Many distributors have to deal with customers who have quit, or been fired, and relocate without making payments or notification.
Bionet Security has seen and heard first hand all the issues with skips that mobile tool distributors have to deal with on a daily basis. The company created and recently introduced a software program, SkipTracker, to keep track of customer payments. This software offers distributors the opportunity to know about a potential customer's past payment history with other distributors.
SkipTracker software uses the latest in biometric technology to fingerprint and photograph each customer. Distributors no longer have to worry about fake driver's licenses, or any form of picture ID, to identify a customer. If the customer stops paying, distributors can use this software to pull up the account and mark the customer as a "skip." When that individual tries to open up an account on another tool truck equipped with SkipTracker, the inquiring distributor will be notified immediately via SMS text message.
Once the new distributor enters the potential customer's information, the system will also provide previous distributors who have worked with this customer by sending an internal message of the location where the "skipped" person is trying to get a new account. Previous distributors will be provided with the phone number of the other distributor's tool truck. The only way to remove the skip from the software program is to pay the original distributor who listed the customer on the missed payment.
Networking capabilities
The owner of SkipTracker, Russell Pettway, acknowledged the importance of knowing about customer skips. He talks with tool truck distributors every day who are frustrated that they are not getting paid every week.
"Wouldn't it be nice to know if any of your accounts have an account on another mobile tool truck?" asks Pettway. "This might explain why sometimes you get paid one week but not the next."
Rating system
SkipTracker offers a five-star rating system which allows mobile distributors to post feedback about their customers based on payment history. This allows a distributor to easily view the past history of a customer without having to go through each note. "If it works for multi-billion dollar auction websites, then it will work just the same for mobile tool distributors out there," says marketing manager Rich Ferry.
Real-life examples
A former Matco distributor shared this story with Pettway:
"I had a customer once who told me his info, and when I placed [his information] into our (company) software, it came back with no results, so I decided to give him an account. After years of dealing with him, he 'skipped' on me, owing me close to $1,200. When I asked his employer for the information he had on file for this customer, I was able to find out the customer gave me his first and middle name with a different social security number. He wound up owing another Matco dealer $4,000 in Dallas!"
Customer payment tracking softare like SkipTracker helps mobile distributors screen customers before they lend them credit and allows these distributors to be informed if the deliquient customer attempts to purchase from another distributor using the same software.
"Once everyone is using SkipTracker, skips will be a thing of the past," says Randy Thompson, a Mac Tools distributor serving the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area.
