How Distributors can Eliminate Pain Points for Customers
By Carolina Ruiz • Published October 4, 2021 • 4 minute read
A common trait of successful businesses is how they understand and meet customer needs faster and more effectively than competitors.
Distributors of petroleum and chemical products must meet a primary need for their customers — take orders and fulfill them before on-site tank inventories run low or are depleted. The companies that do this better, such as getting orders to be more accurate and fulfilling them more efficiently — have advantages in customer service and delivery profitability.
The latest integrated software-as-a-service offering from SkyBitz combines real-time tank monitoring and dispatch planning. This powerful combination makes it possible for distributors to eliminate common pain points for their customers that include guesswork and labor from manually sticking tanks, calling in orders and dealing with common delivery and billing errors.
The end-to-end solution
Distributors can utilize an integrated system to proactively meet these and other customer needs. The system, SmartTank Dispatch, combines real-time tank level visibility with comprehensive planning and dispatching.
SmartTank Dispatch uses SmartTank wireless tank monitoring devices that deliver accurate, real-time visibility of customer tank inventory levels and historical inventory usage data. With this information, a distributor can simplify and automate the ordering process for its customers and remove guesswork that is traditionally involved in scheduling deliveries to keep tanks filled.
The platform exclusively combines real-time telemetry data and inventory forecasting algorithms with route planning tools. Distributors use the platform to automatically generate orders based on inventory usage rates.
The orders are optimized into delivery plans that maximize route density in terms of gallons delivered per stop. With a few clicks, users synchronize field assets — trucks, drivers and shifts — and create route plans based on fastest, shortest distance or Hazmat preferences. The routes can be printed or sent to assigned drivers electronically using a mobile dispatch application.
Once deliveries are planned and completed, the system can streamline back-office functions by reconciling the gallons ordered with the volume of gallons delivered by automatically capturing tank readings.
The reconciliation process helps distributors give their customers error-free invoices that accounts for gallons ordered and delivered. Any adjustments that need to be made can be done before invoices is completed and sent to customers.
As an end-to-end tank monitoring and dispatch system, SmartTank Dispatch provides this and other intelligent workflows that enable distributors to proactively identify customer needs and execute flawless orders and deliveries.
Because the platform is cloud based, distributors can access all their data and features from anywhere. Having uninterrupted access has been essential during the COVID pandemic since companies have office staff working remotely. Workers can respond to customer needs and manage their orders and deliveries from any location or time of day.
