Whether you're a local HVACR business or a nationwide operation, your brand image makes a big impact to your bottom line. Along with making sure your brand is recognized and remembered for the right reasons, it's just as important to not be recognized for the wrong reasons.

In the past, applying a "How's My Driving" sticker to the back of company trucks was the best method for fleets to protect their brand image. The problem with this method is there's no way to know for sure if the feedback received is legitimate, or if the public will even call in when they see a driver doing something wrong.

Your brand image is far too important to leave up to chance or take someone else's word for it; you need quantifiable data that will let you know for sure.

By using a GPS tracking solution, you protect your brand image by preventing unsafe driving behavior, eliminating unauthorized usage of company vehicles, reducing your environmental impact and ensuring every customer has an excellent experience when choosing your services.

Driver Behavior

There's nothing worse for your business's brand image than when your company vehicles fly past other drivers (potential customers) on the road or worse, cause accidents. Your vehicles are moving billboards, so you want to make sure your business is represented in the best way possible.

Using GPS tracking to monitor safety will prevent accidents, possibly even fatalities, being associated with your brand image. Since you cannot sit shotgun with your drivers throughout the workday, monitoring safety through a GPS tracking solution is the next best thing.

To stop unsafe driver behavior while it is happening, automated alerts can be sent to management and drivers when vehicles surpass the posted speed limit, are rapidly accelerating or harshly breaking.

A reminder that this activity is being monitored should also rectify this behavior immediately, which will reduce
accidents and prevent long term damage to your brand.

Unauthorized Usage

Your vehicles could give your business a bad name after hours of operation too, that is, if you're not monitoring odd-hours usage of company vehicles. Using GPS tracking to monitor vehicles not only during the workday, but also during non-working hours will ensure your company owned assets are not being used inappropriately.

Unfortunately, it's all too common for company vehicles to be used to run errands on the weekends, perform side jobs, take brakes at inappropriate places and many other types of unauthorized usage that could leave a negative impression about your business.

GPS tracking can notify you when your vehicles are moving where or when they shouldn't be, ensuring you have full control over your brand image at all times.

Go Green!

Developing a green initiative is becoming increasingly important to brand image for businesses, especially for fleet-based businesses. It's no secret vehicle emissions have a negative impact on the environment, so your fleet should proactively take charge of fuel usage and vehicle maintenance to prevent being labeled as unsustainable or environmentally irresponsible.

You can use a GPS tracking solution to monitor idling, route efficiency and fleet maintenance to help reduce CO2 emissions by up to 50 percent.

Sharing how your business is doing your part to increase sustainability throughout your fleet operations will protect and enhance your brand image. Making strides to be a greener fleet is not just good for the planet; it is good for business too.

Customer Experience

The number one reason consumers choose any type of service business is because of customer service. Focusing your efforts on improving the customer experience will increase customer retention and also help generate new clientele.

Your fleet can use GPS tracking technology to increase customer satisfaction by improving response times during emergencies and providing customers with accurate ETAs.

If a customer's air-conditioning goes out during the middle of summer and your fleet has the reputation of taking twice as long to arrive at the job site as your competition, chances are you'll lose the business.

This can be prevented with increased response times. By accessing your vehicles' real-time locations, selecting the closest and best vehicle for the job and completing the job efficiently once you arrive, you'll protect your brand image and quickly become known as the most dependable HVACR fleet to use during an emergency.

Another way to improve customer service is to provide accurate ETAs of when your technicians will arrive to complete a service. If a customer calls in to see when your technician will arrive and you're unable to give them an accurate time window, it'll only frustrate the customer and they'll most likely call someone else.

No one wants to sit around all day waiting for a service provider to arrive. With a GPS tracking solution, you can provide an accurate answer because you're able to access current vehicle locations at all times.

You've spent a lot of money to develop the right brand image for your business. With GPS tracking technology, you can protect that image and prevent your company from being recognized for the wrong reasons.

Jenny Malcolm is the Content Marketing Specialist for GPS Insight. She graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor's of Communication and is responsible for external marketing communication for all business segments that GPS Insight targets. For additional information, visit gpsinsight.com.