A TRAINING company based in Royal Wootton Bassett helped Swindon waste collectors improve their customer service.

Intelligent Dialogue carried out sessions with employees from Hills Waste Solutions' head office and depots to give them advice on how to work better with their clients.

These sessions proved useful as its trading had begun to return to pre-Covid levels and the industry had become more competitive.

Director for commercial collections Neil Pollard said: “The economy is going to be feeling the brunt of the pandemic for some time to come, which is why Hills is looking to differentiate its offering from our competitors.

“There’s a consolidation in the waste market as well, with a number of acquisitions between the larger national waste businesses merging their operations.

"This gives us a real opportunity because there are a diminishing number of potential suppliers with good local knowledge and presence in the region and we want to be in that space where we can act quickly and provide customers with a quality service.

“The training Intelligent Dialogue carried out was about continually improving our service offering and raising the bar for both our existing and new customers.

"Hills has a good reputation that is precious to us, and this training is about enhancing that reputation.”

Intelligent Dialogue managing director Diane Banister met with the company to assess its aims and draw up a training plan.

She said: “We’ve been training their customer-facing employees to strengthen their skills in dealing with the day-to-day situations including building connections with new sales enquiries and problem solving.

“Hills is a great company that values its reputation and we are very pleased to be working with them. The training was one of the first to be delivered back in the training room, rather than working virtually. It has been received incredibly well and we’ve had excellent feedback.”

Mr Pollard explained why he chose Intelligent Dialogue: “They are a Wiltshire based company and they hold the same values and understand our aims and I think it is important to choose a company that has a local feel,

“The training has been excellent and the feedback from the staff has been very positive. We have definitely seen an impact from the training.”