Online Booking Helps Rubbish Works Go Paperless and Grow Their Franchise

Rubbish Works, the junk removal franchise headquartered in Oregon, receives 40% of their jobs through centralized, online booking.

Their tight-knit call center team handles all bookings for the entire operation, offering a level of professionalism that allows them to compete with some of the largest franchises in North America.

online booking

They Liked it So Much, They Bought the Company

Rubbish Works was originally founded in Washington State with a single truck. Three years into their operation, the original owners chose to pursue franchising. Then, two of their franchisees, including Travis Rein and Betty Benson, opted to buy the company and move their headquarters to Oregon..

Now, eight years on, they’ve expanded into five states, and continue to add new locations across the US.

New Ownership, New Technology Solution, New Business

Five years after they took over ownership, they knew it was time to switch to a new software vendor. They wanted to make their technology solution a key selling feature of the franchise.

“After we purchased the system we knew we had to update the website, and we knew we had to the re-do the backend as well,” says Rein. “A year and a half ago we decided to make the move.”

Now, the company boasts a centralized call center, web-based scheduling, and GPS dispatch. “It adds a certain amount of professionalism to our company that isn’t available through some of the smaller franchises out there,” says Rein.

Centralized Online Booking, Local Ownership

When asked about what makes Rubbish Works different, Rein points to the dedicated team in their call center, but also to how each location is truly a local operation.

“Most of the people in our call center team have been with us from the beginning,” says Rein. “About seven or eight years. When customers call in, they are speaking to Rubbish Works people; they are not being re-routed. The team is in-house.”

Their call center team are spread across the country, but they are a tight-knit group that handles calls for the whole operation. Each owner operates an independent, local business. “We are truly local,” says Rein, “with local ownership in each of the locations, and focussing on the local customers.”

waste management software

A Single Software Solution, Completely Paperless

“We are always big on being paperless,” says Rein. “We made the move to go paperless on everything. We used to have to ‘bandaid’ three different software tools to make that happen. The back-end, files, and merchant provider. With Vonigo, we are able to do that with one system.”

Now, the convenience of a single system helps them to attract and train new franchisees and their teams. “A lot of times, with the new guys, we used to take a long time to help them learn the system,” says Rein. “Now we can save a lot of time.”

Time Saved on Every Job

Having a paperless, online scheduling system keeps things organized for Rubbish Works at their headquarters, but also for the local teams in the field. The crews in the trucks are not having to deal with paperwork, and the time they save can add up quickly.

“Let’s say it’s five minutes per job,” explains Rein. “When you add that up across 10 jobs per day, six days a week, that becomes significant in labor savings for each employee.”

Turnkey Solution Leads to Rapid Expansion and a Revenue Boost

Vonigo’s software helps Rubbish Works attract new licensees across the country, by taking away the concerns of booking and administration. The local crews can focus on the jobs on the schedule. “With new licensees, it is a huge selling point as it takes time away from them having to manage the logistics of their schedule,” says Rein.

By offering online booking, the company as a whole is able to access additional revenue from more savvy customers. “We receive around 40% of our jobs from online booking,” says Rein, who estimates that a lot of that business would go elsewhere if not the convenience of their booking engine.

“If we did not have the online booking option, I would estimate 20% of our revenue would disappear right away. Depending on the location, that could be 100’s of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.”

A Future of Growth

Rubbish Works’ growth has been steady, but each location’s owner is carefully selected. They take great care in adding new owners to the fold, and Vonigo’s junk removal software makes it easy for them whenever they are onboarding a new owner, no matter where they are in the US.

“We hope we can continue our expansion into the future,” says Rein. “Vonigo enables us to add locations as we grow.”

Learn How They Do It

Interested to learn more about how Vonigo’s software can help you manage and grow your junk removal company or franchise? Book a free, private demo today.