Client Case Study - What is it like to work with Tandem?

 

 

Case Study 

Tandem and Southway Plumbing and Heating Ltd.

 Meet my lovely clients Southway Plumbing and Heating Ltd! 

They are professional installers of Air Source Heat pumps around southeast England, as well as fulfilling your everyday plumbing needs and large contracts. 

Southway Plumbing and Heating Ltd is a family business run by husband and wife team, Dani and Lee, with Dani's sister Steph keeping everything on track in the office, they are all great at what they do! Southway really cares about its customers and wants them to have to best service they can offer.

This is where Tandem comes in, helping them keep doing their best on every job!

If you can see yourself in these answers and would like to explore working with a VA, to fulfil your potential, message or email me on hello@tandemvirtualresources.co.uk.

Or if you would like to work with the Southway team, email them on enquiries@southwayplumbingandheating.com

What were you struggling with before Mandy came on board as your VA?

We are part of an accredited Microgeneration Certification (MCS) installments scheme. MCS is an industry-led quality assurance scheme, which shows the quality and reliability of approved products and installation companies like us. Being MCS certified shows your customers that you install/manufacture to the industry-expected level of quality of excellence every time and that, as a company, you are competent to install a range of small-scale renewable and low-carbon technologies like air source heat pumps, biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps amongst other renewable energy resources. Although it is not a legal requirement, for us to do the job, our customers require a certificate if they’re applying for financial funding through an incentive scheme, including Govt grant schemes. It involves filling out a lot of complex, time-consuming, difficult, and detailed paperwork, and uploading it all to a Govt portal to apply for a grant. Before Mandy came along, it was a complete headache. During the pandemic, we’d been at a reduced demand which meant we had less contracts - and it was run efficiently and was manageable. Then as we came out of the pandemic, we grew and hit capacity and we soon realised that we needed someone to handle the admin for the renewables – that and with other work increasing, we needed that someone to be able to deal with work ad hoc that fitted into our business.

What does Mandy do for you?

Mandy takes all this work off our hands so we can focus on the areas of the business that help us to grow and make more as a company. Everyone wants that for their business. We needed someone who can take on 30 hours in one week – when the following week requires none. It’s very ad hoc and demand-led work. Mandy came to us in her capacity as a VA, as someone we could hire when we needed her which isn’t something we could do with an employee who wouldn’t fit into the business the way we needed them to. Mandy doesn’t just handle all the paperwork – she does it so it fits into our working week, quite often working in the evenings, fitting around her family. She’s always there in the background to ensure that what we need to do is done on time so the job is ready to go.   There are also other aspects of admin support that Mandy offers too. There are lots of small things that a business needs to keep it going and Mandy does that in the hours that work for her as well as us.

As a result of what Mandy does for you, what does this mean for your business and you personally?

It’s made a huge difference. It’s allowed me to be the person I need to be in the business. It takes the problem off our hands that we struggled to handle before, without working very long hours. It allows us – me – to breathe much more easily, not wake up dreading just how much I had to do in a day, and allows us to take on more business as we grow. It literally gives us the breathing space to grow and time to do more of what we want to do. I’m a Mum too and often when the kids are in bed, I will work in the evenings and because Mandy is also a Mum, this suits her too. She fits in and around the business.

What is it like working with Mandy?

Mandy is very down-to-earth, calm, and is completely trustworthy. I know she cares about the business as much as we do – she’s very much part of the team. She’s a very kind soul, a good person, and also very patient. Just talking to her leaves me feeling much more calm – it’s like having a hug. I really couldn’t do without her. If I’m trying to work something out, she will often tell me to leave it, so she’ll go away, work out a solution and get on with sorting it out.   If she ever left, I’d have to bribe her to stay!