The new Managing Director of Circuit, the UK’s largest and longest-established managed laundry specialist, has said the company is on ‘its biggest transformational journey in 20 years’, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to innovation and evolution.
David Wheatcroft joined Circuit last year and has since overseen the rollout of Circuit Go, a new cutting-edge platform to revolutionise the laundry experience for students.
A recruitment drive he says will place customer needs at the very heart of the business, and a sustainability strategy to minimise the impact of laundry processes on the environment.
Circuit Go is a payment platform giving students two independent ways to pay for their laundry, while the built-in technology makes it easier for Circuit to maintain the quality of its machines and reduce operational downtime, as it automatically detects faults which can be diagnosed remotely.
The system also enables Circuit to make modifications to its laundry cycles to reduce water and energy usage – up to around half a kilowatt per cycle. With more than 6million cycles taking place using Circuit machinery each year, this could achieve a potential carbon saving of 3million KWh, equating to 621 tonnes of CO2.
Circuit delivers its services to more than 3,000 university locations across the UK and has built a team of over 160 engineers located strategically, which minimises miles to site to offer a quick and efficient service to customers and reduce the company’s carbon footprint. To build on its service proposition further, Circuit is currently undertaking a significant recruitment drive to double the size of its support desk at its headquarters in Ripponden, Yorkshire.
This, it says, will improve the engagement and interaction between Circuit staff and students, such as its live chat function, which has to be translated into more than 40 different languages to meet user preferences.
In the past 12 months the company has invested significantly into innovation and the improvement of services, which it says will continue to improve on its value proposition for customers.
David said: “Laundry is no longer about the machines we use to wash and dry our clothes. Users want efficient, sustainable, value-for-money solutions designed with their preferences in mind.
“If you don’t drive forward change as a business, there is always a risk customers will get tempted by alternative solutions. What we’re demonstrating here – with the steps being taken to build on our innovation, work more sustainably and improve our customer-facing services – is that something different is happening; we will never stand still, because we’re entirely motivated by serving our customers’ needs.
“Since I joined the business earlier this year, we’ve embarked on our biggest transformational journey in the last 20 years and have made an ongoing commitment to innovate and evolve in line with what our customers tell us they need. That’s our promise today, and it will be for many years to come.”
