Aarjav Trivedi is the founder and CEO of Ridecell, a leading intelligent automation platform for fleets.
The digitization of consumer life is really something of a marvel. You can order a $15 pizza and get notifications when it goes into the oven, when it’s done being baked, when it gets into the delivery van and how many stops away it is. It’s a fantastic customer experience.
Now let’s switch the focus to the B2B arena. For businesses that rely on fleets—and routinely order things that cost a lot more than $15—the experience isn’t nearly as magical.
Why a business that has ordered a $50,000 vehicle can’t get the same seamless digital experience that they regularly get in their consumer life is a bit of a head-scratcher, but it’s also an opportunity-in-waiting for the fleet management companies (FMCs) that serve these customers.
In looking to emulate the strengths of B2C operations, I believe it is important for FMCs to look for ways to integrate and streamline their digital systems. This way, you can better meet rising expectations, unlock new market opportunities and enhance operational efficiency.
Too Many Silos Spoil The Experience
To be fair, much of the problem comes down to technological silos rather than any lack of desire on the part of FMCs to service customers at the highest levels.
In my view, FMCs have actually done a pretty impressive job of making investments in digital technologies over the years, but to the extent that these systems have customer-facing aspects to them, they are often somewhat disjointed.
Want to know when that brand-new vehicle you ordered is actually going to arrive? Log in to a delivery portal. If upfitting is required to kit out the vehicle with special gear before you take delivery, you’ll probably have to log in to a separate portal. And so on and so on.
A Little More Flexibility, Please
Of course, customers don’t just want the things they are already getting today served more efficiently; they also want new and different product offerings.
For example, when customers order a vehicle from an FMC, it might not be available for three to four months due to supply chain snarls. This is a scenario where a customer would love to have a short-term vehicle subscription made available to them for those few months.
Or maybe, they only need vehicles for a week while a couple of vehicles that unexpectedly broke down are getting serviced and put back on the road.
Having shorter-term and more flexible offerings is a way for FMCs to give customers what they want and what they need, rather than simply offering a spin on “you can have any type of leasing arrangement you want as long as it’s the type we give you.”
This is the kind of thinking that can help you not only meet evolving customer expectations but also differentiate your services. The key is to find ways to provide real value and flexibility.
What’s Good For The Customer Is Good For The FMC
The benefits of creating a better customer experience are a two-way street: It’s a way for FMCs to expand their addressable markets to sell to new customer classes and bases.
There are groups of customers, less than 100 vehicles, too small to work with many FMCs because it’s just not economical to service them. But if, for example, you are able to provide that customer with a self-service portal where they can order new vehicles, schedule an upfitting or make other routine requests, you can open up significant opportunities.
It’s about finding ways for smaller customers to participate in the buying power and other advantages that an FMC provides.
Meeting Expectations
What’s the advice for FMCs that want to reach this nirvana of a fully digitized customer experience and the market opportunities they present?
1. Streamline Operations
From a technology perspective, be practical. Traditional approaches to breaking down silos are to create a walled garden with an entirely integrated ERP system or to choose a solution where there are pre-integrated partners.
While this approach has certain benefits, it has the disadvantage of being labor intensive and slow—and by the time the efforts are done, the solution might be out of date. I find that keeping the systems you have and using an orchestration layer to pull relevant information from the multiple disparate systems is a more nimble approach. Put another way: There’s no need to change the foundation if you can just change the facade.
2. Embrace Automation
Even as you embrace automation, make sure you’re not taking the human fully out of the loop. Orchestration is different from automation in that it strings together automations for tasks where there is a known and definitive answer, but leaves the workflow open when there are human decisions.
Take the example of an FMC selling a car: An orchestration solution will gather up all the relevant information (vehicle condition, market conditions, predicted maintenance, etc.) and make a recommendation—but it will wait for a person to make the ultimate decision.
3. Prioritize User Friendly Design
Take a few cues from B2C tracking systems like our earlier mentioned pizza tracking example and ensure that your systems are user friendly enough that anyone can use them and get value from them. Dashboards and intuitive visual interfaces are key here so that people don’t have to go digging for the information they need or enter obscure prompts. Instead, put the info they need right in front of them and make it unmissable, easily understandable and actionable.
Taken together, these steps provide a path to a seamless, digital customer experience that already exists around nearly every B2C transaction and has come to be expected by customers. FMCs should pay close attention and take heed because a similar set of customer expectations are already knocking at their door.
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