Home › blog › 2012 › April › 2nd › the value of technology in service efficiency
The value of technology in service efficiency
2nd of April 2012 Article by Pedro ChidichimoPedro Chidichimo, president of the institutional and laundry business unit of Sealed Air (known as Diversey before it was acquired last year), writes in his second blog for ECJ about how web-based auditing applications can differentiate a company from its competitors through improved service quality of the customer-facing operations.
In my first blog post last month, I outlined what I believe are going to be the main trends in our industry during 2012. Today I want to focus on the first one: the value of technology for operational efficiency.
In today's era portable devices and internet applications, I am still surprised by the low level of adoption within our industry of such easily available technology. On the other hand, requests for safety, performance or quality reports from customers usually put a huge administrative burden on the facility manager.
Technology will remove this administration burden from managers by allowing them to perform long and complex auditing jobs in a matter of minutes, and download the reports from the web-based platforms. I see a lot of potential for our industry to start using online auditing platforms.
I am seeing much innovation in customer service coming from tools such as computers or hand-held devices that are simple to operate, offering a powerful way to achieve optimal inspection and audit work at the minimum cost. These tools can provide:
1. Inspection simplification: PDA and PC-based inspections helping to capture critical observations and identify areas demanding immediate attention.
2. Reporting optimisation: sending professional reports, audit results and advisories to individuals or teams you select.
3. Security: keep data accessible anywhere, but only for the people you authorise.
4. Corrective actions to be escalated automatically via email, schedule re-audit dates and track improvement.
These workforce planning tools allow facility management companies to do more with less. They significantly differentiate you and your business, elevate the professionalism of the cleaning team, enhance productivity, and improve the level of cleanliness within a building. Not to mention labour savings...
This is a call for our industry to start adopting new tools. Our industry's burning platforms such as customer retention, differentiation over competition and operational efficiency will be less of an issue for those who adopt new technologies. The benefits at stake are there to be grasped and the bigger the size of your business, the bigger the potential rewards.
To contact Pedro with your reaction and questions, email him direct at pedro.chidichimo@diversey.com
RSS