Mitie
Mobile Application
The Challenge
Mitie approached us with a problem, their gritting service for large retail customers was so popular that their admin processes couldn’t keep up with demand. Each day customer services representatives had to check the weather forecast and call every store that might be effected by snow, ice or frost. Could a digital product reduce the admin over head?
The Solution
Use data to empower the customer
The first question to answer was why were the phone calls required? Contractually customers only paid for gritting that took place. It was the responsibility of individual store managers to assess the risk and choose to have their entrances gritted if there was a chance their customers might slip.
The obvious solution was to provide an application for customers to request gritting on demand. The problem with this solution was that customers had to make the request the day before. On interviewing the customer service team it became clear they were proving weather forecast information on the call that the customer used to make their decision.
By utilising APIs provided by the met office we were able to deliver a mobile app that notified the customer when the weather forecast indicated they should request gritting.
The Outcome
Following delivery of the app Mitie were able to eliminate the need to redeploy or hire temporary staff each winter to administer the service. It also enabled them to offer the service to more customer without the limitations they had prior to completing of the project.
