"Thanks to PlanD, we have much, much better productivity when organising substitutions. If an employee is absent, I can see at a glance the orders that need to be covered and can reschedule employees based on their skills. That's a huge added value."
Benjamin Volk
Owner & Managing Director
Over the last 15 years, Volk & Volk GmbH has established itself as one of the most innovative building cleaning companies in the Ostwestfalen market. Approximately 250 employees work daily, servicing a variety of industrial and commercial clients in the areas of maintenance cleaning as well as facade and special cleaning. For CEO Benjamin Volk, the benefit of software in the building cleaning industry was clear early on. For many years, Volk & Volk GmbH worked with a software provider whose terminals were supposed to systematically capture working hours at various locations. However, they consistently encountered problems: excessive travel times, constant WLAN issues, lack of data volume, or malfunctioning SIM cards – “at the end of the day, it was a huge hassle,” says Benjamin Volk.
For deployment planning, Volk & Volk relied on an ERP software solution. However, it was not mobile-friendly and thus unusable for the site managers. “Our scheduling was always quite rigid. Employees would receive their schedule for the next month in a bag along with their paycheck,” explains Benjamin Volk. For a building cleaning company with cleaners constantly moving from one site to another, effective scheduling is crucial. This led Benjamin Volk to discover PlanD’s software solution: “I came across PlanD in Rationell Reinigen and was immediately impressed by the way you rethought the concept of software for building cleaners from the ground up, especially for site managers.”
Time tracking is a major issue for Volk & Volk GmbH. “As a cleaning company, we're obligated to track time, and with PlanD, every employee has their timesheet right in their pocket,” Benjamin Volk is thrilled about the new mobility of the digital timesheet provided by PlanD. His employees can now easily record their working hours on-site using the PlanD app, log vacations and sick leaves, keep an overview of their hours worked, and communicate with their site managers—all in one app. “I always say: If you can handle time tracking in building cleaning, you can handle it anywhere,” says Benjamin Volk.
Now, deployment planning at Volk & Volk is also run through PlanD. The PlanD scheduler is essential for Benjamin Volk: “Now with PlanD, responsibility is finally where it belongs. Site managers plan the deployments, not the administration. This frees up a lot for us. The paths are much shorter.” Deployment plans can be created digitally and are accessible to every employee in real-time via the PlanD app. Volk & Volk also benefits from PlanD in absence management. “Thanks to PlanD, we have much better productivity when organizing replacements. If an employee is out, I can see at a glance the assignments that need coverage and can reschedule employees based on their skills. This is a huge added value,” Benjamin Volk explains the benefits.
For a company like Volk & Volk with around 250 employees, efficient internal communication is incredibly important. Therefore, the chat function of PlanD is particularly delightful for Benjamin Volk. “We officially banned WhatsApp, but no one adhered to it. So the PlanD chat function is a huge joy for me. It allows us to bypass all those messenger services.” Having to communicate constantly across many different channels and never really knowing how best to reach someone is now a thing of the past. “The PlanD chat brings us all to one place,” Benjamin Volk also notes the positive effect on the bond among employees.
Since using PlanD, Volk & Volk GmbH has saved a significant amount of time in time tracking and deployment planning. The terminals that previously caused several problems have been replaced with the easy-to-handle mobile time tracking in the PlanD app, and the previously rigid scheduling is now much more flexible and finally in the hands of the site managers. The app from PlanD is also well received by Benjamin Volk’s employees: “The feedback from my people is consistently positive. The system is very clear and easy to use.” Moreover, Volk & Volk saves significant time in absence management thanks to PlanD. If an employee is out, site managers can now find the appropriate replacement based on their skills and availability more easily than ever before. “This wasn’t possible before,” says Benjamin Volk, “that’s exactly what we were always waiting for. It's truly brilliant and just what site managers and cleaning companies need.” For Volk & Volk GmbH and Benjamin Volk, collaborating with PlanD was the next logical step into a digital future: An innovative software solution, specifically tailored to the needs of building cleaning services, that listens to ideas and suggestions and simplifies the workday.
