The housing association was procuring cleaning services to over 300 communal areas, with scheduled fortnightly cleanings and separate window cleaning services to be provided quarterly. The length of the contract was three years, with two one-year extensions to be exercised at the discretion of the housing association representatives.
Main challenges
Although the tender contained many standard questions our writers are familiar with, challenges in completing the tender consisted of:
- Completing a key contract for the client, who were the incumbent contractor for several years under the previous agreement
- Working to a tight deadline, with the client approaching us for support eight working days prior to the final submission date
- Utilising a team of writers to ensure the submission was completed on schedule and with sufficient time for the client review stage for any amendments, improvements or clarifications.
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Geographical region:
Scotland
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Output:
16 pages of quality and social value responses across six questions
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Weighting:
55% quality / 45% price / 5% social value
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Submission:
Electronic and portal-based
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Outcome:
Successful
Overview
Our client required 16 pages of detailed, persuasive and narrative-driven responses for six quality questions. Based on the size of the tender and level of detail required to produce high-quality responses, our bid manager allocated four days for the writing component of the project.
Due to the short deadline, it was necessary to assign a team of writers to complete the tender in accordance with existing projects which had been scheduled beforehand and our internal quality assurance processes. As a highly experienced writer, Kate Hull was scheduled to lead the interview. She also maintained project oversight, ensuring that writers were on track with project deadlines, ‘bid themes’ were integrated into each response, and that project progress was closely monitored.
Following a successful information-gathering session via client interview, the responses were drafted in accordance with the specification and client-specific information. The majority of quality questions reflected common topics for which we write high-quality responses day in, day out, and included responses on:
- Quality management
- Customer care
- Resourcing
- Mobilisation
- Health and safety.
Our work together on previous bids enabled a personalised approach to the questions set by the purchasing authority, incorporating evidence such as photographs of staff uniforms, imprest stock held in vehicles and on-site works in progress. Providing these photographs enabled our client to stand out from other tenderers, who may have submitted more generic responses to the quality questions. Given the client’s status as the incumbent, our writers were able to effectively demonstrate previous experience of successful service delivery into their responses, while also integrating ‘lessons learnt’ to show measures for continuous improvement in KPI performance, resident satisfaction and expanded services.
Furthermore, our quality assurance process ensured all page-limited responses were thoroughly scrutinised, identifying areas to strengthen, improve or distinguish the client from other prospective tenderers. After the writers made amendments based on input from reviews, the responses were sent to our external proofreading partners, who are accredited members of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.
Lastly, the responses were sent in batches for the client to review, enabling them to address any placeholders and identify key areas where responses could be strengthened with an extra level of detail only they could provide. Despite our writers working under a tight deadline, all final amendments from the client were completed two working days prior to the submission deadline.
Outcome
In February 2023, we were informed the client had been successful in the bid, thereby leading to their retention of a business-critical contract which constituted a large part of their annual turnover. The client was delighted with the result, and looks forward to a continued partnership in future tender opportunities.