Providing the highest level of customer service is a key part of the UM Terminals ethos.

One of our more recent innovations in this area was the establishment of our Client Central Services team with the aim of providing our customers with a wealth of important information, including real-time data, to make business critical decisions.

Such has been the success of Client Central Services, we have added a further two colleagues to the team to ensure we continue to meet the requirements that come with a growing portfolio of customers across different industries.

Based out of UM Terminals’ Regent Road HQ in Liverpool, the service integrates all weighbridge and administration from across UM’s 8 terminals.

A dedicated portal gives clients instant access to essential weighbridge documentation and current stock levels for each tank. They also have a secure log-in and can access their data 24/7, 365 days a year via a desktop, tablet or mobile device.

The team is led by Lynn McCoy, UM Terminals’ Client Central Services Manager, and combines the best of technology with experience of the bulk liquid storage sector extending more than 120 years.

The central control room at Regent Road is filled with banks of screens giving the team visibility of the different weighbridges along with immediate access to all customer information, such as current stock levels, via the client portal.

Having all the necessary information in one place makes a huge difference in terms of operational efficiency and customer satisfaction levels. The average turnaround time is now less than 40 minutes.

A lot of planning went into the development of Client Central Services including analysing all the administration going on across our UK sites. This got us thinking about how we could streamline and bring it all together in one place.

We knew we were undertaking a significant change to our business process by centralising all the customer information and that the only reason for doing so was to enhance the personalised service and operational effectiveness received by our customers.

The project involved working side-by-side with our Group Business Intelligence Developer Adam Pierce to create a whole new way of working.

One good example of this concerned our weighbridge which had previously depended upon a lot of manual reporting, but which, due to the changes, moved online. Whereas before, there would have been lots of paper trails, now we have a paperless solution in which information is stored electronically. The impact is clearer, more accurate and faster information.

Operational planning and flexibility are key in a fast-moving environment like UM Terminals. At certain terminals we can regularly be handling over 40 vehicles a day.

Almost three years on since we introduced Client Central Services, the results have been transformational and, consequently, we are now embarking on the next phase of investment in further improving the functionality and capability of the service.

This, in turn, is a key component of UM Terminals’ wider programme of digitization, ensuring that the quality of the solutions and services offered by our business continue to be best-in-class.