There are no forgotten or overlooked customers. I can rely on the fact that every customer is visited in good time.
Wolfgang Drawe,
Operations manager
ZDL Zählerdienstleistungen GmbH, based in Jameln, specializes in connecting, maintaining, checking and changing gas, electricity and water meters as well as sand and dry ice blasters as a subcontractor of a major German energy provider. The company serves around 4,000 clients per year. Wolfgang Drawe is the operations manager, the company belongs to his wife. He himself travels to the booked appointments with an employee and ensures that the existing equipment is professionally maintained on site.
Wolfgang Drawe receives his orders from his client at the beginning of the year: "We then receive an Excel list with thousands of orders to be completed over the next 12 months. I used to have a tablet on which these data records were stored and had to work out logical routes myself using the addresses and a map view. The planning was 100% up to me and I spent up to 9 hours every Sunday working on the route for the next week."
Since Wolfgang Drawe has been using portatour®, his weekend belongs to him and his family again, as he adds: "Fortunately, that's all over now. I enter the necessary data and have my completed tour plan within a few minutes. That makes a huge difference." And although the experienced field service professional is not always entirely clear about how portatour® arranges his appointments, he relies completely on portatour®: "I never miss appointments, never forget customer calls and simply know that the system will always guide me in the best possible way."
I enter the necessary data and have my completed route planning within a few minutes. That makes a huge difference.
Wolfgang Drawe, Operations manager
When ZDL decided to use automatic route planning, portatour® came out on top in a direct comparison with alternative providers. After training from the portatour® support team, Wolfgang Drawe was quickly up and running, which for him is also one of the big plus points: "When we got a new field rep, the colleague drove through the territory with me for a week to get a feel for the work. I showed him a few tricks of the trade. He then received training on portatour® directly from me."
"The new colleague was up and running in less than an hour because the software is so easy to use, the user interface is easy to understand and the whole program is virtually self-explanatory." And if there are any questions, Wolfgang Drawe knows where to turn: "The support from portatour® is always there when I need it. Even if something wasn't clear, I could simply call them and they helped me immediately. They give precise instructions on how to proceed so that no mistakes are made. That makes working very pleasant."
The new colleague was up and running in less than an hour because the software is so easy to use, the user interface is easy to understand and the whole program is virtually self-explanatory.
Wolfgang Drawe, Operations manager
For Wolfgang Drawe, automatic route planning in itself is a big step forward in terms of efficiency and work-life balance. Thanks to portatour® the operations manager also saves a lot of time when it comes to reporting: "It used to be a huge time waster - I had to type in all the data manually and it took forever to write invoices. Now, thanks to the simple reporting in portatour®, I can do the invoicing in just 20 minutes. This not only saves me time, but also nerves. When we go into the order, we can click on service items and these have to be filled in by me or my employees. The reports then immediately include the customer data, and I can create my invoices from this."
The fact that ZDL's field sales force can export the reports to appointments or customers creates the flexibility that is needed for various purposes, whether for invoicing or for analyzing customer calls. Another important point for Wolfgang Drawe is the reliability of portatour®: "In the past, with manual planning, customer calls were forgotten from time to time. With portatour® this is no longer a problem. There are no forgotten or overlooked customers. I can be sure that every customer is visited on time."
It used to be a huge time waster - I had to type in all the data manually and it took forever to write invoices. Now, thanks to the simple reporting in portatour®, I can do the billing in just 20 minutes.
Wolfgang Drawe, Operations manager
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