With total visibility, and the ability to capture and record an array of job-specific information, Scotloo is also moving towards paperless working, achieving operational efficiencies, and reducing back-office administration using the live-linked mobile app and back-office system.
Scotloo and sister company Scotbox are family run with 40 years' experience in supplying and servicing toilet units and temporary site accommodation to the agriculture, construction and events sectors. Scotloo has around 2,000 chemical toilets, 500 containers, 100 welfare cabins and 200 site accommodation units, of which about half are on long term hire requiring weekly servicing.
"During COVID, when the demand from the events sector was vastly reduced, and we were mainly working from home, we had a window of breathing space to review how we were managing our mobile operation," commented Jordan Black, Managing Director of Scotloo. "At the time this consisted of four paper diaries and countless Excel spreadsheets and Word documents. Whilst this worked, it wasn't ideal and it was obvious that there were efficiencies that could be achieved and savings that could be made that would help us get through what was a hugely difficult time, and come back leaner and more dynamic."
Scotloo uses BigChange, which incorporates a mobile workforce app, customer relationship management(CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, financial management, and business intelligence tools in one system, to gain total visibility of its hire, sales and service operation.
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"BigChange does it all," Black continued. "From managing customer records and issuing automated quotes, follow-ups, and marketing promotions, using the CRM, to allocating and reporting on individual jobs, vehicles and team members. With BigChange it's all available at the click of a button, for any member of the team to access."
Using BigChange, Scotloo has slashed the time it takes to prepare and issue customer communications. Bespoke quotations can be batch produced in less than an hour for hundreds of individual documents, a process that previously could have taken all day. Follow-ups and reminders are automatically issued, and BigChange's CRM features also allow for bespoke marketing campaigns and promotions. Resulting in a need for less back-office admin these features have contributed to Scotloo achieving its best ever year in terms of turnover in 2023.
Scotloo has also achieved additional efficiencies with drag and drop scheduling and automated routing for both its delivery and collection teams, and service staff. The BigChange mobile app, running on tablets or on an operative's mobile phone, is reducing the need for drivers to go into the office to collect or drop off paperwork and means they can access site or equipment information remotely, and record and share real-time job reports including time, date, and location stamped photographs. Scotloo is also making use of the integration of the what3words location encoding solution to help drivers find sites and equipment in rural or hard to find locations such as festivals.
Daily, guided vehicle checks and real-time tracking of all vehicles is further improving efficiencies and operating standards, with timely notifications of potential faults or maintenance issues, and driver behaviour alerts for issues such as idling, harsh braking or speeding.
"Using BigChange we have been able to make more informed decisions about our workforce, our fleet, and our stock," he added. "Because we know which vehicles we use, for which jobs and how many of those jobs we have or are likely to win, we have been able to consolidate and focus on bespoke, specialist vehicles that are truly suited to our specific needs. We have also added new lines to our offering including gas powered shower units, luxury toilet blocks and our first full purpose box office."
"The old adage is true – the more you put in the more you get out!" Black concluded. "So we put everything through BigChange. It's not just jobs, we add staff holidays or sickness, tax and MOT reminders, customer records, equipment history, any piece of information that helps us provide the best possible service to our growing client base."
