Reducing waste in the utilities sector

by
Geoff Snooks
,
Head of Growth, New Business
July 13, 2021
5 minute read

Sustainable practice is increasingly a top priority for utilities companies. Join our virtual roundtable on Sept 23 to hear how the UNRVLD digital framework is enabling clients like Welsh Water and Biffa improve operational efficiencies and deliver award-winning e-commerce solutions at pace and scale.

There is nothing worse than a wasted journey for a customer. It’s frustrating for them and expensive for you. By pivoting our clients’ attention to more customer-first products and services, they’re both improving their customer relationships and the bottom line. By instilling a culture of innovation, we help them deliver their own digital transformation projects that prioritise and solve critical customer pain points. These result in greater loyalty, trust and purchase.  

Change from the inside out

Change is best achieved from the inside out. We help our customers drive continuous operational improvements and deliver significant cost savings through the streamlining of digital services. We encourage them to adopt innovation processes that help change their mindset, cut through inertia and make positive change happen fast.  This enable our clients to deliver digital transformation at pace and scale and results in a far better customer experience.

E-commerce with impact

Biffa Waste Management Services works for businesses of varying sizes and within all sectors across the UK, to help them decide which waste management services, collections and recycling services best fit their needs. This extends from general waste collections to hazardous waste management, to dry mixed recycling - and much more.

We have helped them to create an easy to access, anytime B2B ecommerce solution to complex waste management. We overcame the legislation-led nature of a waste contract with a four-step self-serve online journey, removing an over-reliance on fixed customer service operating hours and facilitating more environmentally conscious purchases.

Self-serving sustainability

Leveraging the Sitecore platform, we’ve implemented bespoke elements such as pricing models and service availability as well as the platform’s personalisation features to ensure a tailored-to-fit self-serve customer experience.

Biffa is now able to deliver bespoke online services to its business customers, supporting them in achieving their sustainable goals. A good example is their partnership with ITSU,  the Asia-inspired restaurant chain. Biffa has helped them to divert 100% of waste from landfill, converting it to RDF, so that their environmental impact is minimised. The clear pathway from search to contracted waste exceeded forecasted sales targets for the first trading period by 420%.

Enhancing the customer journey

Welsh Water is a non-for-profit company, which means they put every penny they make goes straight back into keeping bills down and looking after Wales’ water and beautiful environment – now, and for years to come. Over the past five years, we have helped them deliver efficiencies through self-serve, an enhanced customer journey and improved internal business operations.

We’ve removed technical debt, integrating their back-end systems to deliver automation. We’ve also optimised content to the 1.4 million businesses and homes they serve. We delivered a Sitecore platform that eases the self-serve process with less internal touch points and manual intervention. This has significantly reduced Welsh Water’s cost to serve. With internal business operations in order, Welsh Water now adopts iterative service delivery based on customer needs. They are harnessing the full capability of Sitecore to deliver conscious features that limit the environmental impact of water usage and reduce the number of customers in debt. 

Register here for your place at our virtual breakfast roundtable on Sept 23. This is an exclusive senior meeting for digital leaders in the utilities sector only.