Florida Cost Equipment has seen increased efficacies, less paperwork, and a more secure and satisfying customer experience.
- Industry: Equipment
- Company Size: Small
- Number of TXT2PAY Users: 3
Florida Coast Equipment’s four locations struggled in two main areas: providing a simple and secure payment method for customers and developing an efficient workflow for customer communication.
Since signing up for TXT2PAY for Zipwhip, Florida Coast Equipment has been able to securely accept payments via text, greatly increase efficiency in closing repair orders, all while improving customer satisfaction.
Challenges
Florida Coast Equipment has been in business for over 35 years and is one of the Elite Kubota Dealers in the U.S. With more and more of our world moving to a streamlined, virtual way of life, businesses like Florida Coast Equipment want to stay ahead of the curve and provide a simple and secure way for their customers to do business with them. A major challenge that Florida Coast Equipment faced was in completing customer orders over the phone securely.
The shop had challenges with accepting and inputting payments via credit card over the phone. Since Florida Coast Equipment customers are already used to texting with their favorite Kubota dealer, customers were sending transaction information via text without being prompted. This led to many individuals at the shop needing to transcribe or translate that information into a payment processer.
Not only was taking credit card payment information over the phone tedious for staff, but it was also not a smooth or secure experience for the customers. With multiple staff working with many customers across sales and repairs, it became less efficient to take payment information that way.
Additionally, Florida Coast Equipment is a top-notch Kubota service provider and parts shop. While in the midst of repairs, there is often unforeseen repairs and additional work that needs to be done to return the equipment to satisfactory working condition for the customers. When an additional repair is required outside of the scope of the original estimate, customer approval is required. This used to stall repairs if the customer was unable to be consulted and if payment wasn’t collected, another point of inefficiency for the shop.
Florida Coast Equipment needed an efficient way to communicate with customers and take secure payments without disrupting their workflow.
“By giving customers the option to also pay the repair invoice via text and any additional repairs that may come up, both the staff and customers can move on quickly. We also now don’t have accounting chasing the customer, or a service writer wasting their time calling to get money before customers come to pick up the unit.”
Brian Pursell
CFO
Results
Florida Coast Equipment is now successfully leveraging TXT2PAY for Zipwhip and has made it a key tool in their day-to-day workflow for both sales and repairs.
TXT2PAY’s secure payment platform has dramatically reduced the need for calls and texts with customers to manually input credit card information. Customers who have been introduced to TXT2PAY have loved the simplicity and are already becoming repeat users. Repeat customers have seen the greatest simplification in their purchases and repairs.
Florida Coast Equipment has seen a huge decrease in customers providing payment information via phone or unsecure text direct to the shop. Not only is this better for the shop in terms of time efficiency to remove the manual reentry into a merchant processor, but also protects the customers’ information. This decrease in card information being provided to the store has also allowed staff to focus on their customers and duties, greatly increasing daily efficiency.
The largest efficiencies for the shop have been gained in their repair orders using TXT2PAY. While in the midst of a repair, mechanics and service staff often come across additional work to be completed on the equipment that is outside the scope of the repair. In one simplified text conversation, service staff can inform the customer of additional work needed on their equipment, get approval from the customer and now, with TXT2PAY, request payment for the additional work being done. Not only does this create less paperwork and inefficiency for Florida Coast Equipment staff, but also creates a much simpler, faster and more secure customer experience.
Florida Coast Equipment has used TXT2PAY for Zipwhip to create a simple and streamlined payment process via text as well as create efficiency for their service staff, saving both time and money.
