TowingBossPro Blog — Accounts & Customers

Calls and Invoices Under the Account: Reading a Tow Customer's Full History

Somebody from an account calls your office. Maybe it is a body shop asking whether the car from last Tuesday was ever billed. Maybe it is a fleet manager asking how many times unit 214 has been towed this year. Maybe it is a dealer's new office manager who wants to know what they owe. In a lot of tow companies, every one of those questions turns into twenty minutes of digging.

Fleet Accounts: Serving Commercial Fleets That Call Again and Again showed why fleet managers value clear information. This article is about the feature that makes that possible for every account: calls and invoices kept under the account.

One Place for the Whole Relationship

In TowingBossPro, commercial accounts keep their calls and invoices under the account. Every tow, every jump start, every lot move and every invoice shows up in one history. The pickup and drop-off addresses, the vehicle details, the driver's photos and the payment status are all reachable from the account.

It also means the history does not depend on who took the call. Night dispatchers, weekend fill-ins and the owner answering the phone from home all add to the same record, and anyone can read it the next morning.

That changes how your office answers questions. Instead of searching by date and guessing which call belonged to which customer, you open the account and read down the list.

Answering Billing Questions Fast

Most account phone calls are about money: was this billed, was it paid, what is still open. With invoices under the account, the person answering the phone can see each invoice, whether it was paid and when. Payment follow-ups on unpaid invoices keep the open list short to begin with.

For account contacts who would rather look it up themselves, the customer app shows their invoices and lets them pay online. Fewer calls asking for copies means more time for dispatch.

Settling Disputes With Records

Disputes happen: a shop says a car arrived damaged, a fleet says a unit was never picked up, an owner says they were charged for storage days that should not count. The account history, with the call details, vehicle information, driver photos and storage dates, is how you settle them on facts.

Speed matters in a dispute. A shop manager who calls angry and gets a calm answer with photos and times within a couple of minutes usually calms down too. The same manager who waits two days for an answer starts to wonder what you are hiding.

Make sure your team knows where to look. A record that exists but cannot be found in a hurry is not much help when an upset customer is on the line.

Spotting Accounts That Are Slipping

The account history also tells you about the relationship itself. A body shop that called every few days and has been quiet for three weeks is a warning sign. A dealer that used to send transports and now only sends local moves may be using someone else for the long runs.

Reports by account make these trends visible across your whole list. Make a habit of reviewing your top accounts monthly:

• Which accounts sent fewer calls than usual
• Which accounts have unpaid invoices getting older
• Which new accounts are growing
• Which accounts you have not spoken to in a while

Retail Customers Have History Too

Account history is not only for commercial customers. A retail customer who called you two years ago for a breakdown and calls again today has a record, with their vehicle and previous invoices. Recognizing a returning customer — "we towed your truck last spring, is it the same one?" — is a small thing that people remember.

It works the other way as well. A retail customer who never paid a past invoice is worth knowing about before you roll a truck for them again. The history shows it plainly, so the decision is based on facts rather than someone's vague memory.

Search by phone number usually finds them fastest, since that is what shows up when they call.

Make the History Better With Every Call

The history is only as good as what gets entered. Make sure dispatchers always put calls under the right customer, pick saved locations when they apply and fill in the vehicle details. Make sure drivers take photos. Make sure invoices are created from the call so they link back.

Watch for the most common shortcut: creating a new customer during a busy call instead of searching for the existing one. Duplicates split the history in two, and neither half tells the full story. A quick search by phone number before creating anyone new prevents most of them.

When those habits stick, the history builds itself, and your company gets better at keeping customers without any extra work. That is the core idea behind towing account management software. Next, we turn to the customers who do not have accounts at all: retail callers.