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Case study · Scrap metal recycling

A Perth scrap metal yard that stopped missing leads

Scrap buying, car removals, towing and skip bins. Five Google listings and one busy office. Now an assistant on WhatsApp sends the lead alerts, the driver jobs, the booking texts and the review requests.

Business
Premier Group, Perth WA
Team
Owner, office, ops, accounts, 4 to 5 drivers
Tools
ScrapIT, Podium, Google Calendar, Gmail, MYOB
Live since
August 2026
A scrap yard owner smiling at his phone at sunset, skip bins and a hook-lift truck behind him

4min

typical time from a customer's message to an alert on the office's WhatsApp

13%→3%

of leads never answered, before and after the alerts went live

+13

five-star Google reviews in one week. 40 to 53, still rated 4.9

30

jobs sent to drivers on WhatsApp in the first 9 days, with no texting by hand

Before

The office did it all by hand, across calls, texts and emails

  • New enquiries sat in Podium until someone logged in on a computer. More than a third waited 12 hours or never got a reply.
  • Every driver job was typed into the calendar, then texted to the driver one by one.
  • No record of which jobs were finished, or when.
  • Review requests were sent by hand, when someone remembered. About 15 in a whole month.

A normal day now

The yard runs from the phones they already carry

7:42am

The office, on WhatsApp

📩 New Podium message from Dave. "Hi, how much do you pay for copper pipe? Got about 40kg."
Yes mate, we buy copper pipe. Bring it in, we're open till 4
Send this to Dave on Podium? Reply YES
YES

9:10am

A driver, in the truck

🚚 Your next job: tow truck job. 10:00am, old Corolla, Gosnells. Maps link and customer number below. Reply DONE when it's finished.
DONE
✅ Thanks, job done. Here's your next one.

11:52am

The customer, an hour after pickup

Thanks for choosing us today. If you were happy with the pickup, a quick Google review would really help us out.

2:15pm

The office, with a seller on the phone

When did this seller last come in? Check ScrapIT
Last visit 12 Sep. 3 tickets this year, mostly brass and copper.

Examples based on real messages. Names, places and details changed.

What changed

Four jobs the assistant took off the office

A phone lighting up with a new message on an empty desk in a scrap yard site office

3%

of leads never answered, down from 13%

Every lead lands on WhatsApp

When a customer messages the business on Podium, the office gets it on WhatsApp within minutes. Staff reply right there, without logging into Podium. Leads left waiting 12 hours or more fell from 38% to 17%.

WasSeen when someone logged in on a PC
NowOn the office's phone in about 4 minutes
A truck driver in hi-vis checking his phone on the dash, driving a skip bin truck through a Perth suburb

21

jobs marked done from WhatsApp in the first 9 days

Drivers get their jobs without a phone call

The office books the job in the calendar like always. The assistant sends it to the right driver with the time, address, customer number and a maps link. The driver replies DONE, NOT ANSWERING or CANCELLED, and the calendar gets ticked off.

WasEach job texted by hand, no record of finished work
NowSent automatically, ticked off from the truck
A homeowner holding his phone while a hook-lift truck lowers a skip bin onto his driveway

+13

five-star Google reviews in a week

Customers hear from them before and after

When a pickup is booked, the customer gets a text with the date and a 2-hour arrival window. If the time moves, they get a new one. An hour after the driver replies DONE, the customer gets a review request. Past customers got a review email too. The main listing went from 40 to 53 reviews in seven days.

WasAbout 15 review requests a month, by hand
NowEvery finished job with a phone number gets one
A yard worker in hi-vis checking his phone next to a ute loaded with copper pipe at the weighbridge

136

look-ups by the office in its first 6 days

Answers without opening ScrapIT

Office staff ask on WhatsApp: when a seller last came in, where a truck is right now, what a ticket said. Each person only sees what they're allowed to. The owner keeps the accounts and the bank to himself, and gets his own reports every evening and Monday morning.

WasWalk to a PC, log in, search
NowAsk on the phone, answer in seconds
It's work that would otherwise need another staff member or a VA. If you're about to hire a VA, look at automation first.
Ali Abdullah, Premier Group Ali AbdullahPremier Group, Perth WA

Our office team handled it manually across calls, texts and emails. It took a significant amount of time every day.

Ali Abdullah, owner

Follow-ups and customer enquiries that could easily be missed during busy periods.

Ali, on what it catches now

It can handle a large part of the workload consistently, instantly and without adding another full-time person.

Ali Abdullah, owner

The honest bit

Not everything worked the first time. The lead alerts first came with a suggested reply, and the office found that too busy, so we took it out. Once the assistant got a scale ticket wrong, so ticket requests now come straight from ScrapIT with no AI in between. The driver jobs went live two weeks late, because the calendar didn't say which driver a job was for.

There are still limits. Podium hides the first message from website chat, so those leads can't trigger an alert yet. And jobs booked without a customer phone number can't get a review request.

Want the same for your office?

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