11 February 2021 – If there’s one thing that the last 12 months have taught us, it’s that no company can be successful in isolation. You need your suppliers to be successful, in order to provide the products or services you need, and you need your customers to be successful, in order to keep buying from you.

If anyone link is under pressure – or breaks – then it affects the whole chain.

In the early days of BigChange, we wanted to make sure that we prioritised the success of every organisation that is connected to us along the chain, so we wrote that into our purpose and vision. But it’s easy to say you’ll do something, it’s another thing entirely to honour your pledge when the world is in the midst of pandemic and global recession.

I caught up with one of our customers recently to find out whether we have lived up to our promise – or whether we have more work to do. I was overwhelmed by his response.

Muhammad Romanowicz is Managing Director of Northern Catering Equipment, a supplier and installer of commercial catering equipment. He told me that since implementing BigChange, his company has been winning 70% more contracts, reducing costs, and that his company is rapidly expanding – this, despite a massive contraction in the wider catering industry because of COVID-19.

Northern Catering Equipment works with organisations like Pizza Hut Delivery, Championship side Huddersfield Town Football Club and Leeds University Union. These brands demand the best customer service and Muhammad told me that our white-labelled customer booking platform has been an amazing differentiator for his business, allowing these customers to report equipment faults, book maintenance requests and monitor work in progress.

Muhammad explained:

“Before BigChange we were very much in the Stone Age, struggling with handwritten notes on scrappy bits of paper, now, we have a professional, 21st Century management system that truly reflects our capabilities. Presenting this to potential clients has enabled us to win nine out of 10 new contracts we bid on compared to the two or three we were securing before.”

I am so proud that BigChange has been able to support customers like Muhammad through this crisis, and that we haven’t been distracted from that purpose by everything going on in the world right now. It’s a testament to the passion and dedication of the team here that the success of customers is still a priority – perhaps more so than ever before.

Muhammad told me:

“selecting BigChange was one of the best business decisions I ever made”.

Hearing comments like that always make my day.

The conversation with Muhammad has prompted me to double-down on my commitment to helping drive customer success. I have not been able to carry out any ‘shop floor’ days with my customers since the start of the crisis. Shop floor days used to allow me to spend quality time with the people who use our technology to find out what they like, what improvements they would like to see, and what challenges they are likely to face in the future. These sessions have been absolutely invaluable over the years and have been vital to customer’s using more features of our system and product development roadmap.

Muhammad has inspired me to bring back the shop floor day and move it online for the first time. It may not be the same as sharing a cuppa, and walking round a office or driving alongside an engineer – there is no substitute for face-to-face contact, in my opinion – but it’s a way to reconnect with customers and show them that I’m here and I’m listening.

It’s so important for all of us founders to remember that we wouldn’t have a business without our suppliers and our customers, and that the integrity of those relationships will determine the future health of the company. So, what can you do to help these organisations today?

Are you a BigChange customer? Would you like a virtual shop floor day with me? Get in touch and I’ll get it sorted.