TowingBossPro Blog — Accounts & Customers

Two-Way Texting With Tow Customers and Account Contacts

Text is how most people prefer to talk to a business now, and tow customers are no exception. A stranded driver would rather text an exact location than shout it over traffic. A body shop manager would rather text "send it to the back lot" than call and wait on hold. A fleet coordinator would rather text a unit number than spell it out.

The problem is where those texts end up. In many tow companies, they land on a dispatcher's personal phone, the owner's phone or a driver's phone — and nobody else can see them. Customer Texts That Calm a Stranded Driver: On-the-Way and Arrival Alerts covered the texts you send automatically. This article covers the conversation that follows.

What Two-Way Texting Changes

With two-way texting in TowingBossPro, customer replies come back into the system next to the customer and call they belong to. Every dispatcher can see them. When the day shift hands off to the night shift, the conversation is still there. When the owner wants to know what a customer was told, it is on the record.

That sounds like a small thing until you think about how many tow company problems start with "I told your guy..." and nobody knowing which guy or what was said.

It also takes the load off personal phones. Dispatchers and drivers do not need to share their own numbers, and customers do not end up texting someone who has gone home for the night.

Common Retail Conversations

On retail calls, two-way texting usually handles the small changes that make a big difference to the driver:

• A better location: "We pushed it into the parking lot on the right"
• A change of plans: "Can you take it home instead of the shop?"
• Access details: "Gate code is on the call box, just press 2"
• Payment questions: "Can I pay when you drop it off?"

Each reply reaches the dispatcher, who can update the call and let the driver know. The customer feels heard, and the driver goes to the right place.

Common Account Conversations

Account contacts text for different reasons. A body shop asks when the next car is coming. A dealer asks whether you can fit in a lot move this afternoon. A property manager asks whether a particular vehicle was removed. A fleet coordinator texts a new breakdown with a unit number and a location.

Because the conversation sits with the customer record, you can see the account's whole texting history alongside its calls and invoices. When a new dispatcher takes a text from an account they do not know, they can scroll up and see how the relationship works.

For the office, this is also a quiet way to stay in touch. A short text to a quiet account — "haven't seen you in a while, anything we can help with?" — is easier to send and easier to answer than a cold phone call.

Ground Rules for Your Team

Two-way texting works best when everybody uses it the same way. Agree on a few rules:

• Customer conversations go through the system, not personal phones
• Answer during business hours promptly, and set expectations for after hours
• Keep messages short, polite and specific
• Never argue by text — if a conversation gets heated, call

Make sure drivers know too. If a customer has a driver's personal number from a previous job, the conversation drifts off the record. Steer it back.

Texting and Segment Costs

Text messages are billed by length, and long messages can count as several. Keep routine texts short and to the point; it saves money and customers read short messages more carefully anyway. Save the long explanations for a phone call or an email.

Also keep the tone professional. A text from your company is a written record. Write every message as if the account manager, the vehicle owner and your own attorney might all read it later.

Texting Builds Relationships

Customers notice when a tow company is easy to reach. Being able to text your office and get a quick, informed answer — from whoever is on shift — is a real difference compared with leaving voicemails. For accounts, it is one of the things that makes you the easy company to work with.

Two-way texting is a central part of towing account management software, because the conversation is part of the customer relationship. Next, we look at the customer app, where customers can see the driver, their invoices and their payment options on their own.