Rising profits & success for The Platform Lift Company with the help of Business Link Wessex

The Platform Lift Company, based in Andover, has increased profits by 500% following a checkpoint review last year, valuable advice from Business Link Wessex has enabled Managing director Sean O’Sullivan (pictured above) to strengthen his team, profits and order book, helping customers such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, Monsoon, Jaeger, and the Hilton and Jarvis hotel groups meet the new UK legislation for disabled access.

When compliance for the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 came into force last year, Sean realized he needed help equipping his business to serve the growing demand: Business Link came in and did a complete business review.  We already knew we had to improve, but this process really helped us with how, like employing an estimator to give more operational focus and instigating monthly meetings with our engineers to better understand issues out in the field. Getting all areas of the business regularly talking to each other, with a clear understanding of our business plan, has lifted morale and made us more efficient”.

Regular newsletters now mean employees know on a month to month basis the sales figures achieved and the number of Platform Lifts installed. Changing the team set up slightly has resulted in a keener eye on customer satisfaction and more effective planning, scheduling and maintenance of Platform Lift installations. The checkpoint review has also led to improvements in use of IT, including fresh training on existing CRM software, to improve customer service.

Overall the changes have led to increased sales and even happier customers, with profits raising by 500%.  The Platform Lift Company is now embarking on “Investors in people” (IIP) and has a goal of becoming an £8m turnover business within the next 3 years – a huge step for a company currently employing 20 full time staff and 10 sub-contractors.

Business Wessex customer relationship manager Lisa Lewis, who continues to work closely with the company, adds, “for The Platform Lift Company all the ingredients for long term success are there – excellent products, a good foothold in a growing market, energetic and focused leadership, a strong commitments to its customers and importantly an ability to look at itself critically in order to continuously improve”