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Personal Development Pays Off!

Passionate about our people, Futures Supplies believe in engaging and supporting our team by providing continual training and development that is practical, enjoyable, applicable and rewarding.

Paula and Casey, part of the Futures Supplies Customer Service team, were delighted to attend the recent Metsä Training Academy as part of their personal development plan.

Metsä Tissue, one of Futures Supplies key supply partners, is one of the leading sustainable tissue paper suppliers in Europe.

The workshop, held at Metsä Tissues Surrey Head Office, offered an insight into the Katrin product range as well as Metsä Tissue’s approach to sustainability and how savings can be made through use of its range of Katrin Hygiene products.

We believe a well-trained, knowledgeable and a highly motivated team deliver a better overall level of customer care ensuring we deliver an exceptional customer experience throughout your customer journey with us.

A Happy well trained and engaged team equals happy well looked after customers!

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Action Against Fake Reviews

Did you know that 97% of UK consumers read online reviews before buying! It’s therefore vital that people can trust the comments they read. Futures Supplies prides itself on delivering high levels of customer satisfaction so its crucial it can gather accurate insights on which to continue to improve its customers experience.

The UK Government has recently published its proposals for new legislation. This takes aim at fake review practices, as a part of the Digital markets, Competition and Consumers Bill. The legislation will likely come into force next year, following a consultation period.

Current draft provisions propose making it illegal to commission someone to write or submit a fake review, to post consumer reviews without taking reasonable steps to check that they’re genuine and to offer, or advertise, to submit, commission or facilitate fake reviews.

As the first bill of its kind, it gives the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) greater powers to take ‘swift and decisive action’ against lawbreakers on behalf of UK consumers.

Futures Supplies chosen review platform Feefo, the world-leading review platform, ensures that only verified buyers are asked to leave a review freeing Futures Supplies valued customers from the fear of fake reviews.

You can be confident the Feefo platform guarantees to provide real feedback and genuine insights from our confirmed customer experiences.

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26 Years of Service Excellence!

As we celebrate 26 years in business, we thought it would be fun to share a few interesting facts and milestones with you.

We are a family business that was started in the original owner’s garage back in 1995! After renting premises for 10 years in 2005 we decided we were here to stay so we purchased and moved into our very own self-contained, purpose-built offices and warehouse in South London.

Members of the CHSA, the Cleaning and Hygiene Suppliers Association since 1997, Futures Supplies successfully achieved 100% compliance to the Distributor Accreditation Scheme.

To ensuring that our customers can have confidence in the quality of goods and in the provision of our services, we have been independently certified since 1997 for our Quality Management System to British Standard ISO 9001

The company’s Manging Director, Marc started working in the business in 1998. Working through all aspects of the business, and following 20 years’ experience at the sharp end, he became the natural successor to drive the company forward and lead the young dynamic team when in 2018 his Mum retired.

After surviving the dreaded Millennium Bug our premises survived a substantial fire in 2000 which started at a neighbouring National Tyres site. Continuing to trade without any break in service, we went on to achieve our first £1million in annual sales.

In 2004 the company ethos, to effectively tackle and improve its environmental, social and economic impact on the community, saw it provide its first work experience placements to disadvantaged young care leavers.

We won our first business award in 2005 for ‘Best Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility’ and have gone on to be recognised with over 30 accolades including numerous sustainability awards as well as Best SME!

Pioneering the use of Eco-Friendly products and sustainable business practices we became CarbonNeutral certified in 2006. Delivering carbon neutral supplies to our customers we are proud to say the net greenhouse gas emissions associated with our business are ZERO.

Since 2007 we have successfully achieved certification for our Environmental Management System to British Standard ISO 14001. This illustrates that Sustainability is at the heart of our business. We are passionate and committed to ensuring that we meet the needs of today without compromising those of future generations, through minimising negative impacts on our planet and our people. We purchased our first fully electric van in 2008!

Early adopters of social media and our first tweet went out on Twitter in 2009!

One of the few independent family business in our industry, we genuinely care about our customers. Our growth has been organic and as a result of consistently delivering high levels of Service, Quality, Value and Reliability with Environmental Consideration through Innovation and Technology.

We still supply our very first customer and have been since 1995! We believe in working in partnership with suppliers and customers, taking into account their individual needs, to deliver the best possible customer experience.

