A "good" Waste & Recycling Management Firm will provide excellent Customer Service.
The Waste & Recycling industry involves a lot moving parts due to its "service" nature.
Containers may be picked up on a preset schedule or on an on-call basis.
Also, additional service may be required for a special project, or due to unforeseen or seasonal waste volumes.
All of these variables and the requirement of Haulers to coordinate their resources (personnel, containers, trucks, etc.
) to meet each location's needs, requires the Customer Service of a "good" Management Firm.
Excellent Customer Service begins with the Client (and any/all of their locations) being able to reach the Management Firm easily, and at any time of day.
Facility management, warehouse, EHS (Environmental, Health & Safety) personnel, etc.
, have "many" different responsibilities during the course of a day.
Waste & Recycling services are "not" usually on the top of their priority list.
This means that the oversight of a Hauler not providing a service as planned, may not be recognized right away.
Many times the Hauler's oversight is not realized until "after" normal business hours.
With a "good" Management Firm this is not a problem.
They will have provided "every" Client location with a Toll-Free number to call 24/7/365 for "live" Customer Service.
This means the Client location with the issue will be able to reach a "live" person at any time of the day or night, for assistance in resolution of their issue.
Now, the vast majority of Hauler's office hours are around the standard 8am to 5pm, so in a majority of cases a Management Firm will not be able to get an immediate response from the Hauler.
The good news is that the "good" Management Firm will in some cases be able to reach an escalation contact in the Hauler's operations department to assist.
At the least, the "good" Management Firm will either be able to go ahead and report the issue to the Hauler or have all of the details of the issue ready to discuss with the Hauler first thing in the morning when their office opens.
This availability and responsiveness will provide the quickest resolution for the Client's location.
So, on the other hand, what happens if a "so-called" Management Firm does not provide a very high level of Customer Service? Well, since there is not a "live" person for the Client's location to speak with, two scenarios typically arise.
One, the Client's location will call and leave a voicemail regarding the issue with the "so-called" Management Firm.
Typically, after the Firm's Customer Service personnel come in, have their coffee, etc.
, they will begin going through voicemail, etc.
, to determine what issues they need to deal with.
The downside here is that due to their Customer Service structure, they will most likely have "several" issues to deal with.
This means they will have to prioritize what is most important.
With this being the case, it could quite possibly be later that day before the issue is even addressed.
The second scenario that can occur is since the contact at the Client's location knows they will not be able to contact anyone after business hours, they pass along the information of the issue to someone who will be working during business hours.
So, that person comes in and may have to deal with 10 other issues before ever getting a chance to check messages, voicemail, email, etc.
This means that quite possibly it may be mid-morning or after before that person ever has a chance to deal with the Waste & Recycling issue.
In either case, a good portion of the day may have passed before the issue has even begun to be dealt with.
This not only means the Client's location will most likely have to continue to deal with the issue that day, but it could quite possibly have to deal with it into the next day as well.
For the most part this is due to typical Hauler logistics.
If a Hauler does not receive a request by shortly after lunch or early afternoon, they will most likely not be able to work out the routing and scheduling to deal with the issue at all that day.
This means the issue will not be dealt with until some point the following day.
When your personnel have to deal with issues it takes time.
Time is money.
Also, depending on the type of issue, there can possibly be fines associated with Waste & Recycling issues.
For some businesses, certain Waste & Recycling issues can even cause local regulatory authorities to "close down" their business.
All of the above scenarios could cost the business money.
A "good" Waste & Recycling Management Firm will provide excellent "live" Customer Service 24/7/365.
Before engaging with any Management Firm, you need to find out if they do provide "live" Customer Service at all times.
I would also highly recommend getting several references and asking them specific questions about the Firm's Customer Service "structure".
As well, I would ask how good the Firm's Customer Service has really been, especially "after" business hours.