Enthusiasm was alive and the energy high as clients gathered last week at Tenstreet’s 1st User Conference to meet with their advisors, accounts managers, and other Tenstreet cohorts. For good friends Pete DeStasio of NFI, and his account manager of seven years, Kim Theken, the conference provided the opportunity for the two to finally meet in person for the first time. While Tenstreet makes dozens of on-site client visits each year, there are still some cases where relationships (like theirs) previously only existed over the phone.
Just one of the compelling reasons for a user conference is to make personal and professional connections with clients face-to-face, but equally as valuable is the purpose of education. Best expressed by Asurint’s Scott Fierman, “Clients and education always come first with Tenstreet, which is one of the things that continues to make me proud of the relationship we’ve built with them.”
Sessions, Panels, and Vendors, Oh My
Each Tenstreet service was born out of an industry need, and our five sessions showed a holistic approach to using our bank of industry solutions in an integrated way. Presentations showcased an inclusive product that meets carrier needs in our four signature categories of marketing, recruiting, onboarding, and safety. Two panel discussions also allowed experts and Tenstreet clients to deep-dive into the topics of marketing and background screening, which engaged the audience in a more intimate manner, allowing for more spontaneous conversation. Vendors Asurint, iiX, Driver iQ, HireRight, 3bExam, Find a Trucker Job, and Clarus were also on the floor, giving clients the opportunity to discuss their individual business needs with the product experts in this valuable community as well.
Carriers overall expressed gaining significant insight into the changes they needed to take back home to make their businesses run more efficiently, and in a more comprehensive way.
“I’ve already made a list of things for my boss that we need to implement. This user conference is great in that it’s showed me that we’re not fully using the system to its full capacity. I can’t wait to get back home to start using everything I’ve learned,” said Jyonne Brantley of Trillium.
New Tools, New Ideas, and the F-word
If you attended the conference in Vegas, you probably heard the word “friction” gain popularity as we moved through the two-day event. Friction was used to describe what happens when poor practices or badly implemented ideas add undue hardship to your workflow resulting in incoherent, messy processes that squander productivity. Friction is a nuisance Tenstreet strives to swat with each new service advent. The newly released Reconnect Tool* serves as an example, which allows carriers to track drivers who have recently reached a qualifying milestone, so they no longer slip through the cracks. Origins now has added the ability to track non-app sources* (e.g. phone, website), moving the starting line back even further to provide an even more accurate attribution model. Both work to successfully eliminate friction from your workflow.
Driver Pulse was also a hot topic of conversation, as this ever-evolving driver-facing mobile application recently unveiled report sharing and Pulse Recommended Carriers*, which uses a Netflix-like approach to matching drivers to carriers based on their profiles and personal preferences. Pulse is the embodiment of one message delivered by CEO Tim Crawford, stressing the need for carriers to make their recruiting processes “mobile-first”, rather than simply mobile-friendly. The trend of drivers to apply over a mobile device continues to surge over time and was at a whopping 65% at the time of the conference.
Something Awesome This Way Comes
We’re elated to have so many clients willing to offer their ideas and feedback to the making of Tenstreet’s 2nd User Conference (location: TBD). Hosting detailed breakout sessions for experienced users, and providing more opportunities for carriers to meet with each other (and their advisors and account managers) were both popular requests. We love these ideas and greatly appreciate the feedback.
Thank you to everybody who made it out, and for those who didn’t, we hope to see you in 2018. Be on the lookout for information on our 2nd Tenstreet User Conference coming soon!
* These topics will each be covered in greater detail in their own dedicated blog – also coming soon.