Dan, our operations Manager, and Andy our Office Manager, are brothers and have worked in the business for over 20 years. We think our team are our heroes, operating throughout the Covid Pandemic since March 2020, they are key workers supplying essential services and products to valued customers ensuring they could continue to open and run their businesses.

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Lockdown 2.0 – What this means for Futures Supplies & its clients

 

 

With the pending lockdown coming into force on Thursday, we’d like to remind all our valued clients that we will be open and operating as usual operating as an essential provider throughout the lockdown period.

Ordering and COVID Safe Deliveries & Collections

  • Ordering – Please continue to order as you would usually: Phone, Email or Online
  • COVID Safe Deliveries – All our delivery vehicles are sanitised daily & all drivers provided with alcohol gel & sanitising wipe kits. Our delivery team will wear face masks and adhere to social distancing to carry out your deliveries safely.
  • Collections and Click & Collect – Collection from our premises in Purley Way, Croydon is still operational although no access to our building or facilities.
  • Delivery Timescales – There may be some delays with non-stock items, the office will keep you informed if there are any stock issues and work together to offer a suitable alternative where necessary.
  • Failed Deliveries – If you are closing or have adjusted delivery hours – please inform us immediately to prevent failed deliveries and subsequent charges.

If you have any questions or would like help making your workspace ‘COVID Safe‘ our team will continue to be on hand to help 020 8689 2072

The Futures Supplies team have never been more grateful to be open and working together to keep businesses functioning safely and sustainably.

Keep Safe & Thank you for your continued support

Marc Kemp
Managing Director

 

Face Masks Offer - Free Alcohol Gel
Face Masks Offer – Free Alcohol Gel

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Are Your Deliveries Carried Out by A Carbon Neutral Certified Company?

As an ethical business, our ethos is to deliver service, quality, value, reliability, with a commitment to environmental sustainability, using the most up to date technology and innovation.

Futures Supplies are committed to integrity and transparency in the way we operate, how we supply goods and services and in our business partnerships.

We believe that whilst it is critical, it is not enough to just reduce carbon emissions through our certified Environmental Management System BS EN ISO 14001:2015 targets. Therefore, we offset our unavoidable emissions through our partnership with The CarbonNeutral® Company in a responsible best practice model.

Unfortunately, we all have to use energy as part of our commercial process and therefore, until technology and innovations can provide more answers to help further reduce or eliminate emissions, ‘offsetting’ is the only way to deal with the problem.

In partnership with The CarbonNeutral® Company, Futures Supplies is delighted to have achieved CarbonNeutral® status since 2006. This accreditation positions us as an industry leader with one of the strongest and most credible approaches to climate change.

As a result of our reduction process coupled with measuring the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and offsetting the unavoidable emissions associated with our business, our carbon footprint is reduced to net zero.

You can read more about our environmental approach and our green awards here http://www.futures-supplies.co.uk/environment.asp

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Mobile Cleaning Supplies Goes Live

Futures Supplies are constantly listening to customer feedback and we continue to invest to ensure we deliver the very best customer experience. Over recent months we have been busy upgrading our website so that it is more mobile friendly.

Whilst this represents a considerable investment for us, we appreciate that almost half of all the visitors to our website are now using mobile devices and therefore we see this as an important step in continually improving our offering to you.

We hope this proves useful and improves your experience on the website, especially if you are using a mobile platform to place your orders.

Here is a reminder of some of the standard features which our website already offers. Don’t forget to request your login to access these facilities:-

  • View and print copy POD’s (delivery notes), invoices and statements
  • View your sales order history, in progress and completed orders
  • Subscribe to our budget control facility to help you control your costs
  • Online ordering 24hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • Product images and information
  • Download COSHH/ Safety Data Sheets
  • Keep up to date with our latest news
  • Request an account or place a ‘one of order’ and pay using our secure card or PayPal facilities
  • Check out a product’s environmental credentials
  • Set up a list of favourites for easy regular orders

Futures Supplies are committed to supporting your back office operations. If we can offer any assistance to help streamline your order process and with the website please do not hesitate to contact Andy our Office Manager who would be delighted to help you.

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Futures Supplies Awarded Feefo Gold Trusted Service Award 2017

feefo_gold_trusted_service_2017_darkFutures Supplies & Support Services has won a Feefo Gold Service award, an independent seal of excellence that recognises businesses for delivering exceptional experiences, rated by real customers.

