Client: Waste Water Services Ltd

HQ: Coatbridge, Scotland

UK Employees: 32

Silver Cloud client since: 2018

The background

Waste Water Services was founded in 2006 by a husband and wife team – Gordon and Winifred McShannock. Broadly, its customers are in two areas: portacabin companies and the construction industry. It provides a range of services, including emptying waste tanks, supplying bulk water for toilet blocks and similar facilities, cleaning and servicing, among others.

It is now a leader in its field. It has a fleet of 13 tankers, two chemical vehicles, and another that delivers Red Diesel directly to building sites. It has over 30 employees, including a bowser installation team that modifies portacabins so that WWS can deliver water to them. And it’s expanding fast: due to customer demand it recently started serving Inverness, the Isle of Skye, and other areas in Scotland.

It can be a stressful business. For example, if a building site has been forced to stop working because it doesn’t have any water to make cement, the problem needs to be solved immediately. So a key part of WWS’s offer to clients is that it is fast and efficient. Tom Watson, General Manager, says: “Our central pitch is that people should use us because we’re the best at what we do. We don’t let customers down, and when they ask us to do something we make sure it’s done quickly and accurately.”

The challenge

In 2018, Tom decided to replace the company’s mobile phones. As Silver Cloud already provided its fixed lines, he invited us to work with him to improve its mobile communications.

Together, we saw an opportunity to make a really significant difference, by fundamentally improving some of WWS’s basic internal processes.

Tom explains: “Previously, when a driver went to a client’s premises, all the project management was done manually with physical paperwork. They’d get a paper docket from our admin team and the client would sign it when the work was done. Then they’d hand it in back at our HQ and it would be processed by hand. This was obviously slow, costly, and prone to error.”

Our solution

We provided WWS with Samsung J3 mobiles that enable drivers to access the management system themselves. All customer data is held online, in a NetSuite system, and drivers can now update the details immediately from the phones. Tom says, “By the time the driver gets back to Coatbridge we’ve processed everything, so it saves a lot of time and effort.”

The result

There are big benefits for WWS: it’s much easier for managers to see key data and run reports, and the whole business is now more efficient. That’s particularly important at a time when the business is rapidly expanding.

And its good for customers too, who now receive an even smoother and faster service. Tom sees a direct link between that and the company’s growth: “That’s probably why we’re as busy as we are. Our response times are really good, and that’s important for our customers.”

WWS is currently looking at ways to further improve their internal processes and their service, perhaps by upgrading their main phone system, and we’re working on that with them.