For 100 Years, Holman has relentlessly focused on elevating the customer experience.

This year, Holman celebrates its 100^th Anniversary. A centenary milestone for any company is a hugely impressive achievement and Holman is no exception. And yet the drive to continually elevate the customer experience in every vertical in which Holman operates (including fleet management), remains fundamental to the organization’s culture, strategic planning, and day-to-day operations.

Holman continues to make significant investments across its entire organization, including the recent appointment of a new Managing Director in Canada, Brent Scowen. Bringing more than 20 years of experience in sales, service and logistics, Scowen also adds some very unique customer service-oriented insights to his new role.

Prior to joining Holman, Scowen spent time at the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI) and telecommunications provider Cogeco. At CSI, Scowen spearheaded building strategic customer partnerships. With Cogeco, he helped transform the organization from an engineer-centric firm to a customer-centric provider with a local feel.

“These experiences were incredibly formative, helping me truly understand the needs and expectations of customers both big and small,” said Scowen.

Additionally, working at both Cogeco and Acosta, Canada’s leading CPG agency, provided an opportunity for Scowen to develop “a profound understanding of the unique challenges associated with delivering sales and service representation to large residential and business customers across a sprawling geographic region.” He says that fleet effectiveness was a key component to delivering a superior customer experience and business outcomes for sustained success.

A thriving service-oriented culture

Scowen feels that today, while a lot of talk focuses on delivering an exceptional [and consistent] customer experience, in practice it is often, “no easy task. From my perspective, a superior customer experience is built on a few foundational elements and that is what we strive for here at Holman.”

These are:

• Be easy to do business with.

• Simplify processes and engagements, enabling seamless self-service tools where the benefit is clear for the customer.

• Constantly strive to be responsive and anticipate the needs of customers while empowering employees to serve them easily and efficiently.

• Focus on building long-term, strategic relationships with customers.

Nevertheless, achieving them, especially in today’s turbulent business environment, requires careful consideration. Today, fleet managers are under a lot of pressure to deliver amid a sea of challenges—everything from high interest rates and inflation to disruptions in supply chains for vehicles, parts and even upfitting equipment, not to mention fluctuating fuel costs, higher insurance costs and staffing challenges. All these macroeconomic factors are impacting fleet managers’ budgets and operating practices. And while some of these issues have cooled in recent months, as Scowen acknowledges, others are likely to linger.

“With that in mind, we [at Holman] are helping our customers understand precisely how these factors influence each stage of the vehicle’s lifecycle—buy, drive, service and sell—and are working with our customers to optimize their fleet strategy to control costs,” explains Scowen. “We often recommend rather than simply planning for the year ahead, most fleet operators will benefit from a more macro approach. If you’re able to forecast three to five years out,” he says, “you’ll have greater financial flexibility to adjust to unforeseen challenges or have capital available to take advantage of cost-savings opportunities that may arise.”

Scowen, Bria and Foster emphasize the need to be relentlessly focused on elevating the customer experience at Holman, through the organization’s people as well as the latest technology. Credit: Jack Kazmierski

Clear understanding

Scowen also notes that delivering an exceptional customer experience hinges on “having a crystal-clear understanding of how Holman can align with and support our customer’s business priorities.” This is why, he says, “the voice of our customer is exceptionally impactful in all that we do and why our entire leadership team continues to welcome their candid, transparent feedback.”

A key example of that is an enhanced Holman Customer Support Centre, which is designed to bring speed, ease of use, and visibility (along with automation in some cases) to daily fleet management activities such as licensing renewals, maintenance requests, and status updates.

“The platform allows our customers to easily submit requests, receive alerts to provide information or take action, and view an overall dashboard of action items (in progress or recently completed),” explains Holman’s Director of Strategic Services Kathryn Foster. Not only does this alleviate a significant portion of a fleet manager’s typical administrative burden, it also centralizes information and notifications to reduce email congestion.

“Our goal is to leverage technology to simplify and streamline the day-to-day tactical items which allows our fleet management experts to focus their efforts on the strategic, value-add projects,” says Foster.

Investments in technology and people

Besides the Customer Support Centre, Holman continues to invest heavily in technology and its people. “We continue to make significant investments in our customer-facing technology—mobile apps for drivers and fleet managers, comprehensive driver scorecards, engaging dashboards, in-depth analysis, etc.,” says Romy Bria, Vice President, Client Relations.

Bria is also keen to point out that Holman’s commitment to enhancing the customer experience goes well beyond these fundamental tools. “The landscape of fleet management is evolving rapidly. It is vital that we keep an eye ahead to tomorrow, so that our customers have the tools and resources they need to handle today’s challenges while also being well prepared for those emerging on the horizon.”

Additionally, as Bria explains, Holman is actively pursuing strategic ventures with technology leaders and emerging startups to bring new, innovative solutions to the fleet space. The aim is to ensure that Holman’s customers will have robust support as they look to adapt to new and evolving trends, whether it be vehicle electrification, evolving customer expectations, or new ways in harnessing data to optimize fleet operations in the months and years ahead.

 As far as data is concerned, Foster notes that in today’s environment, with so much information being generated, it can often be overwhelming to sift through it and apply it effectively to fleet operations. “From fuel transactions to maintenance and diagnostic information, to purchase/sell data, real-time driver behaviour information, etc. it is easy to get paralyzed by data and over-analysis,” she says.

Insightful and actionable

That’s why Foster acknowledges, Holman is focused on providing “simple tools that deliver insightful and actionable information to empower our customers to make informed decisions.” She notes that beyond the data itself, Holman is taking steps to ensure it has fleet experts in place who can “help our customers leverage this information to drive change and support operational priorities that align with the customer’s overall business objectives.”

The “human” part in all this cannot be overstated. “We genuinely believe that our people are our greatest strength, and we fully understand the vital role they plan in driving an exceptional customer experience,” notes Scowen.

“Designing engaging experiences always begins with a human-centric approach,” explains Holman’s Executive Vice President of Service Excellence Aarthi Murali. Murali notes that “truly understanding the wants, needs, and desires of our customers—as well as our employees—is the foundation of our business.” From there, she points out that “every interaction should be welcoming, helpful, and ultimately, deliver an exceptional experience. When you add to that formula the technology, resources, and data necessary to drive results,” Murali explains, “you can deliver a truly delightful and rewarding experience for both our customers and our employees.”

As Scowen summarizes, “as we embark on our second century in business, we know that to be the best fleet management partner, we need to continue to further enhance the customer experience.” He stresses that while it’s incredibly important to be able to do that well today, no successful organization can rest on its laurels.” That’s why he says, Holman will continue to invest in new technologies, new processes, and new resources “to meet our customers where they are and be easier to do business with. We have some exciting initiatives on the horizon,” states Scowen, “and we cannot wait to continue this journey with our customers.”