For Patrick Ailster, owner of Tri-County Power Sweeping, integrity and trust convert directly into revenue. Property managers rely on his company to provide parking lot sweeping and maintenance services. Reputable work often leads to additional business at other client sites. “I wish I had Linxup five years ago,” Patrick says. “I lost four accounts worth a total of about $80,000 because guys didn’t show up and do their job. The potential business I lost was even higher, because I lost relationships with clients who owned multiple properties.” Linxup gives Patrick the tools that he needs to earn the trust of his clients and gain additional business.
“Most of our work is done at night when the customer is not present,” Patrick explains, “so they need to have confidence that we will do the job right.” In the past, he had issues with employees who either rushed through the job or spent the entire evening on one parking lot, neglecting other jobs. Linxup lets him easily set up geofencing for each job site so that he can monitor activity. Patrick receives an email alert every time a truck arrives at a client site and another alert when they leave the property. He continues, “If a client says the truck didn’t show up, or they were only there 15 minutes, it’s easy to pull up the information to verify on GPS. It tells me when they arrived and when they left, and I can just print it and send it to the property managers.”
Geofencing has also helped to verify payroll time. “I don’t have electronic time cards,” Patrick says, “so I set up a geofence around our home base. I can easily verify time because I get an email alert that I can match up and make sure hours are correct.” This same feature makes sure that time clocked in is time on the job. He notes, “Our schedule works against normal sleep patterns, and some guys think they will rush through a job and stop in at home to catch a nap. I set up a geofence around their home address so that I get an alert if that happens.”
The Linxup Mobile App allows Patrick to stay in the field and monitor quality of work. “I’m on the mobile app more than anything,” he says. “Like anybody else, I do just about everything on my phone. I usually don’t have time to sit in front of a computer. While I’m out, I can pop in and see if employees are on site working, not just parked there.”
Patrick has found that speeding alerts serve a dual purpose. He explains, “Speeding alerts cut down on potential accidents and tickets, but they also save me in fuel costs. My trucks run with a full tank of 22 gallons per night. Sometimes trucks would run out of fuel before the end of the night because of excessive speeding. When I installed Linxup, that stopped happening.”
“Installation was the easiest part,” says Patrick, “Just plug it in and it’s up and running. I also know if anyone has tried to remove the device the vehicle, because I get alerts if someone tries to remove it or tampers with it.”