consistency is important, especially if I’m using the same company over and over again.
While chauffeur and limousine companies can’t satisfy every customer, nor control every aspect of their drivers’ lives, such as wearing too much cologne, etc., they can mitigate the lack of consistency in service delivery by optimizing the factors within their control, including the pre- and post-shift inspection processes.
CULTURE OF SAFETY AND QUALITY VS. EXPEDIENCY AND SUFFICIENCY
Completing inspections correctly and delivering excellent customer service isn’t as easy as many clients and outsiders may assume. Nevertheless, this is the standard chauffeur and limousine companies want and need to meet.
This can be a challenge when inefficient paper processes hinder operational capabilities and constant time demands on drivers/dispatchers work to create a culture of expediency and sufficiency vs. safety and quality. Basically, the problem is the workforce isn’t willing or able to go beyond sufficiency with inspection and service standards.
Adopting digital fleet inspection software will give chauffeur and limousine companies the ability to go beyond sufficiency with inspections and service. This upgrade can be the catalyst to instill a culture of safety and quality into the workforce. The end result will be a magnified focus on ensuring quality and safety with service delivery – starting from the inspection process and carrying over to customer service.
IMPROVED CUSTOMER AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION LEVELS
For chauffeur and limousine companies, the vehicle and driver are the customer-facing end-points of service delivery. When these two elements are optimally managed, customer service is bound to improve.
For instance, when vehicles are being diligently inspected at the end of a driver’s shift, the next driver will be satisfied with the condition of the vehicle and have a better attitude during their shift. Their good mood will naturally manifest into quality service and repeat customers.
Basically, employee and customer satisfaction levels go hand-in-hand in the commercial passenger transport industry, especially, with the luxury services that chauffeur and limousine companies provide. Switching to digital inspections will help drivers and managers stay more consistent with service delivery, subsequently, improving employee and customer satisfaction levels.
Digital inspections will give chauffeur and limousine companies the streamlined capabilities to set a higher standard with DVIRs. This will result in a higher quality of service delivery by reducing customer service failures and common driver pain-points.
CONCLUSION
Switching to digital inspections with vertical cloud-based software is an effective way for chauffeur and limousine companies to improve their operations and overall service delivery. The inefficiencies and limitations with paper-based inspection processes often lead to failures with inspection adherence and subsequent poor service delivery.
The expanded cloud functionality of paperless fleet inspection software will help improve customer service for chauffeur companies by enhancing their ability to deliver consistent service, instill a workplace culture of safety and quality vs. expediency and sufficiency, and improve employee and customer satisfaction levels. In the end, this will streamline daily operations and positively impact the bottom-line.
Once fleet managers are convinced of making the switch to digital inspections, the next step is to choose the right solution partner. For chauffeur and limousine companies in the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia, Whip Around is the leading choice. Our quality cloud-based software is easy-to-use and provides the expanded functionality chauffeur and limousine companies need to stay in compliance and optimize inspection processes. If interested in learning more please contact us or book a demo today.
