HILLS Waste Solutions has brought in customer service training expert Intelligent Dialogue to help enhance its customer service.

The Royal Wootton Bassett training company has already carried out two sessions with employees from the company’s Swindon head office and depots in Calne, Swindon and Bristol, and will run a further session this month.

Neil Pollard, Hills Waste Solutions’ divisional director for commercial collections, said: “Customer service is a huge focus for us.

"We want to be more than just another waste collection company and I think it is critical that everything we do is about the customer.

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

Mr Pollard said the training had helped to improve customer 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.

“We’ve been training Hills Waste Solutions’ 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,” she said.

“Hills is a great local 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, who has been with the company for 15 months, said the training was essential as trading returns to pre-Covid levels and the industry becomes more competitive.

“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,” he said.

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

He said he chose Intelligent Dialogue as it understood what Hills wanted to achieve.

“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,” he said.