Here's how I would use social media if I were a snow plowing contractor.
This is a business where safety is paramount. Phrases like "zero-tolerance" are used to establish the level of service customers expect to keep their facilities safe – and their legal teams idle. I should first note that I owned a snow and ice management business for over 15 years. And I'm a lifetime member of the Snow and Ice Management Association (SIMA).
Even the most experienced snow and ice contractor gets a bone-chilling shiver when he hears the words "slip and fall." This means that despite their best efforts, someone has managed to accomplish the inevitable. This can result in a cascade of finger pointing that pulls everyone into a legal mess that can last well into the summer months. It can also drain every dollar of profit that was earned by crews that tirelessly worked through the night in conditions that sometimes defy description.
Snow Response Plans (SRP's) are de-rigueur if you expect to minimize your liability while keeping your customer's properties safe. The process for developing these plans, and the training that accompanies them, begins months before the first flake falls. Above all else, these plans are structured to ensure optimum communications and actions, regardless of unpredictable circumstances. Social media can augment those plans for the better.
Crowdsourcing with Twitter
In the old days, a rotation of employees were scheduled for "snow watch." They would trade phone calls to watch the weather to determine when to dispatch crews. This is usually coordinated through a central dispatching system where the snow manager makes the call to mobilize for a storm, and continues the effort to relocate crews to new sites as conditions evolve.
Today you can create a hashtag to tap into the wisdom of clients who are also watching the storm. These Tweets can provide instantaneous information on site conditions, previously unforeseen conditions and obstacles, and the comings and goings of employees and visitors. This puts customers right where you want them – on your team!
Plus, you can quickly get information back to concerned clients who are wondering …."where are you?"
Collaborating with Google Wave
Google Wave is still in Beta, but we know it will prove to be a phenomenal tool for collaboration when it is finally released.
What is faster than a phone call – a cell phone call. What's faster yet – a flurry of emails. Still better? A drift (instead of a wave) of real-time communications where I am watching your words as you type them. That's speed. And that speed can save time, property, and possibly even lives. That's the power of Google Wave.
The snow business is one where you can make a lot of money in a short period of time – when it snows. During those critical hours is when I would consider adding a few computer savvy folks to the payroll with good observation skills. Their use of these tools to enhance communications is a form of insurance that could save a lot of money that may otherwise be paid to that other insurance "man."
Real Time Location Data with Foursquare
Foursquare is an application that is being hailed as the next Twitter. It allows people to check in and leave updates on their whereabouts. While this location-based application is intended for social purposes, I can envision opportunities for using it between snow events to minimize mobilization time when that snowstorm does hit.
Foursquare could also prove valuable during extended storms when crews have an opportunity to grab a bite to eat with their co-workers. Foursquare can efficiently establish the most opportune locations and times for a "huddle" – that welcomed, and sometimes necessary face-to-face time that keeps everyone together as a team. Business is more than work. It's work with a team of people who have personal needs too.
You may not be in the snow and ice management business, but you still have to manage two things:
1. People
2. An End Result – such as Safety
These ideas are specific to snow and ice professionals who are really in the safety business. That's what they are selling.
What are selling?
Follow Us!