INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — In today’s app world, you have to be two things: Reliable and fast. TNCs have the speed aspect down, but are far from being dependable or consistent.
Gary Cooper, vice president and affiliate manager for Affiliated Transportation, understands clear communication with both your clients and your affiliates leads to providing the kind of service that sets luxury ground transportation companies apart from the Ubers and Lyfts out there in the eyes of the public.
That’s why Cooper’s team always gives 100% of their energy and effort into ensuring the best possible experience for their customers. He believes the best thing one can do for an affiliate is to properly represent their company.
This means including their logos on electronic name boards and passing out their business cards if possible. “Make sure you stay on top of any problems that might arise, and keep an open line of communication with your affiliate to make sure they are informed,” he says.
Part of that requires you to be professional and honest — if something goes wrong, your first priority should be to make sure the client is taken care of. “After you’ve gotten them where they need to be in a timely manner, follow up with your management team to find out exactly what happened and try to come up with a solution to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Cooper says. “Then reach out to the affiliate and try to make things right.”
With more than 25 years of experience in the industry and a purchase and merging of six companies during the last 10 years, Cooper has learned that to keep growing business, operators must adapt to the technological times.
“We’ve been working with our in-house technology developers and have created some pretty amazing software our competition isn’t using,” he says. This includes automated chauffeur wake-up and phone call systems. Clients can dial in, type their reservation number, and receive the status of their chauffer and connect with them if necessary.
The company also has a system that texts clients chauffeur details, including a photo and their GPS location. Cooper says he’s seen a distinct interest in obtaining information earlier than ever. “I think clients and affiliates want the comfort of knowing everything is taken care of.
“When we farm-out, our system can text the affiliate driver and allow them to change their status. This will then automatically feed back into our system so we won’t have to call and bother the chauffeurs as they are trying to get the job done.” He also can send a text message out with chauffeur information that includes affiliate company’s logos.
Affiliated Transportation started off on LCT Connect by signing up for the free trial, and gathered two new affiliates from it within the first week. “In my eyes, LCT is the leader of information in the ground transportation industry and they put on excellent Shows. I wanted my company to be affiliated with the LCT family,” Cooper says.
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