Welcome to the latest edition of our blog series about the companies and people who are using eduMe to achieve Workforce Success, by empowering and motivating their people. This time we're hearing from AMG Services Ltd (a licenced Dyno Rod franchise).
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Name: Graeme Hall (Owner)
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Company: AMG Southern Services Ltd
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Location: Harlow, Essex, England
Tell us a little about being a Dyno franchise…
AMG Southern Services is a licenced Plumbing and Drains business operating under licence to Dyno (the franchisor) which is owned and operated by British Gas.
As a franchisee we pay a management service fee to the franchisor or ‘royalty’ for use of the brand and other support services.
AMG Services employs around 80 people and cover Hertfordshire and London from our modern offices in Harlow and offers a full plumbing and drainage service to domestic homes, businesses and industrial premises.
Whether your drain needs a simple clean with our jetting machine, or more in-depth CCTV exploration, we've seen it before and we've fixed it before. We also offer plumbing services to fix radiators, toilets, sinks, and hot water among many others.
We are a Top 100 Elite Franchise and Dyno were one of the founder members of the British Franchise Association formed to support ethical franchising.
What is your role?
My role as owner and Franchise licensee is to lead the business and ensure that we deliver great service, keep our people safe, grow our turnover and profitability, and protect the brand.
My day varies a lot, from working with my management team to holding meetings with my plumbers. I have to keep a close eye on the financials and ensure we are constantly growing and improving. The demands of running a business of this size are very high, there is always a challenge to deal with every day.
The demands of running a business of this size are very high, there is always a challenge to deal with every day.
I have grown the business from humble beginnings into what it is now and I am very proud of my team. We deliver great service every day and our safety record is first class. We are always striving to be better and find new ways of doing things.
Tell us more about your approach to training….
Our people are on a continuous learning journey. There are the professional qualifications like a NVQ in Plumbing, as well as safety like confined spaces and asbestos awareness. The list is long. And this is all essential stuff to ensure we have the best people we can servicing our customers.
But as well as technical and product training we also have a strong need to continuously develop soft skills like customer service and complaint handling.
That’s where eduMe comes in. It’s allowed us to provide more focused and relevant knowledge direct to our office and field teams via their smartphones and tablets. By giving access to information at their point of need, whether it be a safety course or a refresher course on client interaction, our people feel empowered to carry out their job to the best of their ability.
eduMe is great for being able to target specific areas where we need to improve - NPS for example. With NPS we get paid more if we get great feedback, so it benefits our people to be better and adopt best practice.
eduMe helps us share that best practice and top skills with everyone whilst giving us an overview on where some may need more support.
What is your favourite piece of content and how did you make it?
All the content we’ve created is really fantastic and we have had really good feedback from our team on how useful the mobile app is.
Being able to push out safety information relevant to changing circumstances is a real bonus. We created a lesson called ‘Driving in Wet Weather’ when we had a run of heavy rain and flooding. This is great for being on the button with the field engineers.
It was easy to create quickly. We used information readily available online and supported it with videos from YouTube, and other well-known organisations that share content online. This saves us having to start from scratch all the time.
Being able to push out safety information relevant to changing circumstances is a real bonus.
There are lots of web tools that can help you create engaging content - we are on a learning journey ourselves on how to do it best. But it’s fun!
A personal favourite of mine is also the “Model Visit” training. We filmed our own engineers carrying out their day job and shared best practice by showing what “good” looks like to everyone else through eduMe. We set up some short quizzes to test the knowledge of the team.
The team really like this approach at its more supportive than directive. Getting their input is vital - they feel heard and we know how to improve what we send them.
How is eduMe helping you make your workforce successful?
The biggest win for us with eduMe is the fact that we can tailor who receives what based on need. We are able to see who’s struggling, then feed relevant information directly to whoever needs extra support. We can also identify trends in performance gaps. The platform makes it easy for us to target areas to improve.
Our teams expect a level of support that allows them to continually grow, learn and be better at their jobs. They want the tools to help them work at their very best, as do we, and they expect a modern solution.
But it’s not just about providing them with what they need, when they need it - the content we’re giving them also needs to be engaging.
eduMe allows us to keep things engaging by delivering learning in bitesized chunks that only take 5 minutes to complete. Being able to send out bitesized, engaging and relevant information is is perfect for our remote working environment.
eduMe provides them with short sharp learning in bitesized chunks that only take 5 minutes.
Our people also have very little time to learn - a normal working day is hectic. eduMe has helped us reduce downtime. We no longer rely on congregating face-to-face to communicate with our people, which can be time consuming and costly. We can now send messages, updates and embed new learning via the mobile app. The cost savings speak for themselves.
What are your future plans for using eduMe?
We have lots of exciting plans coming up. We want to really integrate with head office so we can ensure content is delivered to all franchisees in a regular and consistent manner.
We want to get relevant information out in an engaging and motivating way - but consistency is key. We are striving to make it ongoing. eduMe is helping us make sure our people are continuously learning and never feel left in the dark.
Head office have lots of generic requirements that are the same for all franchisees in the network so this can be created and shared with everyone.
We also want to create much more bespoke content for our own business including an on-boarding programme and more safety and customer related material.
Finally, we want to have a library of technical and product lessons so there is always a place for our teams to refer to for information and learning. We hope this library will build up into a substantial resource that will save us so much time in disseminating information.
What is your best success story so far?
We have only been using eduMe for 2 months, but already we are starting to hear some great feedback. We have carried out a staff survey and the results have been really positive.
We have an average score of 8.3/10 for the app, so the team are really taking to it. They see it as really useful tool for their ongoing development.
Where can people find out more about Dyno?
Our website offers lots of information about us. We’re also active on YouTube and other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
And finally, what has been the most rewarding moment for you in your time as Dyno franchisee?
The most rewarding moments working in Dyno have been able to help the staff grow and develop in their ability to deliver a great service to our customers.
I work so closely with the staff that they have become like a family in the business sharing in the highs and lows but always working together whatever the challenge.
