We interviewed James Twigg, MD of the installer TIS, in the August print edition of Professional Security magazine. We have given him another ring, to ask mainly about the company’s Academy, launched last year, to bring on three-year apprentices; see the April print edition. We also asked him how is business.
He said it was something that he and his management team had recently talked about, ‘and the general consensus across my team is that we are seeing a lot of shift in activity with customers. They are starting to wake up and invest and think about 2022; and I hate to say it because everybody says it – getting back to normal and getting their businesses back to operate at full capacity.”
Another sign of renewal of economic activity as final covid restrictions are raised in the UK, he added, is in recruitment; where he said TIS had seen recruits coming on the market. He described the security industry as being in ‘a very strong place’.
James, pictured, also spoke interestingly of the appointment of Mark Babington as head of customer engagement. Mark, the former security and safety manager at Transport for West Midlands, started with TIS in the new year. He’s been featured in Professional Security a few times over the years at the TfWM control room in Birmingham, that monitors the region’s trams and buses.
James described how that post of Mark’s represents a ‘fresh look’. James explained it that ‘we are not a selling organisation, we are a nurturing, partnership organisation’, that had tried a ‘head of sales’ role that had never worked. Hence a new, ‘customer engagement’ strategy. James said that 70 per cent of TIS’ business comes from eight clients; the task, then, is to really understand those customers, and write bespoke strategies for each; besides looking to add to the eight. Hence Mark’s role is ‘very much about retention, about understanding the direction of those eight, and aligning services to them, and nurturing in the next big clients, so that we are delivering at a whole new level’.
About TIS
As featured in August 2021, TIS’ focus is on four sectors: public space; schools and college campuses; retirement villages; and defence. It has offices (including apprentices) in London, Leeds, and Coleshill covering the West Midlands; and head office in Mansfield. Visit https://tis.co.uk/.
