Cheetah Speed - Vol 1.6

Transportation Automation Affordability

Editor's Notes: In this issue

What a year it has been so far. These are very chaotic times but it is times like this that often foster success and strength for a business. Toughness counts, with today's escalating costs; especially fuel. Currently, there are not a lot of alternatives. Green fuel is oft talked about but there is no concrete solution. How does a company become successful and rise from the economic ashes we see too often today?

What is needed is a solution that allows a company to cut costs yet still expand and thrive. Fortunately enough, that solution is at hand. Cheetah is an affordable technological solution that enables you to cut back on personnel and man hours yet still increase customer service to meet today's high standards. Month after month we relate real- world success stories from you. I know it may be hard to believe but thanks to our SaaS (Software as a Service) model, whether you are a large or small organization, you can easily afford Cheetah services.

And what does happen when you switch to Cheetah from man-hour intensive systems? Take a look at our Scope section and find out.

This month we had the good fortune to speak with Robb Slack of RAS Appliance Services, a not so little company with terminals in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. They specialize in doing home deliveries for GE, Home Depot and others and with a high degree of service often not expected in the appliance delivery business.

We want to thank you for your continued support. As you know, you are vital to our company. Please let us know how we can better serve you and by all means we look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Write to the

info@cheetah.com

Best,

Larry Jaffe
Editor, Cheetah Speed

Scope: Transportation Automation Affordability

In our opening words, we discussed the idea of how you cannot only survive this economy but thrive in it. Here's how:

Plain and simple, you cannot afford to stay in your current mode of operation if you have not automated your logistics and fleet communication. To be competitive in the marketplace and have high customer service standards requires high technology. I realize this can be expensive, but we have found a way to make it affordable!

First of all we are using a web-based solution this means that you can log right into our system without having to finance it. In other words, there are no additional hardware or software costs. You simply subscribe to the Cheetah system. Cheetah hosts the software on our servers so there is no cost of additional hardware. Will that save you a bundle? You betcha.

Additionally, all the costs associated with software including upgrades are included in the package. You will not require more IT staff to maintain or update Cheetah. Expansion is easy as well. You can simply add another seat and, again, no additional hardware costs. Cheetah handles all the technical support and backup of files.

Because Cheetah owns the software and data center servers that run the application, you can benefit from our highly skilled personnel and top of the line hardware. The Cheetah SaaS network is run at the highest performance levels obtainable. The system is continuously maintained and upgraded to keep it running at optimal levels, always.

Rather than you laying out huge up-front costs, Cheetah has made this incredible logistics/communications package accessible and affordable.

Word: Regional News from Cheetah

And now for a brief commercial announcement of some relevance from our sales department:

“Our route optimization and dynamic dispatch software solution is a fast, scalable enterprise level system for managing your fleet. Cheetah optimizes routes, automates standard dispatch functions, and streamlines customer service activity through a proactive, integrated application which provides real time (GPS) location, ETA and delivery confirmation for each driver.

At the heart of the Cheetah System is a sophisticated route optimization engine that manages both prescheduled and dynamic routes. Working in conjunction with our automated, wireless text messaging system, Cheetah eliminates most of the routine daily voice communications between your drivers and the office, while making delivery status information available to your staff instantly – without having to contact a driver. We deliver ROI primarily through labor reduction in the dispatch and customer service departments, achieved through the automation and archiving of all shipment related communications, while offering supplemental savings through increased on road efficiencies.”

These two paragraphs summarize what Cheetah can bring to the table for your prospects. Please take the time to look through your pipelines, Cheetah Works!

Product Lines: Helping the Helpers -- Customer Service Assistance

If you are overwhelmed with customer service problems, help is literally at hand thanks to Cheetah's web-based solutions. Our system will enable your client to dramatically reduce the number of customer service reps (CSR’s) required to answer customer calls, yet attain and maintain the highest service standards.

