How FitnessKing schedules appointments with 80% fewer phone calls

Nikolas Van der Veken founded FitnessKing 16 years ago. Meanwhile, the family business from Dendermonde has grown into the largest specialty store in fitness equipment in the Benelux.

Both professionals and individuals are welcome at FitnessKing where they can find all major brands under one roof. They have an impressive showroom where more than 300 devices can be tested. In addition, customers can make online purchases through the modern webshop.

Nikolas Van der Veken, founder and General Manager, explains how the company distinguishes itself: "At FitnessKing, we choose quality and the best brands without compromise. We are completely independent, so we can sincerely guide the customer in their choice. Our team has not only technical expertise, but also stays up to date with the latest developments in rehabilitation and sports."

The services of FitnessKing go beyond advice. "We have our own service department that goes to our customers' homes for installation, repairs, or maintenance. We strive to schedule our appointments with the customer very quickly so that they can start exercising soon," says Nikolas Van der Veken.

FitnessKing manages to quickly and efficiently schedule these appointments with their customers with minimal phone contact by using Movetex Services.

"When scheduling appointments, we mainly lost a lot of time in communication. Customers are not always available by phone and back-and-forth emailing takes a long time."Nikolas Van der Veken, General Manager, FitnessKing

Challenges

FitnessKing uses Odoo as its ERP system. This is where customer management, orders, and inventory are managed. The planning of the service department remained a challenging and manual process, says Nikolas Van der Veken: "Our planning for our four technicians is very dynamic. We plan installations, repairs, and deliveries. One job takes longer than the other, and some require two technicians. You have to schedule them together."

So, it's a complex planning process. But the back office lost the most time in communication with customers, Nikolas explains: "We looked in agendas in advance to see when a technician had time to perform the job. Then we called the customer to make an appointment proposal. But often, customers are not available, and you end up on their voicemail. Then you must remember to call back. Or we communicated via email, but then you end up in an exchange of emails until the appointment is finally made. And that can take some time. It is not easy to build a good schedule here."

Efficiency was not the biggest concern at that time. "Making the puzzle was the most important thing. The focus was on making sure all customers received an appointment on time, keeping track of who was definitively scheduled or not, and handling cancellations or absences. In addition, we also had to answer customer calls asking if the technician was on the way. You want to manage this and you are happy if you succeed," says Nikolas.

FitnessKing also wanted to optimize this process and searched for a good planning tool as an extension to their ERP. This is how they ended up with Movetex. FitnessKing now uses the service platform of Movetex for the management of their service department.

“Movetex Services is linked to our ERP. Once a job is accepted in Odoo, the entire planning and execution process is done in Movetex."Nikolas Van der Veken, General Manager, FitnessKing

Solutions

As soon as an order is approved in Odoo, a ticket is automatically created in Movetex. This ticket contains all the requirements, such as the type of job, the duration, the earliest and latest date, the number of technicians required, and the customer's preferences. This is automatically taken into account during planning. To efficiently schedule this ticket, the back office has access to various tools in Movetex. This allows them to automatically schedule multiple tickets together and optimize them. They can also request the best options for each individual ticket or see which tickets can be added to a technician's day. An efficient plan is made quickly and unforeseen circumstances are resolved.

But the customer is not yet informed of their appointment. FitnessKing sends automated emails with a link to the Movetex customer portal - fully in the look & feel of FitnessKing - where the customer has 48 hours to accept or decline the proposal. If the customer declines, they can provide feedback and that day will be excluded from future proposals. The planners immediately have an overview of orders that were declined or not responded to. They can then make another proposal. Only if this next proposal is also not accepted, will they make a phone call.

In addition to the planning software, they also use Movetex's Mobile Workforce App. Technicians receive their schedule on this app, can navigate to customers, and have all the information about the job with them. They also have the ability to take photos, collect signatures, and provide feedback. The materials needed to carry out the job automatically flow through from Odoo. The technician confirms these materials or adjusts the quantities or products. This in turn flows back to Odoo so that inventory management stays up to date and billing is correctly fed.

By using the mobile app, both the back office and customers can track in real-time. In the Customer Portal, they receive a continuously updated arrival time for their technician. After completion, they will find a summary and can provide feedback. This way, they are always informed and no longer have to call the office.

"We now efficiently schedule our appointments with just a few clicks and send an invitation to the customer. More than 80% accept this digitally, without any phone contact."Nikolas Van der Veken, General Manager, FitnessKing

Results

Nikolas Van der Veken is happy with Movetex: "Both the complete planning process, as well as the execution by the technicians and the communication with the customer happens in Movetex. Thanks to the integration with Odoo, data flows automatically to Movetex. And when a job is finished, the necessary information flows back to Odoo."

The planning software saves a lot of time, Nikolas also thinks: "The flexibility of the software is huge. We start with an automatic planning, supplement it with the best proposals for additional jobs and we optimize again every day until the planning is final. We process our jobs to be planned in much less time. Previously, we were always behind, now we plan 2 weeks in advance and have everything under control. Since the software continuously takes into account the distance and working hours of my technicians, I no longer have to worry about the efficiency of the planning."

When asked about the biggest advantage of Movetex Services, Nikolas doesn't have to think long: "The difference in the number of phone calls with the customer is enormous. More than 80% of our customers accept the planning proposals digitally. These are all customers that we no longer have to call. And on the day of the appointment or afterwards, they can also go to our Customer Portal, which ensures a better customer experience."