Liquid and Gas Ltd is a residential maintenance company who cover domestic issues for real estate, including painting, decorating, plumbing, heating, electrical work, gas leak inspection, electrical tests, damp and mould issues, and joinery. For anything that goes wrong inside the property, Liquid and Gas Ltd are the people who go out and tend to the problems. They also do commercial gas related work. We spoke to Kale Grieve, director at Liquid and Gas Ltd, to find out how he’s managing his workforce at the moment.

“At the moment we have about 10 employees and 4-5 subcontractors.”

“Orton at the moment. Then I’ve got offices in Skelmersdale as well.”

“Less than 12 months ago.”

“I was looking for a dispatch software, as we were getting bigger and bigger. I was managing everything myself, which involved getting the work and distributing it to the guys. We were growing and growing, and managing the workload in the way that I was just wasn’t sustainable. I needed a software which could efficiently do it for me, instead of me trying to remember every single job that we had!”

“Do you know what? It was just me which was very very draining! We were using email to send a job through. Sending guys to the job was the easy part, but actually recording what was happening on site was the part that was a challenge. It involved being able to relay that information back to real estate or to a customer. A lot of it was done through memory, or calling the engineers to confirm details. We didn’t have a proper papertrail! But now, we have a digital paper trail with the Okappy app.”

“It’s black and white for us. We wouldn’t be able to function without it now because, obviously, since then we’ve expanded. My business can run without me. Prior to that, there was just no possible way for that to happen – I had to be there. I couldn’t take time off for a holiday. When I was off, the whole company was off. When I did take some time off, my phone wouldn’t stop asking for information regarding work and jobs – it was just non stop. But now I can leave that to others, as all the information is on the Okappy system.”

“Yes, we’ve now got twice as many staff since we started. We’re constantly expanding! The business growth is something that Okappy has aided, but it’s not solely down to Okappy. Okappy has helped us to expand more smoothly due to having a more streamlined process.”

“It’s saved me as an individual, around 20-30 hours a week, which is over half my working week! Overall for the company, it’s a lot more than that. 

Before we had Okappy, sometimes all I would do is work and sleep. Now, I have the time to go out on site a lot more – it frees me up a lot more. When I finish work, I finish work. As opposed to “finishing work” and going home to continue working all night. It’s massive for us. Absolutely massive.”

“I’ve never advertised. I have companies call me up about my website and stuff like that, but we don’t need it. We grow through getting positive ratings on feedback from tenants. Now we’ve got Okappy, we’re a lot better with time keeping. We have better access to the details on the site to call them up and let them know if we are going to be delayed. Obviously, the improved reliability has resulted in helping us grow. And I’d certainly say it’s helped us get more contracts and work better within our current contracts.”

“I know my guys like the address capabilities – the way that we can just click on the address and then we’re on our way. And the ability to just click on the phone number and text or call them to say, “Listen, we’re on our way back.” That’s massive for us. 

For me, it’s more the ability to have a meeting where I can just switch back and go, “Okay, you went to 13 Tylney Street last week. I’ll get that from the archive and check the work order and job sheets,” which I can then send off to my tenants, customers or the landlord to show them the real state of their property. The landlord may not have seen their property for years, but I can show them the images of what’s going on inside by sending a job sheet with attachments from the job! 

I love the job sheet side of it, whereas the guys who are out and about like the instant access to contact details on the map view where you can just click on a button and it directs you which way to go.”

“Well, we’ve got a lot less work just because tenants have prioritized more of their own health than whether the tap’s dripping or that light switch doesn’t work and stuff like that. Obviously, a lot of our guys are furloughed and we’ve been using more subcontractors. We’ve been affected massively from it – it’s just been me and a skeleton crew really. We currently have only one person in the office.”

“Just harder to get money in really! Okappy has 100% helped with the cash flow side of things. Without job sheets, it would be a hard task for me – a lot of invoices would get left unpaid. But with Okappy, we can easily remind them with the job sheet to send the payments through. Without Okappy, we’d probably have less invoices being paid to help us get through this period.”

“We can actually – right now – log every single job on the database. At the click of a button, we can send guys to certain jobs. They can find the job information easily and add important details to the job sheet. I used to spend 30-40 hours a week calling guys to try and get information. But now, it’s all there for me on the app! 

I now work so many less hours a week. I can actually go on holiday and enjoy myself. I don’t have to be constantly on the phone every minute. It’s made my life so much easier. I don’t know what we’d do without it. Using Okappy is a no brainer!”

You may also be interested in:

• How Are The Okappy Community Adapting to COVID-19?
• How to Handle Your Cashflow Amidst COVID-19
• How You Can Use Okappy to Improve Cash Flow
• Using Okappy to manage your gas engineers

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Featured in Drain Trader Magazine, issue 265. May 2020

Neet Maintenance is a company offering a wide range of trades for building projects, including plastering, tiling, carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, landscaping and brickwork. They work with companies like Abby Homes, Linden Homes, and Persimmons, primarily working on new build projects prior to people moving in.

As the company was expanding, they needed to find a better way to manage their workforce and decided to implement Okappy in January 2020. We spoke to Wendy, the Customer Care Administrator for Neet Maintenance, to find out how it’s working for them.

I joined the company at the beginning of January 2020 and the company was operating on a completely paper-based system. They were expanding so we needed to find a system that was compatible with the office and all the guys out in the field. The Office Manager had looked at one or two digital management systems, but they seemed quite complicated.

