CVW takes a look at how app developer, BigChange, helped vehicle wash company, Brendeck, to go completely paperless.
Brendeck, the manufacturer of commercial vehicle wash systems, says it has transformed its field service operations with mobile apps from BigChange. Engineers installing and servicing hundreds of installations at some the UK’s biggest distribution depots, have been equipped with rugged tablets connected to BigChange’s cloud-based job management platform. The all-in-one system, that includes CRM, job scheduling, integrated vehicle tracking and routing, has replaced paper job sheets with realtime electronic reporting, boosting customer service.
Brendeck says it provides a one-stopshop for commercial vehicle washing and supplies pressure washers and truck washers, together with servicing and chemical supplies. Brendeck washers are used by some of the UK’s largest transport operators with 14 field engineers undertaking Preventive Planned Maintenance work and ad-hoc repairs.
Transformed
Prior to the roll out of BigChange, Brendeck relied on handwritten paper job sheets from its engineers. However, to collate and process these paper reports was proving time consuming and there were delays in communicating back to the customer with, for example, quotes for spare parts or further servicing work.
“Since introducing BigChange, we have completely transformed our field service operations,” says Alan Taylor, Managing Director at Brendeck.
“Because we are getting job sheets back immediately after engineer visits we in turn report back to the customer almost immediately, perhaps with a quote or equipment care recommendation.”
At Brendeck’s headquarters, which are located centrally in Alfreton, Derbyshire, customer services have instant visibility of the engineers on the road.
“When we get calls asking ‘where is the engineer?’ we can respond straight away. Sometimes our engineer is already onsite, but with large depots they are hidden from view. Thanks to BigChange’s live tracking and status updates we have total visibility and customers are always impressed.” says Linda Clarke, Brendeck’s Finance and Operations Director.
Brendeck has expanded its services to include the supply of chemicals for its wash equipment and has pioneered a system for remotely monitoring chemical tank levels. Plans are being made to extend BigChange to the chemical distribution service, with vehicle tracking and drivers equipped with BigChange tablets for reporting dispensing volumes and sales onsite.
“There is no doubt BigChange has been good for business. It gives us a real advantage by improving the utilisation and productivity of our service operation and certainly enables us to fit in more jobs in the day,” adds Alan Taylor.
“The biggest benefits are in service, as we can be a lot more responsive. It is, for example, much easier to call an engineer back to a site on the same day to rectify a problem. Before we had live BigChange reporting and tracking, the return visit would have been two days later.”
