Challenge

Alfasi wanted to excel in customer satisfaction and be one of the most technologically advanced rental companies in Australia, but several manual processes kept it from reaching its true potential. Manual stocktakes, lack of transparency, and no insight into real-time machine health were the culprits.

Customers would call in to understand when and where they could expect their machines to be delivered to a job site. Service Coordinators were always busy fielding customer calls about equipment delivery times, with up to 50 calls per day. They needed to call drivers, check-in with colleagues, and finally, they could call the customer and give them an estimate about when and where the machine would be delivered. It didn’t live up to the high expectations Alfasi had set for themselves.

Manual stocktakes sometimes led to machine’s going missing. After the daily stocktakes, there could be an assumption that the machines that weren’t at the yard were out on hire. Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case.

“If a machine got stolen or went missing, sometimes we wouldn’t know immediately. Our stock takes were manual, and we didn’t have an overview of where our machines were located 24/7.”

Roy Li, IT Manager

Having insight into machine health was important for both the customer and Alfasi. Without, Alfasi would be unable to ensure machine uptime and provide a high level of customer satisfaction.

Pains

To provide customers with a transparent solution that improves their experience, Alfasi needed a solution that would:

• Drive more insights and value to their customers
• Reduce excessive administrative time used on following delivery windows and contract adherence
• Reduce the over-servicing of equipment

Solution

The first step in ensuring that Alfasi could reach its goals with telematics was to provide access to real-time insights of its machines to minimize unnecessary service and reduce customer calls with automatic delivery alerts. A messaging service pulls information from the ERP about the customer and the destination of the delivery. When equipment leaves the yard a Trackunit alarm is triggered, indicating that the equipment has moved outside of a designated geofence. The customer is sent a detailed email or text message with information about where the equipment is located, and when they can expect the equipment to arrive on site.

Secondly, to deliver customers additional value and improve their customer satisfaction, Alfasi connected customers to their own client dashboard. This provided customers with more advanced insights into their machines and their overall productivity. Elad Zohar, Alfasi’s Managing Director, sees machine insights as a competitive advantage that will take the business to the next level.

Trackunit Manager gives Alfasi deeper insights into each machine and the client dashboard provides an overview of the equipment that is currently rented out.

Outcome

Gathering high-quality machine data and putting it to use has meant that Alfasi can provide customers with valuable information required to better run their business. The client dashboard is an example of this. It gives customers insight into the machines they have on hire, thereby giving customers the data to take action.

“Strong collaboration with Trackunit allowed us to develop the client dashboard that gives our customers insight into the machines they have on hire – a feature that more and more customers are asking for.”

Elad Zohar, Managing Director

The automated alerts, sent to customers when a machine leaves a designated geo zone allows Contractors to be ready for its arrival. The Rental Coordinator’s time is also freed up.

Real-time insight into the machine data gives the ability to provide more efficient customer service and improve customer satisfaction. In some cases, technicians have been able to fix a customer’s problem over the phone and get them up and running quicker than before.

In the future, Alfasi hopes to utilize Trackunit’s products and services to further enable communication through the dashboard. It plans to leverage the existing technology and capabilities to automate manual processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Alfasi will continue to think outside of the box and help transform the hire industry in Australia.

About

Alfasi is one of Australia’s leading rental companies, aiming to provide its customers with equipment solutions to build the future of Australia. Technological advances, state-of-the-art machinery, and an experienced team allow Alfasi to provide extensive customer service across Australia.

Founded: 2004
Size: 100+ employees