Richard Bryan, Operations Manager for Wilkins Chimney Sweep, has been on his travels in recent weeks. From his base in the North East of England, Richard has visited all of our 14 franchisees who live as far afield as Devon in the South, Norfolk in the East and Wales to the West.
We estimate Richard travelled well over 2,000 miles during this time (a distance which could have taken him by road to Turkey!).
Each year we undertake a skills assessment with our franchisee team. We want to ensure that they haven’t slipped into any bad habits – and also to help share any great skills they’ve adopted! It allows us to drive the standards of sweeping to their highest levels.
The importance of this exercise is high. We believe that we’re the biggest team of sweeps trading under one brand and we’re pretty certain that we’re the only team who undergo annual assessment. Whilst our professional body, Association of Independent Chimney Sweeps (APICS), puts each team member through rigorous assessment when accessing membership, they undertake no continuous review of those skills.
Our team are checked for safe practice, clean working, equipment standards, customer interaction and overall approach to representing the Wilkins Chimney Sweep brand. We feel pretty proud that our team are always happy to undergo this process that we believe makes them amongst the best in the UK!