Ensuring FlowAbility for happier customers

Anna-Kaisa Huttunen leads our team of innovators and service developers. In this article, she explains what FlowAbility means for us and our customers  and how it is expected to change the industry.

Anna-Kaisa, what is FlowAbility all about?

In a nutshell, FlowAbility is about helping our customers to run their business smoothly – maintaining the flow of their business while causing as little disruption as possible.

What is the story behind the FlowAbility?

Actually, we got inspired by our customers. After speaking with many of our customers, we noticed that they have a growing need to find a partner who could support them during major changes that they are facing in their industries.

As a 170 year old company our strength has always been our ability to find new ways to run our business. So, FlowAbility is our way of seeing the future. In addition, we see that FlowAbility will give us a competitive advantage. This means that, since the product features in our industry are quite the same, it is the extraordinary service that will keep us one step ahead.

As a matter of fact, we see ourselves moving from a textile rental business to a flow business. The purpose of our services is to maintain a smooth flow in our customers’ operations.

So how do you enable a smooth flow?

I am proud to say that during the last few years, we have taken huge steps forward in developing and implementing different kind of innovations and innovative ways to operate. This means, for example, Internet of Things solutions (IoT) that we see, will eventually “blow-up” the textile services industry.

However, it is good to notice that the technology is just an enabler. The reason why we are constantly searching for new ways to enable a good flow for our customers, is our desire to keep our customers increasingly happier.

So, how we make it happen is that we use smart technology to make sure the right workwear, textiles and equipment are always available for people who need them. However, it is not just about the right timing and place: it is also about bringing an increasing amount of transparency and customer-friendliness into our services.

For example, we have placed RFID tags inside our workwear so that we know how many pieces of workwear there is in stock. With help of the technology we are also able to optimize inventories and thus ensure that our customers always have clean workwear available. In washrooms, our bluetooth connected sensors in our towel dispensers follow the consumption of the hand towel and send a message to cleaners when it needs to be changed. This reduces unnecessary inspection rounds.

What is the most inspiring part of FlowAbility for customers?

FlowAbility brings benefits and joy to all levels of organization from employees to management. Who would not want to reduce their workload with proactive or automated services? Or who would not want to succeed in their work by achieving savings to their organization by more effective processes or transparent reporting?

Our goal is to provide perfect days for our customers – when everything just flows smoothly.