Be Nice To Your Customers

Customer service is probably one of the most basic and fundamental qualities to have as a business. Yet many fail miserably at delivering that service.


What has inspired me to write this post was how we were talked to by a member of staff by one of the larger composite door companies in our industry. The short version of the story is that there were rather major problems with some of the door slabs we installed a few months ago. A senior sales rep cam out to see them, agreed that they were very poor and that positive action would be taken. However 48 hours after agreeing to replacing them, a snotty, arrogant, attitudal member of their office rang to say that they wouldn't be re-making them, despite the very poor nature of the product, and after a previous promise that they would be replaced.


But the thing that really put our nose out of joint was the way the office girl rang us up and told us that information. She told our office administrator the info, and was then very put out that she was put on the the proprietor to explain to him again why they weren't going to honour the agreement they made earlier.


What I fail to understand is why companies employ people like this. Staff like that can cost companies business. And to that end, we are now looking at other products on the market. The customer service has been generally poor from this company, and it's something which has made it hard to deal with them.


One of the most simple rules in business is to make sure you're nice to your customers. It can cost you otherwise, and this time, it may well have done for this company.

Customers Who Don't Pay

It's one of the biggest pains in the backside that window companies have to suffer, customers who don't pay when you finish the job.


What is the best way to deal with them? In my experience it's always best to filter out those who you think are most likely to be problem customers. You can decide then if you want to deal with them or not. Of course when time's are as hard as these, turning any business down isn't an easy decision. But sometimes you have to think ahead and anticipate what possible problems these customers can cause and how much it could cost you to put the situation right.


Dealing with non-payers at the end of the job is sometimes a difficult one to judge. Do you threaten to take back the products, even if it means leaving holes in their property? Do you threaten court action (once reminder letters have been sent out of course)? Taking back products can often lead to confrontation, and can give the impression that your company is slightly heavy-handed. Though from a contractual point of view, companies are still well within their rights to take back what hasn't been paid for. More often than not, the threat of court action and constant reminder letters usually does the trick. Customers tend to see how long they can get away from paying, though they know at some point they will have to hand the money over.


I would also like to make the point that the company I work for has a policy where as soon as the work is finished, we expect payment straight away. No dragging feet for a few days or over the weekend. When the work is done, it's to be paid for. If the customer has any little niggles (though I'm glad to say we have great fitters who don't cause so many), then we get it sorted ASAP - which means the customer doesn't have an excuse not to pay promptly.


However, a lot of the time it is the fault of the company for customers not paying. Poor customer service, product quality, bad workmanship and lax after-sales care are the biggest causes of customers refusing to pay at the end of the job. If you expect prompt payment, don't give the customer an excuse not to pay.

Quality Counts Story Part 4

Below is the fourth part of the Quality Counts story:

19/4/11 Two fitters were sent from Leeds by the frame manufacturer. They were to replace some damaged sashes. I agreed to some foil tears being repaired rather than have all the frames changed. However, the new sashes,had filler, scratches/tears and 4 even had 25mm of torn gasket. These sashes were supposedly 'thoroughly checked ' by the installer before coming to the property. The situation is becoming ridiculous. Can't this place in Leeds make a window that's at least 90% correct? Is it a labour problem? Is it their machinery ? Or both.

So now I have curtains and blinds removed , furniture moved and dust sheets down again .

20/4/11 Builder came to alter his poor bell cast over bedroom window. He has already altered the lower one. He didn't redo it , just patched it up,so I don't know how long it will be before cracks appear. I have no confidence in his work any more.

20/4/11 Today my new back solidor will be fitted . It was supposed to have been installed week commencing 14/2/11. I saw it in the showroom on 24/2/11 when I paid the £4000 interim payment the director asked me for. So it arrived covered in dust. It has been fitted. But due to the measurements being wrong, it won't open. Something to do with the threshold. So I have a £1000 plus door that can't be used. To access the rear of the house I have to use the front door and walk round. The alarm sensor on the old door has been disconnected since February in readiness for the new door. I've had a piece of plastic over the old door, where the arch was squared off on 11/2/11.

I can't blame the new fitter for this, it's the surveyors fault.

Regarding the cracks that have appeared in the mortar joints over two windows;the director told the fitter to inform he will not be fitting any 'steel' over them. Trade comments on this would be appreciated. I did not expect it to be done fore nothing.

The doors for the storm porch arrived today. Again they should have been fitted 14/2/11. They've been stuck in a storeroom behind the showroom for weeks. This would explain the dents, gouges and white showing through the foil. The fanlight had black gasket instead of grey. The fitters couldn't install them.

The new window for the landing was unwrapped. There was a damaged area area which looked as though it had been touched up with a mars bar. So again the fitters couldn't install it.

I would point out here that the landing window previously fitted had touched up tears and numerous marks on it, not to mention a weld which had opened up .

The fitters have removed the mortar used by the previous fitter and replaced it with a correct mix. They also replaced a small window at the rear of property.

The director has not informed what he intends to do re. the back door. Nor has he rung with an apology. 

