Kathryn Gough, Vice President of Product and Transformation, explains the philosophy behind Allstar’s development of innovative new products and services.
At Allstar, we are constantly evolving, and looking for new ways to help fleets and businesses. Whatever we do, it is underpinned by our goal to make paying for fuel, EV and business payments as simple as possible for our customers.
We want to develop innovative new products and offerings that enhance our customers’ business and take away as much administration and complexity as we can, so they can concentrate on what makes them successful.
Credit Builder: innovating to help new businesses
Our Credit Builder product has been extremely well-received by new businesses.
Credit Builder is instrumental in giving businesses, which typically have a lower credit rating because they are starting out, the opportunity to access fuel cards.
Previously, a business had to be trading for at least two years in order to use our fuel cards, but through Credit Builder’s offering (you can find out in more detail how Credit Builder works here), we can help them as they grow the business.
As a new business, having all your fuel purchases in one consolidated HMRC-compliant invoice and being able to access benefits often only available to larger well-established fleets, is extremely useful.
It reduces admin, particularly at a time when a business is trying to grow and so needs to concentrate on things that help achieve this. Being able to buy fuel more effectively is also a big benefit when operational costs could otherwise hold growth back.
Credit Builder also just helps a company streamline processes to make life a bit easier, so employees aren’t using petty cash or their debit cards to pay for fuel. It’s about making life on the road as simple, and controlled, as possible.
Evolving digitally, and in person
The philosophy of making payments as simple and streamlined as possible for our customers means we have been spending a lot of time looking at how we evolve digitally and how we use connectivity. This is where the major advances in our proposition will come from.
As an example, we have developed our online customer platform so our customers can use it to self-serve, from ordering new cards and PINs, to obtaining reports on purchases and putting in place controls on what can be bought.
Increasingly, people don’t want to be on the phone doing these kinds of things, because they can do it quickly and easily from anywhere online, at any time, and so we have enhanced Allstar Online to ensure this can happen.
That said, we also have to recognise that sometimes, customers need to speak to an expert and so we have been investing in new tech to support calls and to serve customers in the best way possible when they do ring.
Covering the entire driving ecosystem
Going forward over the next few months there will be a lot of digital technology introduced which covers the entire driving ecosystem so that when a fleet is using Allstar, it knows that once a vehicle is moving, we are on board too - in many different ways.
Often, with the changes to the way many companies work, they may see less of their employees in person, and so they need clever new ways to manage them when they are on the road, or even at home, in the case of charging EVs.
So our focus is on accurately monitoring business mileage and driver behaviours, whether it be behind the wheel or when they are paying for vehicle or business expenses. We’ll be able to be more proactive in helping the driver find the best, and cheapest, places to stop for fuel and electricity through messaging and location reporting.
For fleets we can flag exceptions, check insurance and licences, and help to make better and more informed procurement choices, not just in terms of fuel or energy, but in parts and servicing through Allstar ServicePoint or with business expenses such as parking, hotels rooms and food.
We’ll do this through a suite of digital products that work together in linked technology in web portals and apps. We want to be able to cover every cost a driver incurs while out on the road, and give the fleet manager the control and visibility over them in really clear, easy-to-use ways. That way they could save money, and time. And we’ve done our job too.
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