Getting your executive to a meeting on time takes planning and forward thinking. Having a taxi company that can meet your needs is key, says Chris Boud
Don?t you just hate it when people are late? You got up early, downed your morning cup of coffee in one go, ran for your bus and almost missed the train, only to find the person you?re meeting is ?running late?.
Unfortunately, there?s not much you can do about other people running late, but as a PA, making sure your exec is where they should be at the right time is paramount ? even if he or she is the worst timekeeper in the world.
So what can you do to make sure your exec is always on time?
Ensuring you have the right booking tool and service provider is key. Having the ability to both pre-book and make ASAP bookings allows you the flexibility to arrange transport when you need to, whether that be making sure a packed day runs smoothly, or getting your boss to the meeting they forgot to tell you about that starts in 15 minutes? time.
Ground transportation in particular brings its own unique set of difficulties. No matter how organised you are, traffic accidents, freak weather, or train strikes can throw even the most organised PAs off their game. That?s why it?s imperative to have a taxi provider that can offer on-demand bookings with the quickest pick-up time possible.
It?s also vital that your provider can offer pre-bookings with a customer care team to back them up. As easy as booking a cab in advance sounds, all those potential pitfalls mentioned earlier may mean a driver who set out with more than enough time to make a pre-booked pick-up finds themself stuck in traffic far from the pick-up point. Having real people to step in and assign a new driver who can get there on time is the only way to truly offer a pre-booking service with effective SLAs.
In the past your exec would call you to find out how long their cab would be, you would then call the cab company to track its progress and they would have to contact the driver to confirm his whereabouts. It was a long and drawn-out process.
In a world full of smartphones and GPS, apps and online booking tools allow bookers and passengers to track their taxi?s progress directly through their phone, tablet, or laptop, complete with driver details such as name, phone number and picture. Any company not using a provider that offers these tools should be asking themselves why, as the time and cost-saving implications can be significant for your firm.
The last area to consider is invoicing and management information. Is your finance department really happy with PDF invoices that can?t be uploaded directly into your finance system? Do you really want to manually go through invoices to find out who is keeping their cars waiting for too long or who is booking cabs to Paddington only to opt for Heathrow mid-journey? Ensuring that you have a provider that can offer you all this and more, in formats that integrate with your systems, should be one of the base requirements when choosing your taxi provider. Anything less is wasting valuable company time and resources.
Luckily, there are solutions out there, such as Gett for Business, that offer all of these features, with the added peace of mind of working exclusively with fully licensed black cabs, plus a whole lot more.
Why not give Gett for Business a try and get your first month?s booking fee for free? To find out more, go to promo.gett.com/palifemag/.
You can download the Gett app for iPhone or Android. Try the service yourself for free, input coupon code GETT30 for ?30 off your first private ride(s).
It?s a life saver.
Chris Boud is UK Business Development & B2B Marketing Manager at Gett, the go-to app for instantly booking a licensed black cab. Find out more at promo.gett.com/palifemag/