The system has built-in programming that recognizes delays and schedule changes, and automatically notifies customers of these changes. Real-time information, that is constantly being fed into the system by drivers and dispatch, make it possible to give customers up-to-the-minute updates.

Customers also have the option of logging onto your website to track pickup and delivery status over the web in real time. Your web site information is automatically linked with data from your drivers and dispatch, so it is constantly being updated. With precise information at the CSR’s fingertips, call volume diminishes and 99 percent of calls can be dealt within seconds.

Cheetah is the only logistics system on the market able to simultaneously offer real-time routing, delivery and dispatch information to dispatchers, drivers, CSR's, shippers and customers.

This is a solution that can help you today, if not immediately just like our featured installation below.

Onboard: The Cheetah Speed Interview with Robert A. Slack, Jr. of RAS Appliance Services

R.A.S. is a delivery and installation company contracted by GE Appliances to exchange appliances under GE's warranty program and to deliver and install appliances for The Home Depot including Maytag Appliances throughout the state of Wisconsin, Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan, and Northern Michigan. They also install appliances for Sam's Club's stores in these locations. But they are more than just an appliance delivery company. Customer service is key to their operation and Cheetah has helped make it all possible.

www.rasdelivers.com

Robb Slack founded RAS in 1992 with two trucks and an idea. He has expanded his business many times over. The answer is efficiency and Robb tells me he could not have done it without Cheetah. A few years ago he came to the conclusion that the only way he would be able to expand and remain profitable was to automate the routing process.

“I started with custom software and it did help a little but it was often inaccurate or incomplete. Plus there was no customer service application. Going to Cheetah was a gamble and many employees were upset with the change, but we knew we needed to make a change in order to keep up and be competitive not just within the marketplace but with the level of customer service we wanted to attain.”

Robb and his team, admittedly with some trepidation, met with Cheetah's Stephan Karczag and Jerry Whitney. They were not sure it would work out but knew they had to make a bold move at this time – the company was at a crossroads and success or failure was in the offing. Another outfit had given Robb the heads up about Cheetah and they put in the call. Don't get the wrong idea here, Robb is a very shrewd entrepreneur and executive he had taken his company to the limit and was ready to go to the next level and recognized that he would need greater and more far reaching technology to do so. But they were hand typing 150 orders per day and customer service was a reaction to the situation.

As Robb so aptly puts it, “Today we are completely proactive.”

For 10 years RAS was all manual, and Robb realized that it was time to think outside the box and that was when he experimented with the custom software applications and finally brought Cheetah in once he found out about them. Unlike many companies, Robb did not have his IT department involved in the initial presentation and decision.

“No IT was involved at first. We had our front lines people there. They are the ones dealing with the customers not IT. Stephan and Jerry came to our office and stayed for several days (and many of them were 12-14 hour days) working with us on how to implement Cheetah into our system.”

When asked if he saw a return on his investment, Robb said “Immediately”

“Some of our biggest changes are in customer service where our call center generated a 98% score in customer notification. Even though we reduced our labor costs, we have the highest reach rate in the country.”

Robb told us that Cheetah was very helpful and in many ways more flexible than the custom software package he had bought previously.

“They know the industry intimately and were more than willing to make their application fit our needs and not the other way around. The program itself is so user-friendly our team was up and running in no time. I cannot say enough about the after sales support from Cheetah.

“Essentially, Cheetah changed our mentality and our way of thinking on how to better the company. We were able to put into effect ideas that would eventually change the way we do business. And these changes would resonate into all aspects of our company. The Cheetah staff were very easy to work with and down to earth. We honestly feel that with Cheetah onboard, there is no stopping our growth and improvement.”

The key to RAS growth and profitability are three key factors: Efficiency, Proactive Customer Relations and Communication.

As we were finishing up the interview, Robb told me the following:

“Expanding my company, building new buildings could not have been done without Cheetah. We literally doubled our volume while reducing labor.”