Trusted Service Gold is awarded to businesses that use Feefo to collect genuine ratings and reviews. A badge of honour, this accreditation remains unique as all the awards are based purely on the interactions with verified customers. This feedback has been collated by the Feefo review platform, with the accolades being awarded based upon performance.

Marc Kemp, Managing Director of Futures Supplies commented: “It’s a real honour to receive this award from Feefo. To be recognised for delivering exceptional experiences to our customers is a great achievement. We’ve been working hard to ensure our customers receive the best service possible, and being able to listen, understand and respond to their needs has enabled us to continually improve our offering.”

Feefo is a ratings and reviews, and customer analytics platform. It collects genuine, purchase-verified reviews on behalf of over 3,000 businesses. Feefo ensures that all feedback is authentic, by matching it to a legitimate transaction.

To find out more and see our reviews visit the website www.futures-supplies.co.uk

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Customer Experience Is Key

Feefo Logo GreyFutures Supplies has always appreciated the importance of providing an exceptional customer experience. Supplying quality products, backed up with the delivery of customer service excellence has long been part of our company’s ethos.

The trend to research a company, as well as its products and services, on-line prior to purchasing is now a well-established practice. Recognising this, and the need to continually innovate within our business operations, we have now linked up with independent feedback provider Feefo as an efficient means to gather customer feedback.

With an unsurpassed reputation for delivering genuine customer feedback, Feefo has established itself as the choice of consumer generated ratings and reviews for all manner of organisations around the globe including key names in store retail, business service providers and financial services.

Feefo generates real reviews from real customers that have actually made a purchase generating genuine insights and feedback that you can trust.

Such a high percentage of buyers check reviews before making a purchases these days that we felt it was critical to provide this facility to continue to build our customers’ confidence in the products and services we provide.

The ability to share reviews that demonstrate service excellence and build trust with our customers, not just on our website but across social media platforms, we hope will help you make a fully informed purchasing decision.

Feefo provides the tools for us to continually improve our customer service offering enabling us to focus attention where it is needed most.

You can see our feedback by visiting the website at www.futures-supplies.co.uk

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Independent Certification Keeps Us At The Very Top Of Our Field

ISO 9001 & 14001 DNV UK colourCongratulations to all members of the team at Futures Supplies in this our 20th year, we have successfully gained re- certification to BS EN ISO 9001:2008 for our Quality management System and BS EN ISO 14001:2004 for our Environmental Management System for a further 3 years.

We want our customers to have confidence in the goods and services that we supply and we do not think it is enough just to make claims about our quality and environmental credentials. At Futures Supplies, we believe that these should be backed up and certificated by independent bodies, auditors and assessors. This year we were delighted that a UKAS representative accompanied our DNV assessor further endorsing our exceptionally high standards throughout our business and processes.

To ensure transparency and creditability, we have maintained certification to BS EN ISO 14001:2004 and BS EN ISO 9001:2008 since 1997 through recertification and annual external auditing carried out by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) who are UKAS accredited.

DNV Audit 2015Accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is key to ensuring that our customers can have confidence in the quality of goods and in the provision of our services.

A big thank you to all the team who contribute daily to ensure Futures Supplies remains at the top of our field and demonstrate continual improvement through the whole of our business process.

A special thank you goes to the Management Team for their support and input during the process especially to Andy our Office Manager and Environmental Manager for leading the audit.

 

 

 

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Investing in Customer Service is Key

Basic CMYKIn line with our ethos of providing service, quality, value and reliability in everything we do, Futures Supplies understands that exceptional customer service is the key to happy customers.

Good customer service requires continual inward investment to deliver consistently high standards and meet ever-changing customer expectations. To meet these demands, we believe in training that is meaningful, enjoyable and applicable to our team’s individual roles and their relationship with customers.

As such, Victoria Goffin of ‘Coaching4Results’ has recently delivered an individual Customer Service Programme to all our team. A professional and established coach, Victoria tailored the programme to meet the needs of each department and individual to ensure continuity and a deeper understanding of each person’s role in delivering customer satisfaction.

Victoria said “It was very rewarding to work with people who really wanted to up their game and give their customers the best experience they could.”