Consistent timeliness is a real plus when it comes to customer satisfaction on electrical jobs. Yet how many electricians show up on time? If you look at reviews online, you will see the contractors with the least amount of stars have negative reports that they showed up late. Reviews like that can break a small electrical business. If you have ever hired an electrician, you’ve heard all the excuses in the electrical box: The traffic was crazy, there was construction going on, the boss had me stop last minute to finish another job, and yada, yada, yada.
A recent study of negative Yelp reviews for electricians found scheduling is the number one cause of lost business for electricians. That’s right. When the electrician can’t make it on time due to time management issues, poor communication, or the electrician couldn’t find enough time in the day to squeeze in all the work, customers give up and hire the competition. No matter what the excuse and no matter how good the electrician is, showing up late or not showing up at all can cause an electrical company to lose a client.
Yet the problem of being late should no longer be an issue with the latest in route optimization technology. Those jokes about the cable guy using a 12-hour window to get the job done (or not showing up at all) will no longer have relevance. Using a route optimization app will assure that your electricians arrive on time for their jobs, in the most efficient time frame. By utilizing a route optimization app, contractors can benefit from the increased efficiency of daily operations. Streamlining a company’s services allows owners to take on more clients per day and to reach customers during scheduled hours. The electrician who is always on time due to having the right route optimization and communication system under their tool belt gets the job every time, and all the business they can handle, as long as they use all the right tools.
How route optimization benefits electrical contractors
Not only will a route optimization app insure your electricians arrive on time, but an optimized delivery route can save an electrical contractor business between 20-40 percent on fuel, while reducing wear and tear on vehicles, helping the company cut costs on daily expenditures.
Finding the best delivery route helps business owners save money, increase customer satisfaction, earn more clients, and make the service stops much easier, contributing to higher business ratings and increased customer retention levels. Route optimization can also alleviate stress on your electrical employees. When they know they can arrive on time and finish each job, they feel good about themselves, and value their work for your company.
Electricians can spend less time planning their stops and more time with their customers using route optimization provides them with the following advantages:
- Saves Time: Combines multiple stops with into one seamless route
- Improves Efficiency: Inspects road conditions to determine if construction, road damage, traffic, or weather will slow their route, and makes real-time corrections
- Provides Client Communication: Let’s clients in on time frames for the service
- Informs Owners: Keeps the owners in the loop by allowing them to track their electricians whereabouts during the day
Straightaway is a must-have app for electrical work
Route optimization apps, such as at Straightaway, use the most state-of-the-art algorithm to find the best way to get from point A to point B by avoiding hazards and slow-downs that can increase travel time. Straightaway’s single optimization route is preferred by contractors. The app can organize your electrical stops in the most efficient order, allowing electricians to easily visualize service routes to see their number of clients, driving path, and proximity between customers. By translating their client route into a visual map, they can quickly see the different stops, names of each client, and real-time traffic or road condition changes.
The construction and maintenance industry is being transformed by route optimization. But finding the right software for electrical contractors needs to be just the right circuit. While new to the route-planning game, Straightaway has worked its way up to be the #1 route planning app for huge companies such as UPS, USPS, FedEx, and even Amazon. That’s why electrical contractors are catching on that the easy to use, highly-intelligent optimization algorithm features can apply to their work as well. They are realizing it’s just as important as their top-of the line screwdrivers and pliers. Straightaway helps their electricians optimize their routes, avoid traffic jams, and finish their work in the quickest, most efficient way possible.
Straightaway’s easy-to-use features
Fortunately for electricians, the Straightaway app is as simple and easy to use as a voltage tester. You can add and manage your drivers right in the app and dispatch them using optimized routes. You will be able to view their live location in the field, and see a route replay of where they have been working. If you need to make changes to their route, that’s perfectly fine. The Straightaway app uses route optimization to change the course of any electrician ... in an instant!
• Instant Capture Stops: To add delivery stops into the Straightaway, all you have to do is snap a picture of them from a list or excel sheet. In an instant, the app recognizes the addresses and generates the most efficient route to reach your electrical clients on time.
• Fastest Route Optimization: The Straightaway algorithm can schedule your stops in the quickest order possible. The app prioritizes saving the electrician's time on the road, with users reporting an average of one hour spared per shift in comparison to other route delivery apps.
• Real-Time Traffic Updates: Straightaway factors in current obstacles such as traffic congestion, road closures, and more to actively reroute your electricians from slow-moving traffic.
• Safe Navigation: Built-in navigation provides Straightaway users with detailed, turn-by-turn directions to every delivery spot, making it unnecessary to switch back and forth between the app and third party GPS systems, keeping your electrician’s eyes on the road. Straightaway lets electricians see a birds-eye view of the houses and offices they must visit on the job route. Bosses can keep an eye on their progress to help them plan their day accordingly.
Electrical jobs made simple by Straightaway
Sending off an electrician with a paper list of houses to visit is a thing of the past. If you own an electrical contracting business, consider saving time, money, peace of mind by using the Straightaway app. You’re going to have more time in the morning to load your truck because the day will be neatly planned out, and your electricians can focus their energy on customer service and fixing the problems, rather than wasting time circling around trying to find house numbers. Straightaway helps owners show their employees they care about their well-being on the road with safe navigation tools, and gives electricians the route they need to arrive on time to serve their customers.