The above part of this story was sent to me a few days ago, but due to us being very busy at work, and then the bank holidays, this is the first opportunity I've had to get it posted. So apologies to my sender, I'm not ignoring you!

Quality Counts Story Part 3

I now have the third part of the ongoing story of a problem installation that I've been documenting over the past few weeks:

The builder came on 17/3/11 and cleaned the mortar of the flags at the front and side of the house.He came and went without announcing his presence. The rear flags were not cleaned.

On 24/3/11 the Manufacturer's technical advisor arrived. Stated foil damage was obviously caused by the frame manufacturer. Also, completely without any prior notice being given to myself, a fitter sent from Leeds arrived to replace the frame with the protruding screw and 2 badly made sashes. Due to the excessively high number of faults revealed when the tape was removed from the front windows, I checked the upper windows off a ladder and again found numerous faults. It was, therefore, pointless for the Leeds fitter to attempt any remedial work. 

Whilst up the ladder I noted a new horizontal hairline crack in the render where the builder had fitted angle iron above the upper window. The mortar bed under the bricks is insufficient, and the slate packing is loose. In fact it can easily be pulled out. The two bell casts done by the builder are odd. The upper being 4'' different to the lower one and bowed. The bricks above the WC window are extremely loose. Cracks in the mortar joints above the bathroom and back bedroom have appeared. The installers director informed that this will be OK as the upvc windows are load bearing. If a level is put on 1 cill it rocks, there are two high spots. 

On 24/3/11 The sales director from Leeds was due to arrive at 9am. He did not appear. Nor has he ever made contact with me. The fitter from Leeds confirmed that vandalism had taken place he also stated there were tooling problems in the factory. So Leeds were aware of the faults, but chose to ignore them . They painted over them. 

After showing the faults to the installers director he promised they would be rectified. He stated that if I looked at the windows in his showroom I would see faults on them. Would I have bought them if that was the case? He then said he was going to his showroom, and would return with a letter which he wanted me to sign. I will not disclose the content at this time. I declined to sign. I'm sure this was not legal.

On 24/3/11 I was told it would take a week for new windows to be made. I rang on 5/4/11 and was told they were waiting for some frames. Today is 12/4/11 and they have not contacted me.

Quality Counts Story Part 2

I have received the second part of the Quality Counts story from my contact:

Still nothing heard from installer.


Sent photos of screw and tears to frame makers in Leeds. on 4/3/11. On 7/3/11 rang installers and was told they were waiting for one piece of glass and this was holding things up.. When the snags were mentioned I was informed quality control in Leeds was first class.....I informed them the front windows were still not finished despite being fitted on 18/2/11..Was told fitter would come. He didn't.


At this stage , the windows on the front of house had not been trimmed and still had protective tape on them .


8,9, 10, 11, 14, 15, .... heard nothing from installer.


16/3/11..I rang showroom said I wasn't very happy, quite politely.


Owner came to site on 17/3/11 .Said he thought windows were completed....Also said he could repair all the tears with wax.


He arranged for two fitters to complete the front of property. They arrived at 2, left at 4. Window heads were still not dressed. Steel and bricks still showing. but they said they would glue the end caps on the cills that previous fitter had not done. Rang showroom, and was told they would be back within an hour. They never showed up. The removal of the manufacturer's tape revealed many more faults.


I was promised a new frame to replace the one with screw protruding. I was told the screw was done by a sacked ex employee and only the frames, not the sashes are checked for quality control, allegedly, although their literature makes claims of very stringent quality control. Also promised was a new sash to replace one with a 3/8 inch wide repair to a poor mitre and many blemishes, plus another sash replacing one which had patches of touch up where the fitter tried to disguise the foam he'd left on . Plus three new seals to replace torn ones. Builder is to come back and clean the mortar from paths and under windows. A real mess.


Who in their right mind would fit a bottom window firs? And then damage it with debris from the window above the next day and slap touch up on the marks. The builders using the toilet left excrement on the seat.


The two fitters who came on 16/3/11 removed the two boxes of broken glass that had been left in front of the house for 4 weeks. They also put brown silicone over the clear silicone used by the previous fitter. Because none of the windows were trimmed internally, no curtains or blinds could be refitted for 7 days.


20/3/11. Correction. Bedroom end caps not glued. They told me they had 'foamed' above 2 windows (2500 wide) to fix them. I now have my doubts.


On 23/3/11. I was told the piece of glass that was delaying the fitting of the doors had arrived and they would fit them tomorrow. This phone call was received at 1.40. I informed them that this notice was too short, as an appointment with the profile manufacturers technical advisor was arranged for 10 am that morning . I also had a medical appointment later. At 7pm. the installers director called at the property. He said a 'tooling fault' at Leeds was the cause of foil damage. Also a sacked worker had committed acts of vandalism. I pointed to the exposed brickwork over the 2 front windows.He said this was correct practice, as the bricks need to breathe.........