We do all the new builds and do all the snagging after customers have moved in. It depends on a day-to-day basis how many jobs they give us. We needed a system that could help us handle a sudden influx of jobs. We found Okappy through Google and the system was a lot easier to use. After the free trial, we decided we just needed to implement it!

There are 3 of us in the office, the MD who is out and about all the time, and then we have approximately 30 operatives on site. We mainly use Okappy to manage the maintenance guys who I deal with. We’re taking on even more people in the next few weeks, which will also impact how many people we have on the system.

Due to the amount of extra staff we were taking on, the paper was becoming too hard to handle! We were sending job information back and forth via photos on Whatsapp.  Then when they were finishing, they were doing the same back. With regards to the actual worksheets themselves, we were having to chase the guys to get them to bring them back into the office. We don’t have to do any of that now, because they just upload everything to the system straight away!

It’s got to be a good 2 or 3 hours a day overall. We’re just starting to use it on the invoice side as well, and foresee it saving us a lot more time in the future once we’re more used to it. We’re also saving money on printing and paper costs!

Definitely, unless something drastically changes, we won’t be using anything other than Okappy. We’re very happy with the system, as it’s so user friendly. I don’t consider myself to be someone who’s very good with computers, but if I can use it – it’s got to be good!

We cover Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and are going down to Essex and Hertfordshire. As we’re increasing the workload, the area is increasing! I can see the area we cover growing now we have a more efficient system too.

Just the fact that I can zap all the job information to our workforce straight away! It goes onto their app, and once they’ve completed it, I get everything back again, which enables us to send the photographs and the worksheets back to our clients within 24 hour. Before using Okappy, it could take up to 3 or 4 weeks to send all the information back, depending on when the guys could get back into the office!

Just go for it! It’s like anything – it’s trial and error, but because it’s so user friendly, it doesn’t take you long to get the hang of it. It makes your life easy, especially when you’ve got a mobile workforce, because the ease of getting the information back and forth is really quick!

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Featured in Drain Trader Magazine, issue 260. December 2019

One of the most common reasons for business failures is cash flow problems. Cash flow problems are most often caused by a failure to control costs.

There are many factors that affect controlling costs in business. For example, quiet patches, unnecessary expenditures, poor waste management and cost inefficiencies. Sometimes identifying these inefficiencies can be obvious. But this is not always the case, and it will often need a more thorough investigation.

When making cost minimising decisions it’s important to:

• Prioritise continued sustainability and improving prospects for growth
• Be prepared to make necessary sacrifices
• Keep in mind how these decisions will impact staff and customer perceptions
• Prepare yourself for old routines to change as you make way for new ones

Here are 5 key areas drainage companies need to address when minimising costs:

It’s common for companies to be reluctant to change their suppliers because they’ve built up a sense of obligation and loyalty. Long-lasting relationships are worth protecting, but it may be an unnecessary expense for your business.

Re-evaluate your suppliers and assess whether you could be getting better value for your money elsewhere.

If you communicate to them your intentions to cut costs, they may offer you a better deal to keep your custom. If not, research alternatives without burning any bridges.

This includes also the external companies you outsource workers from. Are they reputable? Are they all properly certified? If not, they could be losing you valuable clients.

The drainage industry is affected by external factors such as location, weather conditions and holidays. Keeping track of the number and type of service requests will enable you to make forecasts as you approach different times of the year.

Cold weather and demand on facilities can cause pipes to burst and periods of heavy rain can cause basement flooding. Keeping track of the busy periods can allow you to plan in advance. Likewise for quieter seasons; you can scale back your costs where possible.

Make it part of your business strategy to create a cost cutting plan. Every month audit your expenses and assess what has been a worthwhile spend or not.

Many things impact upon costings including fluctuations in supply and demand, the state of the economy and new technologies. Implementing a consistent review of financials will allow month-over-month comparisons, and year-over-year comparisons. You’ll be able to spot seasonal trends, predict future profits or losses over various timeframes, and set new goals.

You will then be in a better position to plan for big expenses in advance and balance out risks. Put in place cost reviews into your business strategy and you will be well on your way to managing and minimising your expenditure.

Maintaining good communication amongst company employees and external stakeholders may not sound like an obvious way to help minimise costs, but according to a Gallup survey, businesses in the top quartile of employee engagement averaged 12% higher profitably.

Good communication in companies contributes towards a high job satisfaction. Maintaining good communication and a culture of transparency will help build trust and confidence in the company. When employees feel listened to, they feel valued and more inclined to perform their tasks well.

When there are workers performing various jobs at multiple locations at any one time it can be difficult to keep track of what is going on. Network technologies like Okappy’s workforce management software improve communication for companies on-the-go. Their location-tracking, real-time messaging and job-adding features ensure that the job gets done as cost-effectively as possible.

Are you utilising time-saving and money-saving softwares to manage jobs? With so many digital systems available, there is no need to be using paper job sheets and invoices.

Manual inventory counts and reporting are not only inefficient, but they also increase the risk of human error. A single error can have a large impact on a companies’ profitability. Traditional management systems take up lots of time and information often getting lost in the process.

Workforce management software like Okappy enables companies to log everything on a database. Instead of hunting for hours in various places for one job sheet, the data for past, present and future jobs is available to access at any point.

Investing in online bookkeeping and accounting software like Xero will allow you to analyse expenditure in no time at all. This will help you identify areas where you need to make cuts to allow your business to be more profitable.

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