If you have a painful experience with your dentist, you’ll likely find a new one. The same can be said about restaurants you may frequent. You’ll avoid the place which failed its health inspection. Instead you’ll return to a spot where the service and food were amazing. Such a mental inventory is how you ensure you have a pleasant checkup or a great meal.
Given the usefulness of such an approach, isn’t it surprising that you aren’t ranking and managing the service locations used by your fleet? The rewards of such a system are truly incredible if a consistent and regular evaluation process is put in place.
First, you must develop a checklist or criteria for compiling such a scorecard. Otherwise, making any kind of determination about the quality of service locations is simply arbitrary. This method will help prevent inaccurate impressions about a service location that previously may have been based on a single instance, or the result of a fleet maintenance manager simply having a bad day.
You should frequently review how well service locations communicate with you. Are they using some kind of online or computerized tool to simplify and streamline the repair process? When ranking these facilities, consider whether a truck is properly repaired during a visit. Did it have to return to the facility shortly afterward? How well does the final invoice match the repair estimate?
It is important to repeatedly review your ranking system and the service locations included within your list. It’s possible that you simply had a difficult encounter with a manager that is no longer employed there.
A consistent process paired with a comprehensive scorecard will allow you to fairly compare the performance of all of the service locations you utilize and best determine what fits your fleet’s needs going forward.
If you don’t have a thorough ranking system in place and aren’t managing it on a regular basis, you have no one but yourself to blame. You better be ready to be left in pain or end up with a bad taste in your mouth.
Comments (2)
Interesting post. I’m surprised trucking businesses don’t rank service and repair facilities. When I can’t DIY it, I’m very careful where I take my out of warranty BMWs.
What would this look like? You’d need some kind of standardized criteria the entire industry could agree on, right?
The Fleet Maintenance Vendor selection during an On-Road breakdown needs to identify strong “uptime suppliers” with business credibility. Suggested ranking of the multitude of supplier options could start with;
1-Triage Analysis available
2-Hours of Service
3-Technician Accreditations
4-Ease of Access and Attention to Follow Up
Then implement a objective scoring system per service event. The ultimate score reinforcing “Uptime” for the Fleets Equipment compared to all their preferred vendors.
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