Towbook Customer Service — Expert Guide for Fleet Operators

Contents

1 Towbook Customer Service — Expert Guide for Fleet Operators

Towbook is a dispatch and business-management platform used by towing companies to handle dispatching, invoicing, and driver mobile apps. This guide explains how to work with Towbook customer service efficiently, what to include in support requests, realistic service-level expectations, and practical troubleshooting steps. The advice below reflects professional best practices for SaaS fleet-management vendors and is tuned for operators running small fleets (5–25 trucks) up to enterprise fleets (100+ trucks).

Official resources: check your in-app Help menu and the vendor website (https://www.towbook.com) for the hosted knowledge base, release notes, and the system status page. If you are under a managed or enterprise contract, identify your named account manager and documented escalation paths before you need them.

Contact Channels and When to Use Each

Use the following channels in order of speed and effectiveness. Knowing which channel matches your issue type reduces time-to-resolution and keeps billing and operations on schedule.

In-app chat / Help center — Best for quick questions, configuration clarifications, or receiving a link to a knowledge-base article. Typical first response from a staffed chat is under 60 minutes during business hours; provide your Account ID and a screenshot.

Support ticket / email — Use for reproducible bugs, API/webhook problems, billing disputes, and requests that require audit trails. Include timestamps, user IDs, and export logs. Tickets create permanent records suitable for dispute resolution.

Phone (account manager or escalation line) — Use only for P1 incidents: full outage, inability to dispatch, or safety-related failures. Phone calls should be followed by a ticket summary to preserve details.

If you are still in onboarding (first 30–90 days), request an onboarding manager and weekly checkpoints. For enterprise customers, negotiate a documented 24/7 phone escalation and a named SE (solutions engineer).

What to Provide in a Support Ticket

A high-quality ticket accelerates diagnosis. Always include contextual metadata up front so Tier 1 engineers can reproduce or route correctly without back-and-forth. Below is a compact checklist of fields and example values to paste into your ticket body.

Account name and Account ID (visible in the app footer or Admin > Account). Example: “Acme Towing — Account ID 12345”.

Environment and date/time (use UTC) of the incident and timezone. Example: “Production — 2025-08-26 14:23 UTC”.

Exact user or truck IDs involved (Driver app ID, vehicle plate, telematics IMEI). Example: “DriverID: drv_987, Vehicle: TX-4512”.

Steps to reproduce (1–5 concise steps). If intermittent, describe frequency and last occurrence.

Error messages, HTTP response codes, webhook payloads, and screenshots or screen recordings. For API issues include request IDs, headers, and a timestamped curl example.

Priority suggestion (P1/P2/P3) with business impact: P1 = no dispatching possible, P2 = feature degraded, P3 = cosmetic or enhancement.

Including these items reduces triage time. For integration bugs, export and attach the raw webhook delivery logs or API request/response pairs (remove sensitive tokens) to the ticket.

Priority Levels and Recommended SLAs

Negotiate SLAs into your contract. Below are recommended service targets you can request — these align with typical fleet SaaS expectations and help set internal response workflows.

Recommended SLA table (for negotiation): P1 — First response: 1 hour, Target resolution or workaround: 4–8 hours; P2 — First response: 4 business hours, Resolution: 24–72 hours; P3 — First response: 1–2 business days, Resolution: 7–14 days or scheduled roadmap item. Include a 30-day billing-dispute window and a 30–90 day termination notice clause.

Common Issues and Practical Troubleshooting

Most tickets fall into a few categories: login/authentication, GPS/AVL updates, dispatch not reaching driver app, billing discrepancies, and integration/API errors. Before contacting support, run this short checklist: ensure the device OS and Towbook app are on the latest published version, confirm network connectivity (cellular/Wi‑Fi), and reproduce the issue on a second device or with a coworker account.

For GPS/AVL problems—verify that the device GPS is enabled and that location permissions are set to “always.” If telematics data is missing, check the telematics vendor status page, validate the integration keys, and attach a 24-hour CSV export showing timestamps where data is missing. For dispatch delays—look at webhook delivery logs and queue depth; if the queue exceeds 500 messages, request a priority investigation.

Sample Escalation Email Template

Subject: P1 — Dispatch outage affecting X trucks — Account ID 12345. Body: On 2025-08-26 14:23 UTC we experienced a total dispatch outage preventing assignment to drivers (DriverIDs: drv_101, drv_102). Steps to reproduce: 1) create dispatch 2) assign driver 3) push — notification not received. Attached: screenshot, driver app logs, webhook log (request IDs). Requested action: immediate investigation and rollback to previous version or hotfix. Contact: Operations Manager — Jane Doe — +1 (mobile) and email.

Onboarding, Training, and Typical Timelines

Onboarding timelines depend on fleet size and integrations. Typical windows: 7–14 days for small fleets (5–25 trucks) with standard onboarding; 30–90 days for enterprise customers with custom integrations (accounting, telematics). Expect one-time setup or implementation fees in the range of $500–$2,500 for standard projects; custom projects with middleware or extensive integrations commonly run $5,000+ and require a statement of work.

Request role-based training: 60–90 minute sessions for dispatchers, 30–45 minute sessions for drivers, and a monthly 30-minute review for the first 3 months. Ask for recordings and a shared checklist covering go-live cutover steps and rollback procedures.

Billing, KPIs, and Continuous Improvement

Track customer-service KPIs: First Response Time (target < 4 hours), Mean Time to Resolution (target < 72 hours), CSAT (target > 90%), and backlog (tickets >30 days should be < 5% of total). Export monthly ticket CSVs and include them in quarterly business reviews to identify repeat issues and drive product improvements.

For billing disputes, submit evidence within 30 days, include invoice number and line-item detail, and request a written resolution timeline. If you’re considering switching vendors, request a full data export (CSV of customers, invoices, dispatch history) and confirm the data-retention window in your contract (commonly 6–24 months for active support and archived exports on request).

Following these steps will reduce downtime, speed resolution, and make your interactions with Towbook customer service efficient and predictable. Maintain clear internal procedures for P1 incidents, keep a one-page contact and escalation matrix in dispatch, and insist on measurable SLAs in your contract.