ESG & Industry Updates

Social Media for Business, Should You Embrace it Even If You Hate It?

Posted by Ed Burke on Oct 21, 2014 11:05:00 AM

Picture of a mobile device with app icons

Spoiler Alert: The answer is YES!

Are you using Social Media for your business?

Admittedly, running social media accounts for your job or company isn't always fun. It sometimes gets tricky to make sure you're keeping the company voice consistent and professional across platforms, and not allowing personal use/views/posts to cross into the "work realm". 

However, on another level - it opens up channels for interacting with your customers, prospects and employees to interact with and (hopefully) support your company. You can see some really cool stuff that customers and prospects are up to that you might normally never hear about. 

When it comes down to it - social media on both the business and personal fronts is about relationship building and maintenance. And since the launch of social media, companies of all sizes have gotten a more human face and persona, and on some platforms, social media presence holds companies accountable to keeping customers happy. Isn't that the ultimate goal anyways?

I wrote an article for Oil & Energy Magazine this month about using social media to build relationships and garner opportunities for your company. The article details which platforms are better for what types of interactions, and some basic tips on running your business social media sites. You can read the article here: Oil & Energy Magazine: Social Media Offers Opportunities 

 

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Topics: Customer Service, social media, social media for business, marketing, value added services

Solving for the Customer with Remote Wireless Fuel Tank Monitoring

Posted by Ed Burke on Aug 29, 2013 12:25:00 PM

In a world of ever appearing new technology the promises the world for your business, how do you decide what options justify the intense time and money investments? For us it comes down to a single two-part question, “Does this streamline our operations for our business and make our employees jobs better and more efficient?” And more importantly: “How does this enhance our customers’ experience?”

One of the technologies we’ve adapted over the past few years that delivers on both these criteria is wireless remote tank monitoring. If you’re unfamiliar, these are essentially small wireless transmitters that are installed on a fuel tank and push notifications on fuel levels periodically. The notifications go to a secure, cloud based platform.

This has been fantastic for both our dispatchers and drivers. Dispatchers are able to see levels on monitored customers’ tanks, so they are able to plan delivery routes out further and they are able to maximize delivery gallons as well (a 75% fill over a time based automatic that would typically be around 50%).  This makes drivers more efficient, and delivering more gallons in less time allows us to keep costs and therefore prices down. The monitoring also helps our customer service department by reducing the number of same-day urgent run out calls.

Certain industries have wide swings in product usage depending on different factors – a particularly busy marina weekend, an unexpected snow storm for a DPW, an unusually cold weekend, or a power outage kicking on your generator… I’ve been in the dispatch and driver seat on these kind of urgent calls and its extremely stressful – I don’t doubt its infinitely more so for the customer, and for a lot of people, being remotely monitored essentially takes this entire scenario off the table.  That allows you to focus on your business and your customers, rather than sticking a tank, calculating your usage, etc.

I wrote an article for Oil & Energy Magazine on wireless remote tank monitoring that gets a little more into the details, if you would like, you can read it here: Oil & Energy Magazine Online. If you’d like more info on our remote tank monitoring and other inventory controls, you can click HERE , or shoot us a comment or email.

Are any of you on remote monitoring currently? How has it helped (or not helped) your operations? 


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Topics: Marinas, Customer Service, remote tank monitoring

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