TowingBossPro Blog — Roadside Assistance

Choosing Roadside Assistance Software: Questions to Ask Before You Commit

Every software company says it is built for towing. The only way to find out is to ask specific questions and then run real roadside calls through it. This last article in the series is a buying checklist: the questions to ask, and what a good answer looks like, based on everything a roadside call actually needs.

Does the Call Record Fit a Roadside Call?

Moving Roadside Calls Off Notepads, Group Texts and Spreadsheets covered how to make the switch. Before you switch, check the basics. Does every call have a pickup address and a drop-off address, so a roadside call can become a tow without starting over? Does it carry vehicle details: year, make, model, color, plate and VIN? Is there a place for driver notes that the driver actually sees? Is roadside its own category, separate from tows, so your reports mean something?

If the answers are no, intake will be a fight every day.

Run one real call through it during a demo or trial. Take a made-up jump start from intake to invoice and watch how many screens it takes. If it feels slow when nothing is on fire, it will feel much slower on a busy morning with three phones ringing.

How Do You See and Assign Calls?

Ask to see open calls on a map, not just in a list. Can you group calls and assign them to a driver and truck in one step? Is there a dispatch board by truck and day with route order? Does it auto-route when calls are added?

Also ask how the system picks a driver. Some buyers want the software to decide. Many experienced dispatchers prefer to choose themselves from a clear map. TowingBossPro leaves that decision to the dispatcher, using the waiting list map and dispatch board. Know which you want.

Ask what the driver sees, too. Calls in route order, pickup and drop-off, vehicle details, notes, start and complete, photos and one-tap customer texts are the basics. If the driver app needs a lot of typing, drivers will not use it, and the whole system breaks down.

What Does the Stranded Customer See?

Ask what the customer receives. Are there one-tap on-the-way and arrival texts from the driver app? Can the customer see a live map of the driver on the way? Is there two-way texting that stays with the call? Can customers choose their alerts? These features decide how many where-are-you calls your dispatcher takes.

Ask to see it from the customer's side, on a phone. What does the on-the-way text look like? What does the map show? How does the customer pay? If the vendor cannot show you the customer's experience, assume your customers will not love it either.

Can You Get Paid on Scene?

Ask how a customer pays before the driver leaves. Look for online payments from the customer's phone, card on file, auto-billing for accounts, sales tax on invoices and automatic payment follow-ups. Ask whether there is a customer app where customers can see invoices and pay. Also ask about estimates with online approval for when a call grows.

Ask how unpaid invoices are handled. If someone in the office has to remember to chase them, small roadside invoices will slip. Automatic follow-ups that go out without anyone remembering are what keep a high-volume, low-ticket business healthy.

Does It Help You Build Repeat Business?

Look for customer records with repeat locations, commercial accounts that keep calls and invoices together, and recurring or package plans so you can sell roadside memberships. Ask whether you can import your existing customers by CSV. Ask what reports show you about roadside work by category.

Ask whether commercial accounts can see their own invoices and pay online, and whether customers can keep a card on file themselves. Those are the features that make repeat business run smoothly without extra work in your office.

What Will It Really Cost?

Ask whether pricing is per user. Per-seat pricing punishes you for adding a part-time dispatcher or an after-hours driver. TowingBossPro plans are Start at $59 a month, Pro at $89 and Crew at $199, never billed per user, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required.

Most of all, run real calls. Put a week of jump starts, lockouts and tire changes through the trial and see how it feels on a busy morning. To review every piece covered in this series, start at the TowingBossPro roadside assistance software page.