It is common knowledge that the continuing coronavirus epidemic is still causing widespread changes in the way companies do business and individuals conduct their daily lives.
While wearing facial coverings and social distancing are standard procedures in most areas, certain businesses must develop new ways of coping with potential infection to protect the safety of their staff and the people they serve.
One of those industries is the roadside assistance providers. Roadside assistance businesses ranging from local county tow drivers to national companies like the American Automobile Association (AAA) are putting procedures in place to maintain the health and safety of the general public.
The goal? Minimizing person-to-person contact while providing required assistance to motorists that need help.
From initial identification of the individual in need to service completion verification and subsequent payment, going contactless through the use of cloud-based technologies is a smart way to keep everyone — and their data — protected throughout the assistance process.
The Advantages of Contactless Operation for Roadside Assistance
While social distancing can reduce the spread of virus and contribute to personal safety, there are many facets of the roadside assistance process that require revision in order to more closely follow the recommended Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.
Companies ranging from insurance giant Allstate to local tow assistance providers are turning to contactless options and a cloud-based environment to keep people and their information safe.
Minimizing Risk, Maximizing Efficiency
Running credit cards the old way — over the phone or in person — slowed down the assistance process as dispatchers were tied up processing payments rather than accepting new calls for assistance.
Contactless options such as mobile payment technologies allow drivers to take payments in remote locations with a simple card swipe on a smartphone or a digital invoice that can be sent remotely and paid through the customer’s phone app.
Contactless features like an SMS that identifies a qualified motorist is another way to speed up service and confirm identity without the need for personal interaction, and digital dispatch options allow you to manage field operations remotely.
Having a text record of the entire assistance transaction from initial contact through identity confirmation, assistance, payment, and sign-off allows business to track service analytics to improve response times as well as providing a record of all activities related to a specific call.
Securing Payments and Confirming Work Performance
SMS-based technologies work for securing payments as well if an assistance request exceeds the policy limits or a customer has no policy and must pay all fees up front.
Rather than handling cash or even credit cards, which can be contaminated with the coronavirus or other germs, smart tow drivers are switching to systems that allow providers to request and receive payment via SMS.
Even service completion verification can be done without the need for a personally signed invoice. A customer would simply receive a text with a link that allows them to verify the job was completed to their satisfaction and they are good to go.
Blue Technologies Can Assist Your Tow Service in Going Contactless
We understand there is a significant challenge to changing standard, long-standing procedures and adopting new technologies.
But we also understand that there is a significant benefit to doing so.
At Blue Technologies, we help businesses of all types and sizes match up their needs and business objectives with the right technologies that can help them adapt to the changing landscape of interaction in our post-COVID world.
Our team of IT experts can sit down with your staff and uncover the pain points slowing down your ability to serve your customers and develop trusted ways to reduce the amount of in-person contact necessary.
Using cloud-based technologies, we can help your implement contactless protocols that will speed up services and empower your drivers to assist more motorists in an average workday.
Data sent via the cloud can help you meet compliance standards for data privacy regulations and can store data securely and redundantly to protect your information in the case of data loss to due theft, breach, or natural disaster.
Help your roadside assistance business meet the changing landscape of customer service in a post-COVID environment. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant today and learn how cloud-based technologies can bring contactless assistance within reach.