SWOT is an acronym: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

It is a decision making tool, pioneered in the 1960’s to examine strategic planning for companies. However, the same principals can be used to evaluate your CX.

The process is straightforward. You define your goal, and then identify the factors that will impact your goal. You identify the factors by asking questions for each of the four areas. This process reveals helpful and harmful factors from internal and external sources.

Strengths are the capabilities and resources in your company that enable you to create a great CX. Ask yourself, what advantages or features does your product or service have? What can do you do better than anyone else? How do you address customer issues? What do your customers perceive as your strengths?

Weaknesses are the gaps in in your CX. READ MORE

Harnessing the power of gamification to achieve greater safety, productivity and compliance

By Mark Wallin, Vice President, Product Management, Telogis

Today’s fleets all have a powerful tool at their disposal – and it’s one of the most basic tools we all carry with us: mobile apps that run on our mobile phones and tablets. New applications tied into existing fleet management and work order management solutions such as Telogis Coach can significantly improve how mobile workers perform their day-to-day jobs – and it can all be unlocked through the mobile device they’re already using.

This article will look at some of the most effective ways today’s fleets are leveraging a concept called gamification to coach and improve worker performance in real time, and why people running fleets should consider engaging with gamification to drive a more satisfied, efficient and safe organization.

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Regardless of your role, selling is one of the most important skills you can develop.

The AFLA 2016 Annual Conference kicks off on Sunday, September 18th, with a Women in Fleet Management (WIFM) session: Ignite Your Selling Potential — led by Susan Lund, president of MR³, a Metrics-Driven Sales and Productivity Consulting firm. Susan has 30 years of experience in business, sales, sales leadership, sales coaching, sales training, productivity and executive coaching.

During this session, attendees will learn seven simple accelerators to gain buy-in and drive results, how to realize and ignite your selling potential and how to avoid the hazards to transform activity in productivity.

Learn more about the AFLA 2016 Conference.

Travel Pulse

Avis Car Rental has announced a major overall to the company’s mobile app with the addition of the new Avis Now features, which will allow customers to control every detail of the rental process.

As part of the Avis Now innovations, customers will be able to select their rental car in real time by swiping the app until they find a vehicle that suits their needs. In addition, travelers can extend their rental or view their rental agreement through Avis Now.

The new app’s features also include the ability to lock and unlock doors, flash the headlights to help find the car, and it allows customers to return the vehicle without assistance by simply using Avis Now on a smartphone.

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Automotive News

Ford Motor Co. will offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity on its full lineup of 2017 vehicles, marking the fastest rollout of the technology so far by an automaker in the U.S.

Competitors have been introducing the popular features a few nameplates at a time over several years, but Ford, which offered no 2016 models with Apple or Android integration, is doing it all at once.

By the end of this year, all Ford and Lincoln vehicles will have the features built into Sync 3, which is replacing the sometimes-balky MyFord Touch system.

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The Car Connection

If you’re a fan of eco-friendly cars, we have good news, bad news, and good news.

The good news is, a new report says that automakers already have the technology they need to achieve the Environmental Protection Agency’s bold fuel economy goals for 2025. Issued in 2011, those goals aim for fleet-wide fuel economies of 54.5 mpg. As we’ve heard before, car companies are making progress on that front.

The bad news? While consumer groups are strongly in favor of the new regulations, consumers themselves are a little more blase.

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The Electrification Coalition (EC) today recognizes the Department of Energy’s (DOE) decision to allocate $4.5 billion in loan guarantees to expand the nation’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure and encourage the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

Increasing fuel diversity in the transport sector is an urgent priority to sever the nation’s dependence on oil and boost American energy security.

“Charging infrastructure is an important priority when getting electric vehicles on the road, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle,” said Robbie Diamond, CEO of the Electrification Coalition.

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Detroit Free Press

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said on Friday the U.S. government plans to release a set of guidelines on cybersecurity best practices for the automotive industry in coming weeks.

Foxx made the announcement at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Detroit where automakers, security experts, cybersecurity companies and government officials discussed the importance of industry collaboration aimed at keeping cars safe from being hacked.

“There is no one company that can do on its own what all companies can accomplish together,” Foxx said.

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Forbes

Key to the auto industry’s rush to perfect self-driving car technology is the promise that the arrival of these vehicles will usher in an era of accident-free motoring and make crashes a rarity, if not an eventual impossibility.

This initiative has hit a speed bump since news broke of a fatal crash involving a Tesla Model S driver in Florida who was using the company’s Autopilot system and two other accidents involving Teslas equipped with the semi-autonomous driving feature.

Nevertheless, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say widespread adoption of some of the building-block technologies needed for fully autonomous vehicles, short of the artificial intelligence, steering controls and advanced sensors they also use, can meaningfully and affordably reduce collisions and road fatalities.

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The Detroit Bureau

Looking for a good used car? Well, if you find a hybrid or an EV you like, don’t dawdle on buying it because it’ll be off the lot before you know it.

According to iSeeCars.com, five of the top 10 fastest selling used cars in the U.S. in the first half of this year were hybrids or full electrics, including the top three movers. Perhaps even more astonishing, only one of the top 10 is an American car.

Overall, iSeeCars.com found that one- to three-year-old used cars took an average of 42.4 days to sell. The top 10 fastest selling cars, however, were much faster—ranging from just 19.7 days on the market to 29.4 days.

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