Employees recently sent in questions they would like to see addressed by the management team. Due to the volume of questions that were sent in, we have sorted them into five posts related to the following categories: general business, technology, BPLP operations, growth and human resources.
Is it possible for CSRs to do ride-alongs with drivers to see what they deal with on a daily basis?
Larry Ehrman, vice president of logistics: Yes, that’s a great idea. It is important to understand what the drivers are facing when they are out on delivery and it will allow the CSR to be able to provide better customer service.
Can we combine the fees for leak tests and for running out of gas into one charge?
Larry Ehrman: We are in the process of standardizing our fees companywide but having two separate fees gives us more flexibility to be able to deal with all situations.
Is it possible to have the trucks repaired/overhauled during the summer so they are ready for the winter?
Larry Ehrman: Keeping our trucks in the best shape we can is important, and our goal is to have all trucks worked on during the summer to ensure they are ready for the busy season. Of course, we will still have unexpected breakdowns to deal with in season.
Can we stop doing weekend and after-hours callouts for drivers?
Larry Ehrman: We have to take care of our customers so we will always have some callouts. The best way to reduce these calls is to convert as many customers as possible to Auto-Fill and keep the data in our system correct so that we don’t have runouts.
Instead of just emailing plants about things that need to be changed, why can’t that department just fix it?
Larry Ehrman: The plants have asked for control over their customers and they know their customers better than field support. That’s why changes need to be made at the plant level.
Why is working from home not an option for CSRs in the field?
Larry Ehrman: We need to staff offices for customer walk-in traffic. This is one of the major requests we get from customers.
We had to turn away a large number of will call customers this past winter due to our company not being prepared for the winter. Most of these customers were willing to pay the same-day, after-hours, or out-of-gas charges. We also had will call customers who called in 4-5 days ahead and still ran out. Will we be better prepared this year and honor these charges or are we trying to get rid of all will call customers?
Larry Ehrman: If we can get those customers on Auto Fill so that we don’t have same-day orders, we will be much more efficient. It is difficult to provide great customer service to will call customers since you never know when they will call. Additionally, if we are spending our time trying to take care of will call customers that need gas immediately, we are in danger of allowing our regular auto-fill customers to fall through the cracks and possibly run out. The fees we charge for same-day, after-hours and out-of-gas instances seem adequate, but they still don’t cover the additional cost of being less efficient and requiring our drivers to work after-hours.