Ferroquadrupole order, in which local atomic sites develop identically-oriented spontaneous electric quadrupole moments, provides a specific realization of electronic nematic order. Materials that harbor quadrupolar order can provide useful insights to open questions about the roles played by nematic fluctuations in a wide range of strongly correlated quantum materials. Here I will describe effects associated with longitudinal and transverse effective fields on the quadrupolar material TmVO4, paying attention to the special roles played by externally-induced strain, as well as hyperfine coupling. I will also emphasize several aspects of technique development, including new methods to probe the elastocaloric effect in the frequency domain and in the time domain. These measurements reveal a giant elastocaloric effect at low temperatures, with interesting technological consequences. Electronic nematic order, it would seem, can be useful as well as interesting.