Better customer satisfaction thanks to myVanheede platform

The Vanheede Environment Group was established in 1968, when founders Herwig Vanheede and Claudette Descamps decided to leave the loss-making flax sector behind them and focus on waste management avant la lettre. It was a good move, because fifty years later the Vanheede Environment Group has ten thousand customers, making it one of the biggest waste management companies in the Benelux. “Today we focus basically on two activities,” CIO Olivier Knockaert explains.

“On the one hand, we take care of waste management for other companies. That goes from collecting waste containers from bakers and butchers around the corner on a daily basis to dealing with all aspects of waste management for large production companies. Our other activity focuses on waste processing. We recycle the waste produced by companies and use it to make new raw materials or energy.”

myVanheede

When the group wanted to implement an ERP about five years ago, the CIO immediately decided to include a customer interaction tool: “Usually you first implement an ERP and then you develop it further but we felt here in this company that an ERP was not enough. After all, our customers would not benefit directly from the ERP, whereas we at Vanheede always try to put the customer center stage in everything we do.”

So with a team of three, Knockaert linked the new ERP to a new digital platform from the outset: “At first, above all we wanted to offer our customers an extensive reporting systems so that they could look up for themselves how much of their waste was dealt with by Vanheede.

But over time myVanheede developed into a platform with which we communicate and interact with our customers. All their documents are available here, the invoicing takes place via the platform, collection appointments can be made and cancelled on line, rubbish bags can be ordered on line, and so on. Around six thousand customers now use our online platform. So that’s more than half.”

Smaller margin of error

The new platform has several advantages for both customers and the company, Knockaert explains: “We notice that customers deal with their waste mainly in the early morning or late in the evening, times when we were not available in the past. The digital platform has resolved that. “The biggest advantage, however, is that both we and our customers are better informed. There is no room for misinterpretation of the appointments made, which used to happen in the past. That has greatly improved customer satisfaction. For us as a company, finally, the bigger, centralized data flow provides great added value.”

But Knockaert stresses that the introduction of the new digital platform does not mean that the company only uses digital methods now: “There will always be people who prefer to use the telephone. So our digital platform is fully interwoven with our customer experience team, who are in direct contact with the customer, so that we have a 360° connection.

Our digital platform does not mean that we intend to abandon face-to-face or telephone interaction with our customers just like that. Our platform is designed to ensure that everything is faster and easier for them, but it cannot be permitted to impose on our own flexibility.”