Newsfeeds and media libraries are table stakes for any mobile driver workflow app today. They are, however, often overlooked, under-appreciated, and under-utilized. Tankstar USA is one client who understands the power of a content and communication strategy that delivers relevant and timely content to their drivers. Watch Scott Applefeld of ASR Solutions walk through how they are leveraging the newsfeed and media library features in the Eleos Platform.
Communicate effectively with your drivers today »
Video Transcript
Wes Pollock (00:08):
Good afternoon. I’m Wes Pollock with Eleos Technologies. I’m the Vice President of Sales. Today. I’ve got with me, Scott Applefeld. Scott is one of the owners of ASR Solutions. They’re both an integration partner and reseller of our platform. Hi Scott.
Scott Applefeld (00:22):
Hi Wes.
Wes Pollock (00:22):
So today we’re going to talk about using the newsfeed and the media library in the mobile platform. These features are often under-appreciated, but they’re very powerful. I’ll give you an example. I was talking to a group of drivers a few years back, and one of the drivers told me how much he loved the media library and the newsfeed because it wasn’t coming through as this, fire hose of text messages on his mobile-comm device. He then told me a story of laying in his sleeper berth one night, trying to get some sleep, and he heard the mobile-comm ding. He rolls out of bed to go see what the message was to make sure it wasn’t missing a load offer, and it was an invitation to the company barbecue and he’s a thousand miles away. So this feature really does let messaging be what messaging should be. Things that need attention and that are important. And let’s put news into a separate category, something that can be consumed when it’s time and appropriate. Scott’s going to walk us through some of that today.
Scott Applefeld (01:18):
Thanks, Wes. So I just want to call out our customer David Schwerman at Tankstar USA in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Wes Pollock (01:28):
Hey David. Thanks for taking the time to let us do this.
Scott Applefeld (01:31):
Indeed. Thank you very much, David. So David has given us permission to share their demo app that they use for training with drivers to be able to demonstrate how they use media libraries. And I asked him for this privilege because I really feel that Tankstar uses these features better than almost any customer I’ve seen on the Eleos Platform. On the surface, news and media library seem like very basic features, very simple features, but when you truly have a content strategy to extend them to your driver base and take advantage of what they can do, they reach a whole other level in terms of what they accomplish for the organization. So let me just go ahead and share the Tankstar demo app here and walk through kind of how they’re doing it. What I have here is obviously the dashboard, simple as with most screens, we have all the common information that would be exposed through Eleos, but if I take a moment to drill into the news and announcements, we’ll see that they have, they invest in very frequent updates to the, to the application to send out content to their drivers.
Obviously a lot of the recent news has been about the pandemic about COVID-19 of course, but they frequently will work on videos, video content, showing information from people that are directly speaking to a problem. So there’s a really human element to the interaction where you get to hear from them, get to see them get to listen to their perspective or the information they’re sharing that makes it feel like you’re part of that part of the company, part of that initiative, part of the family. If we go further back, they’ve sent a lot of information about using the app or new initiatives, or safety, things like that. And so all of that can be shared at a newsfeed level. So there’s constantly new content coming out to the driver, keeping them informed of what’s going on in the company, what’s going on in the world, what kind of things they should be looking at.
Scott Applefeld (03:25):
And one thing a lot of people don’t know is that news feeds can be tailored to have multiple grouping levels. So you can have a global newsfeed that all of your drivers see or you can create news feeds that are specific to divisions.
Wes Pollock (03:38):
We’ve got several customers that have specific news feeds for their driver population, but for their owner operators, they’ve got a totally separate news feed.
Scott Applefeld (03:47):
That way, and you can show both at the same time, you can have a global newsfeed and a specific newsfeed and really have multiple levels of content going on. But where I think Tankstar has really differentiated and set themselves apart is after they’ve taken the time to, you know, invest in this information. And they’ve created this video content that is able to be shared and has those human aspects like I said, they don’t just throw that information away once they’re done.
Once the content is old, they’ve used media libraries. And media libraries, or way to organize information by topic and share that information with your drivers within the Eleos Platform. So they’ll use media libraries to structure the different topics of videos they’ve put together and keep them available forever. So a lot of their early videos were introductions to the team, you know they were all about the family, the owners, the executives, the operational leaders, the drivers that had had a lot of tenure; introducing them, getting to know them, talking about who they were and seeing them face to face. And so they spent a lot of time creating that content. And that’s now always available for drivers to go back and watch or new drivers to become familiar with the organization. And it really makes them feel included, you know, a part of the mission and a part of the vision.
Scott Applefeld (05:05):
Similarly, when they have safety initiatives, they spend a lot of time creating content, but it’s tailored around what that initiative is, what they’re trying to accomplish, what the driver can do or needs to do. And that information remains available forever. So new drivers can watch it and be up to speed on different, important safety aspects, where if they have a particular recommendation, they can instruct a driver to go find a particular video and watch it to learn more about a topic. And even things like just how to use the app, you know, early on when the app was new and they needed to instruct drivers and the different workflows that they have built and scanning documents successfully and all those sorts of things, they put together videos to explain those topics to the drivers and they kept them available. So now anyone that ever has a question can go back and watch how that was done and learn how to be successful at it. So they really have, have created a content engagement strategy that helps the driver feel like part of the culture, part of the fit, part of the organization, and part of the family in a way that I just haven’t seen anyone else do. And I think exemplifies the power of all those tools in Eleos and what it can accomplish for the organization.
Wes Pollock (06:12):
It really is about driver engagement. We hear a lot about driver engagement as it relates to recruiting and retaining drivers. Tankstar has done a great job of leveraging media to do that. We have another customer, one of our largest, the CEO told us that one of his favorite features is the newsfeed because he can immediately get in front of his entire driver population within minutes. He can record a quick video and it can be on the device in the truck, or it can be on the driver’s personal cell phone. So it’s a great way to get, reach out to your drivers and engage them. We have other customers that, for new drivers, they might have a video from the CEO thanking them for joining the company, or maybe from a 2 million miler saying, “Hey, these are the reasons why I love driving for company XYZ.” I appreciate your time today. The media library is very powerful, but again, something we may be over simplifying. So thanks for taking the time to show it. And David, thank you for letting us look at your app today. Appreciate it.
Scott Applefeld (07:13):
Thank you, Wes. Thank you, David.
Wes Pollock (07:14):
Take care.
