July/Aug 2005

Since implementing an automated job scheduling system for surveyors and sales staff, Safestyle has achieved striking improvements in productivity and customer service

You might think the most obvious place to tighten up operational scheduling in the replacement window market would be in actually fitting the windows. But don't forget that several things have to happen before the job ever reaches this stage. In particular, sales staff have to go and talk to the potential customer, and then a surveyor has to go and inspect the premises.

Surveying is a major job in itself, as UK market leader Safestyle UK can confirm. Not only does the surveyor take measurements; he also ensures compliance with relevant building regulations and directives, and in effect consolidates the sale.

It may perhaps not be surprising, then, to learn that the company has achieved a striking improvement in these activities, both in productivity and in customer service, since implementing an automated scheduling system called ServicePLATFORM from Sidewinder Europe.

 

Just one example is the fact that the average number of calls by the survey team has risen from around 900 a week to over 1,000. And this is even before the company implements stage two of the project, in which the real-time links will be established with staff on the ground, using handheld computers.

Safestyle, a subsidiary of Style Group UK, the largest window retailer in the country, turns over £100 million and has over 30 branches. It also owns Windowstyle, its manufacturing division.

The company uses a team of 45 self-employed surveyors, who make hundreds of calls a week; and over the years it built up a complex system to plan all this. The work was done manually and by telephone.

On winning an order, the salesman would telephone his branch office from the customer's premises, then the branch office would contact the head office to arrange a survey.

The survey department looked for next available survey appointment, working on a regional basis. The appointment was then booked, and the customer was told the date and time. At the end of that process the customer signed the order confirmation, and an installation date was given.

Eighteen months ago Andy Clegg, a surveyor himself, was appointed to take over the company's survey group, and given a remit to tighten up its efficiency and enhance customer service (a priority at the company).

The first task Andy tackled was to sort out the 'survey runs' - the process of despatching surveyors to new customers. Among key pieces of information he needed were mileage between jobs, and the starting and finishing times of the surveyor.

Opportunity for improvement

He found that the time allocated for appointments was always two hours - whether it was for one door or eighteen windows. In a typical 11-hour day, six appointment slots were allocated per surveyor, regardless of actual availability. It was a logical arrangement, but left plenty of opportunity for improving productivity.

Andy then contacted the GGF (the Glass and Glazing Federation), which is the governing body of the industry, looking for suggestions about suitable scheduling systems. In the light of the response he examined a range of different ways of planning appointments for the day - for instance, using postcode clustering software. But came to the conclusion none of these was up to the job.

His next step was to trawl the Internet for possible solutions, and as a result of this he invited a selection of suppliers to tender for the business. Several of them did so, but the short list was gradually whittled down to two, of which Sidewinder was one.

In the event, Sidewinder quickly emerged as the sole contender (its rival was unable to respond quickly enough to requests for information). Among positive attractions of the Sidewinder solution was the fact that the company could point Safestyle to some convincing reference sites, including operations run by the AA and Sainsbury's to You. Sidewinder also responded quickly to requests for information. Within a week, it was duly appointed to provide the new system.

At the heart of the operation now is Sidewinder's ServicePLATFORM solution. Five booking-on computers at Safestyle's Bradford headquarters are connected to this, and handle the scheduling on a national basis.

Operationally, a key change is that responsibility for appointment booking has been moved from the sales team to the order-processing team. Whilst this means sales managers have a little less freedom to alter schedules to suit individual requirements, the whole process is now managed in a more organised and consistent way.

Sidewinder was given a remarkably small time window of just five weeks to implement the system, which went live on 1 June. It met the deadline, and Andy Clegg gives a lot of the credit to Adrian, one of Sidewinder's consultants. 'He's an absolute star, and deserves a medal,' Andy says. 'He was very patient.'

For the first week, the old manual planning sheets were used in parallel with the Sidewinder system to give staff the confidence and provide a backup. However, that was as long as it took to convince the company that it could phase out the manual sheets.

Andy admits that the sales team were dubious about it at first. Twenty-seven branch managers had to 'sell' the benefits internally to the rest of the sales team. However, the first week of operations was enough to convince them, too. They could see the benefits, and were more comfortable.

As for the survey team, its productivity has improved enormously. The system is calculating better survey runs involving a lower mileage, and that means the survey teams are more effective. Prior to the Sidewinder implementation, 170 surveys were carried out on a typical day. Now the figure has shot up to over 200, and on some days it has been as high as 240. Since the Surveyors are paid per survey, it's a win-win situation for them and the company.

A knock-on benefit is that the lead time from sale to survey has been reduced; surveys are now conducted typically within 48 hours of the sale. This in turn helps keep up the momentum of the sale. Lead time from sale to survey in any case now never goes over a week, and often the survey can be done the very next day. As Andy puts it, the sooner you survey, the less likely the customer is to cancel.

More surveys

Better scheduling has also helped the company increase the number of surveys completed at the first attempt. Before Sidewinder implementation the figure was only 60 to 75 per cent of surveys. Since then it has increased to 86.7 per cent. Why? Reasons for missed appointments include customers not being there, jobs cancelled or rearranged, traffic delays, and surveyors arriving late: problems that can all be alleviated with better scheduling.

Alongside the increase in weekly surveys from 900 to over 1,000, there has been an improvement in cash flow. With an average order of £3,200, the value of this can be significant.

There have been other internal changes as a result. Resource has been added to the operations department, and end-of-day jobs can no longer be 'shirked off'. Control of operations and resources has been tightened up.

In the second phase of the programme, which is due for completion later in the year, mobile staff will be issued with phone-enabled handheld computers, and will be able to receive instructions directly from the scheduling system in real time, and send updated information on their progress back to base.

It seems pretty clear that this will bring further benefits.

A window on Sidewinder

Sidewinder, a company with a presence on several continents and operations worldwide, specialises in helping companies deliver value to both shareholders and customers by enhancing service delivery. Its advanced real-time scheduling solutions are aimed at helping companies achieve greater control and visibility of their field service force.

Its range of resources and technology includes service process improvement, operational review and modelling, solution design, delivery and support, and service operation health checks.