By Janice Sutton
Q. Tell us how Wheels’ client relations group is structured and your role within that.
A. I truly feel that my role as the Vice President of Client Relations is the best job at the company. Some days it might be the most stressful job within the company, but I feel that it is one of the best, as I am responsible for all of our clients. Also, all of our 600 plus employees are responsible for every client, and that is one of the unique qualities of Wheels. It’s a culture where the client always comes first, and that transcends throughout the company.
In my role, I have the opportunity to really know our clients and understand their unique needs, and ultimately, develop thoughtful solutions. It is not just something we put on a piece of paper or presentation, we live it. Our account management team, which is in client relations, is the entire methodology that we utilize. We understand, build, and deliver those results — and we do it again and again and again. You do not keep clients for 30, 40, or 75 years as we have if you just stay with status quo and don’t push yourself. The clients can push us, of course, but we’d better be pushing ourselves as well. No one should become complacent in this type of industry or relationship. It moves way too fast.
In client relations, we look at it as an entire team. There are day-to-day people in our client services organization that we call client executives. They are there to help support our fleet office on a daily basis: What is it that you need today? What is it that you need to know today? We really look at them as an extension of the fleet office.
Our account management group is focused on what the client needs tomorrow. What is the strategy? What is the vision? What’s going on in our industry? What’s going on in their industry that is going to impact their fleet today, and what are we doing to look down the road in making sure we are going to get them there 3-5 years from now? Fleet can move fast when it comes to technology, but can also move slowly if you have some long term goals on either cost savings or miles per gallon that need to turn the entire fleet over. You need to be thinking 3-5 years down the road. That is our consulting group that we have built to make sure that we can give those results to our clients.
We also have our client relations managers. These are a few individuals who are assigned to our account management group to assist with strategy, help with escalation of issues or particularly big projects – projects where you may need a bigger group of IT people and our Six Sigma folks to get together and develop more strategic, complicated solutions. Our client relations managers get involved with that, as well with helping the team move along, so that focus is not lost on the other things that need to be done to run a fleet.
Client relations managers also help with the bid process instead of a client going out to bid, which in today’s world with sourcing is nice, normal hygiene. You should go out to bid and feel comfortable with your supplier. But that takes time. At times, the bidding process could take up to a year. It is not an ideal situation if your account manager is reviewing your strategy and making decisions to place vehicles on the road, while your day-to-day account executive is an extension of your fleet office, burdened by the role of having to run a bid. Our client relations managers run those bids for us as well. They are our lead, our eyes on the bid process so that everyone can stay focused on running the fleet. At Wheels, we know with the fleet office sometimes that this is harder for them to do.
Q. What are your clients telling you about their most pressing issues?
A. Our clients have relayed their most significant concerns, which fall into two buckets: tell me what I need to know, when I need to know it, and how I need to see it. Provide data, not just a data dump, and give me insights that help me understand what I need to know. And then I want you to actually do it for me as well. So, provide the data, and identify the trends to have them implement them into their strategies. Our clients do not have time to do that any more and nor should they. They hired us to run their fleet, help them run it and partner with them to get them where they need to go for that optimal fleet.
We should be looking through the hundreds, thousands, and millions of data points from fleets – and understand that is what we do for a living. We then take those insights, identify it with benchmarking with other clients and then say – because this is where you want to go, and what your data is telling us, this is the plan that is going to get you to the next step. Our clients have informed us of this gap, and we are filling this opportunity with technology and with the methodology that our account management group utilizes.
Benchmarking is another critical issue. Every client we meet with asks, “How do we compare to our competitors in their industry?” And this is interesting to see, as there is a story behind the numbers that tells you the why. They may have a different culture; they may have a different goal that drives some of those numbers. So, you need numbers, but you also need insights. That is one of our clients’ greatest opportunities and we hope that Wheels is delivering on that as well.
Cost control is a more significant pressure. In our immediate future, I would say that mergers and acquisitions are fueling that cost control issue. All of the financial markets started turning around – so there is money to be used for acquisitions and mergers, and there are needs from a financial standpoint. But what does that mean for the fleet? Nobody wants to talk about that when they are buying businesses, but unfortunately, fleet is impacted. Cost control drives many of our immediate issues. Cost control before an acquisition and cost control afterwards – you are going to have two companies, three companies all merging together. The shareholders of that acquisition have expectations that need to be addressed quickly. Whereas cost control often happens over a 3-5 year period, sometimes it also needs to happen in a very short period of time to make sure shareholders are happy with the decision to have an acquisition.
Q. Can you tell us about some of the initiatives you are currently pursuing?
A. Our core stays the same, but we need to adapt to our environment and to our clients’ environments. Coming out with new views into our online tools that help drive what the client needs to know, and how I need to see it. It doesn’t just provide data, but also insights — those are new tools that we are coming out with this year. Also, just looking at the overall category, and figuring out how we can make a better impact to fleet. We are also working on ways to help our clients manage their fleets in general. We are always focused on continuous improvement, as we receive a number of ideas from our clients. It is also incumbent upon us to look at the industry and our clients’ industries. We are thinking futuristically into the fleet, as well as our clients’ industries to anticipate what they will need 3-5 years from now — and we are investing in that process now. That is something we continue to do.
Q. Tell us how long you have been with Wheels and about the changes and the progress you have seen in the company.
A. We don’t fight change – we’ve embraced the sourcing and we’ve embraced all of the changes. I have been at Wheels for 13 years, and I have been in the fleet industry for about 23 years. Let’s start with what hasn’t changed at Wheels. The clients have always come first, that hasn’t changed in 75 years. We started because a client had an issue that our founder Zollie Frank listened to; developing a solution that nobody else even thought about and delivered. That solution created this industry. That philosophy of listening and adapting to change has never wavered. That is what we do, and that is all we do.
So, what has happened in the last 5-10 years is helping our clients change along with it. Some change has been easy as people like new technology. And, even at times, technology change can experience some pushback. Don’t mess with my Google! It is important to help our clients adapt to change in technology and processes. Even more, though, we need to assist in the evolution of procurement into the fleet management world. We need to help fleet managers understand the importance of partnering with procurement.
Procurement helps all of us. We all have the same goals: cost savings, optimal fleets, and a fleet that drives better business results for each of our clients. At times, we may utilize different processes and jargon that is often the same. We adapted to that and we’ve always embraced this change. As I stated earlier, it is in our DNA. And we help our clients embrace that change, so we can have enhanced partnerships with every client.
The post Wheels’ Laura Jozwiak: Helping Fleets Drive Better Business Results appeared first on Fleet Management Weekly.
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