Good corporate transportation can be hard to find sometimes. Companies that are busy getting business done and expanding their empires need to have a reliable partner when it comes to corporate transportation.
There are too many small mom and pop operators out there who, while they may be well meaning, simply don’t have the resources or expertise to compete on an internationally high level on a consistent basis. So companies that use different limousine companies frequently can get very different results. Sometimes they have a good experience and other times not so good.
If you want to avoid the variability of executive transportation services, you best bet is to find a reliable partner, test them out and then stick with them over the long run. That way, you won’t find yourself in a risky situation dealing with an unknown quantity when you urgently need to book trips for your management team.
Qualities of Excellent Corporate Transportation
If you’re going to find the right company, then you need to be able to accurately assess their quality and try to see if they are a good match for your company. What are some the qualities you should be looking for? Let’s consider four attributes that are important to have in a corporate transportation provider.
1. Outstanding Customer Service
This goes without saying, right? When you’re in the service business, you should have excellent customer service if you plan on competing at a high level. Unfortunately in the industry too many companies only pay lip service when it comes to providing top notch customer service. Certainly, many more companies make an effort, but when push comes to shove, often it’s inadequate.
One reason may be that good intentions are not enough. You want to go with a company that shows good customer service because it’s in their DNA. They get that way by having a plan and following through. Excellent customer service is established by having a precise roadmap covering numerous customer service scenarios. Then, training has to take place to instill those rules, values and principles into the staff members until they learn it by rote. And standards have to be enforced by managers who understand intrinsically the value of what they’re doing, and who care.
In the limousine business, there’s no reason why customers who are paying more for exclusivity and better service, shouldn’t be treated as if they were checking into a 5-star hotel. Every interaction they have with a staff member is an opportunity to impress, delight and satisfy. This is a lesson that is equally important to all staff members, regardless of their position.
2. Outstanding Job Performance
I like to say that really good customer service has two parts. The first part has to do with your behavior around the customer, and trying to establish a warm and genuine connection with the person you are trying to serve.
The second part is being really good at whatever service you are providing, whether it’s driving a client across town, serving a fancy meal, or providing a relaxing massage. You can’t provide great service if you aren’t great at what you do. And being great in the transportation business means getting people to their destination on time, regardless of circumstance, weather, traffic or what have you.
Since each trip is unique, with a different time/date, passenger and destination, it can be challenging to be accurate and on time every time, with every new customer. But that is the challenge that great transportation companies rise to. And they are able to achieve this on a consistent basis by checking and rechecking reservation details, and through practice and training.
Every trip should be prepared and run in exactly the same manner. Checklists have to be checked. Drivers need to familiarize themselves with the route and destination and account for current traffic conditions, weather, construction and any known detours. Vehicles need to be maintained and checked on a weekly basis and before and after every trip is run. Any irregularities need to be noticed, recorded and dealt with as soon as possible. You can see the pattern here. It’s all about minding details and being thorough. The bottom line is that a quality transportation provider will be in the habit of finding and correcting mistakes and problems before they can occur and ruin a live trip.
3. A Superior Product, and Real Luxury
So the basics of good job performance and customer service have been covered. The next aspect that has to be perfected is perhaps the most obvious to the customer, as it’s the most concrete representation of your business: the actual product. In our case, we’re talking about vehicles.
A luxury transportation provider must have luxurious vehicles and ones that are in excellent shape! Practically anybody can get into the transportation business, but a luxury provider will provide a product with distinction. Whatever niche they are operating in, they need to make sure that their equipment is the best it can be. The vehicles themselves should be new or nearly so. While vendors can’t always replace their vehicles yearly, they can maintain and clean them to the highest standards. Whether it’s brand new or not, the client should feel like they are stepping into a beautiful, shiny new vehicle. The vehicles selected should be the best and latest model that can be afforded, with as many options as possible. Both drivers and detailers/maintenance staff need to be trained to care for their vehicles correctly. And it’s always a plus when the vehicle has extra features to please the customer.
Of course, any time a customer requests a special feature, they are paying for it, but you can still surprise and delight them with presentation and use of the features they are requesting. Whether it’s an on-board bar, or a lavish entertainment system, or even an on-board office set up, these item should be turned on, or ready to use and the client helped in getting situated with whatever feature he or she is interested in. And everything should be super clean and in great working order.
4. A True Business Partner
This last quality is a little bit harder to define, so what do I mean with a true business partner? What is meant by that is that an excellent transportation provider should always be trying to do more for your company than just fulfilling yesterday’s orders. They should be looking on the horizon, seeing how they can add value to your current schedule and needs, and seeing, asking, doing, what more can be done?
When a vendor acts like this, you know that they have integrity and commitment and that they are interested in the long haul. They know that the value of a long term relationship is much greater than just trying to discount a one-off trip.
A vendor that you work with on a regular basis should make an effort to get to know you better as a client, and be looking to provide better service, extra service as well as being open to constructive criticism and making improvements where needed. If you can find a company that does all that, in addition to doing their daily work with accuracy and finesse, then you know you have found a winner!
All of the qualities mentioned above are all attributes that Brilliant Transportation works hard on bringing into their company culture every day. We recognize that having a culture of excellence is important, and in order for it to be robust, it is something that must be lived on a daily basis. While there are certainly things we can always improve upon, we feel that our record of excellence also speaks for itself, and we have many satisfied customers to prove it.
We’d like to be able to prove it to you as well. So if you find yourself unsatisfied with the current state of your corporate transportation, then you should contact Brilliant Transportation today so we can start to show you what extraordinary looks like in corporate transportation.