All our representatives understand just how important our visits to members and potential members are – but they also understand that an enormous amount of work goes into planning these visits. It’s not simply about plotting the most time-efficient route – not always an easy task, given that reps often find themselves travelling vast distances to see members – as reps also have to keep track of which members are due a visit.
Managing the logistics of such activities manually presents an enormous number of challenges – after all, it’s easy to overlook a member who may need a little attention or to find that you have run out of time for the number of visits you have planned for a day.
That’s why the introduction of portatour® in 2018 was warmly welcomed. This digital tool makes it possible for reps to store all relevant information about reps on their phones, making it easy to access. It also makes planning routes far more simple, helping reps to save time (and petrol money) by plotting the most effective course. In fact, reps have reported that this planning makes it possible to fit in between one and three extra visits each day. This adds up to a whopping 2 500 extra visits every year. More impressive still is that because all records are kept online and the schedule is planned automatically, reps are able to save up to three hours every week – time which would usually be spent trying to figure out the most efficient way of scheduling as many visits as possible. This planning is now done, literally, at the touch of a button. Add to that a reduction of between 15 and 18% in mileage, and all that entails from a cost savings perspective, and it’s easy to see why reps are cheering the adoption of this new technology.
