8 Ways NEMT Software Eliminates Service Delays and Improves Customer Satisfaction

Technology continues to play an emerging and important role in successful non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) and paratransit services. From improving efficiencies, to saving time and automating tasks that were traditionally tedious to do, NEMT software can save you money, but did you know it can also eradicate troublesome delays and make your customers happier?

Here are 8 ways NEMT software can eliminate delays and improve customer satisfaction:

Pick-Up and Drop-Off Times

Have you ever had a rider arrive at an appointment way too early because of a scheduling issue and instead of your driver heading off to the next client, they wait with the passenger until the facility opens or they can get inside?

Scheduling issues like these not only cost your company time and money, but can also lead to unhappy customers.

NEMT scheduling software gives you control of your riders’ pick-up and drop-off windows. This helps you ensure your riders aren’t in your vehicles too long and that they don’t arrive to appointments too early. 

The scheduling software, which also provides automated call reminders for your riders (which we’ll talk about more in just a moment), can further improve customer satisfaction by giving them a more accurate window for pick-up times. This helps them know when to be ready for your arrival.

As you’re likely aware, On-Time Performance (OTP) is a challenge for some ADA transit providers. Automated scheduling helps you have more control of your fleet movement. It also gives you direct insight into how your team is performing on a routine basis, instead of waiting for an audit on your performance. 

Interested in learning how one company used TripMaster to improve its OTP from 75% to more than 96%? Check out this blog, which highlights the OTP improvement as well as other operational efficiencies that improved the company’s performance, thanks to TripMaster.

Automated Call Reminders

When patients miss their rides with you, they often miss important medical and related service appointments. It has a compounding effect on their health and overall well-being, and it’s estimated that missed appointments cost healthcare providers about $150 billion every year.

But missed appointments also negatively affect your bottom line as a service provider. They cut from expected revenue and uses up employee resources when they could handle other tasks. You can reduce no-shows and help eliminate missed appointments with NEMT ride reminders.

TripMaster, for example, has automated call reminders that can reassure your clients they’re scheduled for pick-up. TripMaster’s reminders also let your clients know when they should be ready to go, and the reminders provide information about how passengers can get in touch with your company if their plans change.

And unlike other providers that just do basic pick-up reminders, TripMaster goes a step further. If your client has other scheduled stops along the way—like they need to go to the pharmacy or the grocery while they’re out—TripMaster will remind your client of all the scheduled trips they’ve arranged. Trip Master offers both text messages and automated voice call reminders.

Digital Fare Collection

Fare collection is traditionally a time-consuming (and delay-causing) headache for NEMT providers. In the not so distant past, fare exchanges were handled between the driver and rider with paper records and often cash exchanges. Manual fare collection creates opportunities for mishandled finances, as well as puts an unnecessary burden on companies by creating an additional liabilities for drivers with large sums of cash in their vehicles.

Digital fare collection through NEMT software is vastly changing how companies get paid for services. It reduces the need for riders to have cash or exact change to pay fares. Digital fare collection also gives family and caregivers an opportunity to help by covering fares for passengers so they don’t have to worry about it when they’re not feeling well or have other issues.

TripMaster’s ParaPass, which is an add-on module for ParaScope, helps you and your riders keep track of payments on their ParaPass card. They simply load money onto their card either in person at your office or over the phone and when it’s time for a ride, your driver simply scans the card and the transaction happens without paper or cash exchanges.

GPS Tracking

GPS tracking is another way you can monitor your fleet to help eliminate service delays.

Through TripMaster’s Automated Vehicle Location (AVL), you have near real-time insight into where every vehicle in your fleet is at any given moment, including how fast a vehicle is traveling, where its been and where its going.

GPS tracking helps dispatchers be proactive when they discover a route is off-schedule. This insight empowers them with the information needed to communicate internally with your team and externally to your customers. This can help prevent further delays for passengers who may be scheduled for routes later in the day. 

By making route adjustments and communicating with your riders, you can further improve customer satisfaction and make adjustments to keep your vehicles and drivers on route and on time.

Subscription Reservations

Many NEMT passengers have standing or recurring appointments. Instead of calling and scheduling a ride for each individual trip, TripMaster enables you to offer your riders a subscription reservation surface, which tracks these recurring rides for routine transportation and ensures your clients are never left waiting or forgotten.

Ride Booking

TripMaster’s Rider Portal is a user friendly way your passengers (or their loved ones or caretakers) can schedule their trips. 

The Rider Portal allows clients, family members, or caregivers to book rides online rather than placing phone calls. This means rides can be conveniently scheduled any time, day or night, and it frees up your dispatchers who will have fewer appointment scheduling calls to handle. The Rider Portal ensures faster and more accurate ride booking with less resources and time invested from your staff.

Accurate, Current Mapping

Do you remember service days before digital mapping was right at your fingertips? In the past, many rides were mapped out on paper and handed to drivers at the beginning of the day without real insight into possible road closures, detours, or other delays. This manual process routinely created delays and left both drivers and riders unhappy.

Today, TripMaster’s NEMT scheduling platform includes maps that are automatically updated. They give schedulers much more (and more current) information about what’s happening on the roads. This enables your team to make better decisions about routes, including how early a client should be picked up to make it to an appointment on time.

The maps also give drivers visual displays of where they’re going, including turn-by-turn directions. Automated mapping also improves efficiencies by giving drivers estimated drive times and mileage calculations, which helps your fleet stay on time. 

The mapping service can also be used for customized reporting, so you can always evaluate how your team is doing related to mileage goals and drive-time objectives.

Auto-Generated Billing and Reports

Ever made a mistake on a bill by swapping numbers or moving a decimal point? Those innocent mistakes can leave customers furious and negatively impact your company’s brand and reputation.

TripMaster’s NEMT scheduling technology enables you to automatically generate bills, which reduces human error and ensures clients are charged accurately for your services.

Additionally, you’ll love the customizable reports you’ll find within the software. You can generate standard financial reports, but you can also get additional insight into data and metrics that help you make better business decisions, continue to improve your services, and ensure that you’re getting a lot of 5-star reviews from happy customers.

CTA: Are you ready to see how TripMaster can help you eliminate service delays and improve customer satisfaction? Schedule a demo today, and we’ll show you how TripMaster will forever change and improve the way you handle your day-to-day NEMT operations.