SitexOrbis wins south - east Chambers award

Uxbridge-based SitexOrbis, a provider of specialist 24/7 property and people protection across Europe, has won the British Chambers of Commerce’s Chamber Awards 2010 for ‘excellence in customer service’ for London and the south east and will go forward to compete for the national title in November.

The Chambers of Commerce cited the way the company had set out to reinvent itself to improve services.

In 2008 an independent survey that rated SitexOrbis number one for customer satisfaction in its sector in the UK also highlighted ways the business could improve.

The company responded by launching Project Pride with the aim of involving staff in the creation of a more customer-centric approach that, through innovations, would give customers better results for less cost.

Following the introduction of the ‘Ten commandments of customer care’, a ‘Customer commitment charter’, a staff reward scheme for innovation and much training, a continuous improvement programme is in place that incorporates customer ideas, staff ideas and management plans.

Implementation has brought many benefits. Levels of happy customers have increased to 96 per cent. The business has achieved 10 per cent growth despite the recession. Meanwhile, innovations added to core security and cleaning services have helped customers to streamline operations and reduce costs.

An innovation in access management called eMAKS has already won SitexOrbis three awards this year from industry bodies for replacing thousands of keys with one electronic key that can be reprogrammed remotely by the company. For customers in property management, it means the end of costly and time-consuming key collections.

Another innovation is also enjoying much success by helping to win clinical and deep cleaning business in relatively new markets, such as the police and the NHS. The unique new process vaporises a powerful disinfectant capable of killing up to 99.9999 per cent of known germs quickly and with minimal disruption.