Butler Skips Ltd.

Butler Skips is a family-run mini-skip hire company based in Ashford, Kent. At the start of 2024, Mat & Sadie Butler decided to modernise the business and put the company online. That’s where Tenji Digital comes in.

Project Goals

The goal was for the website to give a professional approach, while at the same time, still holding onto the “family-run” aspects of the business. The biggest goal was a step into the unknown for Butler Skips, which was to allow users to book their skip hire online. This was a challenge I relished as I had never done anything similar to this and it ended up resulting in using third-party applications for the hiring aspect (via Booqable), as well as building a custom-coded gateway checker to restrict hires from selected postcodes in Kent only.

Design Approach

Butler Skips were able to provide branding guidelines which was very helpful. I have also built their sister company, Cage Waste Removal, which shares much of the branding. I was keen to show off the images of Butler Skip’s mini skips because they are uniquely blue and really stand out against the competition’s skips. That blue was used as an accent colour, along with some complimentary grey shades and a light purple, which is used in areas of their logo.

Key Features

This website includes several key features designed to enhance user experience and functionality:

• Custom-coded gateway checker: Written with HTML, CSS and Javascript, this was implemented to gate-keep customers outside of Kent from booking skip hire.

• Booqable Integration: The fact that skips are delivered and then collected, worked backwards to what Booqable expects, which is more geared towards collecting an asset first (such as a bicycle) and then returning it. So, with a bit of terminology changed and CSS changes, we were able to make skip hire work with Booqable, even to allow a fixed 14-day term.

• Mobile Optimisation: Recognising the importance of a mobile-friendly design, the site was built to be fully responsive, ensuring a smooth experience on all devices.

The Outcome

It took a while to build due to some unexpected blockages, but the final outcome was a professional website that Sadie and Mat are proud of, which modernises Butler Skips and establishes an impactful online presence for them.