London Drainage Facilities (LDF) is achieving 15 per cent annual growth following the introduction of a job management system from BigChange. The cloud-based system, which allows its customers to keep track of the status of drainage work from the initial call right through to job completion, is also saving LDF customers time and money, evidenced by 86 per cent of its business coming from repeat customers. Operating across the South East of England, LDF is now one of London’s leading providers of planned, emergency and drain repair services.
“We previously operated a service management system but it was old and clunky, struggled with the high volume of jobs we complete and failed to support the specific needs of our clients,” commented Danny Fuller, Operations Director at London Drainage Facilities.
“Having found BigChange it soon became apparent how manoeuvrable and user friendly the system was giving us complete control on how we interact with clients to meet their individual needs. BigChange helped us get away from the old ‘one rule for everyone’ way of working.
“BigChange handles our job management brilliantly linking site history, alerts and client access rules seamlessly,” he continued. “The function for multiday work, grouped jobs and the allocation of purchase orders is also fantastic and being able to link multiple teams and multiple jobs to the same address has been a godsend.”
London Drainage Facilities was established in 2006 and since implementing BigChange has experienced year on year growth and has ambitious plans, supported by BigChange to build on this. LDF operates a mixed fleet of 40 vehicles ranging from fast response vehicles dealing with blocked drains and vans carrying specialist CCTV equipment through to excavation machinery and tankers. Providing drainage solutions for commercial, residential and public sector clients LDF is proud to have worked with brands such as Kier, Mcdonald’s and even the House of Commons.
Using the BigChange job management system, which incorporates customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, resource management, job finance and business intelligence, in one simple to use and easy to integrate platform, LDF has a live and real-time view of its mobile operation beginning when a job is scheduled, and a customer receives an automated email to confirm the full details of the job. Upon completion of works the LDF technician sends confirmation of the work carried out, complete with photographs, via the BigChange PDA and if any additional recommendations have been noted a formal quotation will be sent within 72 hours of call out. BigChange also integrates with LDF’s accounting software Sage to reduce manual data entry and the potential for errors.
Each of LDF’s emergency service vehicles are fitted with BigChange vehicle trackers allowing their location to be displayed on a secure, web-based mapping system at head office. This real-time tracking provides instant visibility of technicians, as well as the latest traffic conditions, meaning emergency call-outs can be allocated to the closest team available reducing customer waiting time and minimising travel costs and emissions. BigChange is also used to manage and maintain the fleet with van safety checks, routine maintenance alerts and driver behaviour monitoring.
