Harley-Davidson of Dallas Solves Dispatching Issues with Help from Swoop
Despite Unusual Dispatching Setup, Harley Dealership Now Routes Their Drivers with Ease
The team at Harley-Davidson of Dallas was in a tricky spot when they expanded their operations, acquiring a second dealership in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area. Now that the same ownership group runs dealerships in the suburbs of Allen and Garland — about 30 minutes apart — their service needs became far more complex. As service manager Shawn Feiock explains, “we used to be old school, with a physical whiteboard. We would draw out a schedule with days of the week and times of the day, then we just threw pieces of paper on the grid. But with two dealerships, you clearly can’t both look at the same whiteboard.”
Feiock knew there had to be a better way to coordinate service calls between the two locations, so he started researching a variety of software solutions. “When I found Swoop, I set up an account to test it out, and just experimented with it for an evening,” he says. “I liked the way it worked, so I added one of my drivers to the account. I don’t think it took us more than a day to get comfortable with it.”
Adapting Swoop to an Unusual Dispatching Model
Feiock decided that Swoop was the best answer for Harley-Davidson of Dallas, because he saw a simple way to integrate the system with their unique dispatching setup. “We have a backwards format compared to what most Swoop users probably use,” Feiock explains. “What I mean by that is, whereas most companies might have only a few dispatchers, and maybe dozens or even hundreds of drivers, we have dozens of dispatchers, but only a handful of drivers.”
Swoop gave Harley-Davidson of Dallas an easy way to direct calls from multiple dispatchers into one user-friendly system, with no need for extra steps or unnecessary hassles. With every dispatcher feeding into the same management software, the drivers can focus on simply completing each job in a safe and efficient manner.
Quick Responses Lead to Satisfied Customers
With Swoop, Feiock found a solution that made sense for his company’s needs, even with the unusual dispatching setup used by Harley-Davidson of Dallas. “My favorite thing about Swoop is being able to track the fleet on the map,” he says. “In the past, we would often have to call three or four drivers before we figured out who to send out on a job. Now, we just look at the map and plan it all out, without wasting everybody’s time.” With dozens of people coordinating jobs for a handful of drivers, the ability to locate each driver in real time has been a major benefit to Harley-Davidson of Dallas.
Despite the fact that they just started using Swoop in late June, Harley-Davidson of Dallas is already reaping the rewards of integrating Swoop’s tow management software. “There’s a lot of advantages to it,” Feiock says. “I can have a customer picked up in ten minutes, when they normally would’ve had to wait an hour on the side of the road. Regardless of when I get that bike back in the shop, I’ve already got that customer off the road. That’s a big customer satisfaction benefit.”
The Next Phase of Swoop Integration
While Feiock and his team are experiencing plenty of improvements to their dispatching and roadside pickup operation, he’s excited to get the next phase of Swoop integration off the ground. “For us, stage two of launching Swoop is buying tablets for the trucks, instead of having the drivers use their personal cell phones,” he explains. “They’re safer on the road without having to deal with their cell phones.”
At the end of the day, it’s clear that the team at Harley-Davidson of Dallas is already seeing benefits from Swoop integration, even though they’ve only been using it for a few weeks. “I think we’ll see both a cost benefit and a time benefit,” Feiock says. “We’re going to be able to plan better, and run more efficiently because of Swoop.”
If you would like to receive more information about Swoop, call the sales team at 415–360–3328 or visit joinswoop.com to download your free trial!
