TowingBossPro Blog — Accounts & Customers

Letting Tow Customers Choose Their Alerts

There is a point where helpful messages become noise. A body shop manager who gets a text for every single vehicle movement may start ignoring all of them — including the one that mattered. A retail customer who only wants to know when the driver arrives may find three texts annoying. The answer is not to stop sending messages; it is to let customers choose.

The Tow Customer App: Live Driver Map, Invoices and Online Pay introduced the customer app. This article focuses on one part of it: alert choices, and how to use them to keep your messages welcome.

Why Choice Matters

Every customer has a different tolerance for messages. A stressed driver on a shoulder usually wants every update. An account contact handling dozens of vehicles a week may only want the important ones. A fleet office may want messages to go to a shared inbox rather than one person's phone.

Think about the difference between a smoke alarm that chirps constantly and one that only goes off when there is smoke. The quiet one is the one people trust. Customer alerts work the same way: fewer, better messages get more attention.

When customers can choose which alerts they get, they are more likely to read the ones they receive. They are also less likely to complain or ask you to stop messaging them altogether, which would cut them off from the useful messages too.

Sensible Defaults for Retail Customers

Most retail customers never change their settings, so the default matters. For a retail tow, the on-the-way text and the arrival text are almost always welcome. A link to the live map of the driver is welcome. An invoice and a way to pay online are necessary.

One exception is worth considering: a customer whose vehicle went to a repair shop may appreciate a single message confirming it arrived, especially if they were not there for the drop-off. That one message answers the question they would otherwise call about.

Beyond that, keep it light. A retail customer does not need marketing messages the same week you towed their car. If they want to hear from you again, they will remember the good experience.

Sensible Defaults for Account Contacts

Account contacts are different. They deal with you often, so a message that seems useful once can feel like spam by the tenth time. Talk to each account about what they want when you set them up:

• Does the contact want a text for each vehicle on the way?
• Do they want arrival messages for drop-offs at their location?
• Should invoices go to a different person than call updates?
• Do they prefer email for invoices and text for urgent updates?

Write their answers on the account so everyone in your office knows, and make sure the right contacts and preferences are in place.

Alerts and Two-Way Conversation

Alerts are one-way. If a customer replies, the conversation becomes two-way texting, and replies land in TowingBossPro next to the customer. Make sure someone is watching for replies to alerts, because customers often reply with important information: "the car is actually in the back lot" or "please do not deliver before 9."

Assign responsibility clearly. If day dispatch watches replies during the day, decide who watches them at night and on weekends, even if the answer is that replies wait until morning and customers are told so.

An alert that gets a reply nobody reads is worse than no alert at all.

Respecting Customers Who Opt Out

Some customers will turn alerts off. Respect it. Messaging rules vary by location, and customers who ask not to receive texts should not get them. For those customers, rely on phone calls or email for what they need to know.

A customer who chose fewer alerts is not a lost customer — they are a customer who knows what they want. Giving them that control is part of good service.

Review Alerts as Your Business Changes

As you add accounts and services, revisit what customers receive. A message that made sense when you were a two-truck company may not fit when you are running ten trucks and a storage yard. Ask a few account contacts every year whether the messages they get from you are useful.

Keep the conversation going inside your office too. When a dispatcher hears a customer complain about a message, or praise one, pass it along. Those small signals tell you which alerts are earning their place and which ones should be trimmed.

Alert choices are a small but meaningful part of towing account management software: they keep your communication welcome, which keeps it effective. Next, we look at the automated texts and emails themselves and what to send when.