Quality Counts Story Part 1

The sender of the images of my recent Quality Counts posts has sent me some more information and the first part of his ongoing story with his poorly installed windows and doors. 


The property is a semi-detached in Warrington, the company installing the windows is from Warrington but the frames are made in Leeds. The 70 year old OAP paid his deposit on 13th January this year.


These are his details he sent me so far (I'm just copying what he sent me, with some slight editing):


Start date; 14/2/11. Two fitters,11 'til 4.
> 15/2/11. one fitter, 9.45 'til 12.
> 16/2/11. two fitters,9.30 'til 3.30.
> 17/2/11. one fitter, 1.15 'til 5.20. This is when I started to log events.
> 18/2/11. two fitters, 10 'til 4.30 and 12.30 'til 4.30.
> 21/2/11. one fitter, 10 10 'til1.15. Dragging 4m lengths of quadrant through house. Noticed two dents had allegedly appeared in new fridge .
> 22/2/11. no fitters.
> 23/2/11. one fitter, 10 'til 1 . 55. Builder returned to redo his poorly done bell cast. Fitters 'boss' on site. I overheard his fitter saying to him he didn't give a f..k. Was told it would be one and a half weeks before doors would be fitted.
> 24/2/11. one fitter, 5.30 'til 6.30. Trimmed externals to one small window.
> Said he'd return tomorrow to finish trimming and to replace three torn seals. Never seen him since.
> 25/2/11. no fitter. 26/2/11 .Made interim payment. This was requested by
> company director. £4000 .I noticed my back door in showroom. My back door has had a piece of plastic nailed across the top where the arched head was squared of on 11/2/11. (12/4/11 still no door fitted)
> 28/2/11 no fitter
> 1/3/11. '' ''.
> 2/3/11. '' '' .
> 3/3/11 '' '' .
> 4/3/11. '' '' .

Are Reduced Margins A Certainty?

A bit of a debate started yesterday on Glasstalk about margins and how they will naturally become less due to the mature market place, competition and struggling economy. As proof of the opposite, I'm taking the view that just because things aren't so easy, there are ways to stay profitable.

One way to increase margins is to improve the quality of the product that is sold. High-end products can command a better profit margin. It's easier to sell a higher price to a customer when the product is a good one. Cheaper products can only achieve medium price ranges with poor profit margins.


The other way is to accept the financial situation we are all in. Loss leading offers are not the  way to bring the custom in when profit is needed so badly. It's time to implement those price increases that your manufacturers have been passing on and eating into your profit levels. Just because the price of a door might go up £30-50 doesn't mean you won't get that sale now. Just sell the benefits of the product and explain that raw materials prices have gone up. The last few leads I've sat I've explained how the current financial climate has caused raw material prices to go up, having a knock-on effect on our prices. They're are fully understanding as they know everyone, including themselves are having to pay more due to the rising cost of living.


Get your staff to do more. If you're busy and think you need to hire more staff, try using your current employees first before you add another wage to your bill. Perhaps give them a small pay rise to cover the extra work, but this will still be cheaper than taking on another member of staff when maybe you don't need to.


Increase your levels of personal service. You can command higher prices if the customer thinks you're doing more for them than the other company is willing to do. The more work they see you doing, the more justified the higher price becomes.


We don't have to be scared of higher prices. If we can embrace it in the right way, adapt to a more expensive market and communicate that well to the customer, there's no reason why companies can't start to recover their profit margins.

Quality Counts 3

This evening I have been sent two more images from the same installation as pictured in my other posts Quality Counts and Quality Counts 2.

If these were one off problems on separate installations then perhaps this wouldn't be so bad, but, as the sender tells me, these are all on the same installation.

You can have the best product in the world, but if they aren't fit right and finished off well, it can ruin an installation.

According to the sender of this image, the reason given by the company for bare bricks and no lintel was that this was to 'let the bricks breathe'.


Dear me.

In his email, the sender says that this is showing damaged foil, badly touched up.

Good PR

Question: Who goes and visits the installations they have sold?


I make a special effort to go see my installations when I can. You'd be surprised how much this pleases your customers. It shows them you weren't just there to take their money and run, it shows them that you actually care about the work being done to their home.


There are so many people in sales that you see only once, maybe twice, then that's it. The sales person is the face of the business, and is the first person a customer sees. They build up a relationship with that customer, then hopefully they place an order. 


Once a customer is decent enough to put their money in your back pocket, it only seems right to me that you see the end result of what you have sold. It's brilliant PR. The customers know you take great care and interest in the job. Not only that, there is a greater chance of picking up more business. I can't tell you how many times I've been out to see an installation of mine then the customer asks me to measure up for more potential work.


If you don't do it, then maybe you should. It'll bring you extra business, and earn your extra brownie points with the customer.

Quality Counts 2

I've been sent another image by the sender who sent me the first image on the Quality Counts post:

According to the sender, there are over 50 of these foil tears across the installation. Along with:

The sender has said they will let me know the outcome of these issues.


Again, opinions on these images are welcome!

Clients Make This Job Worth Doing

I've recently had the pleasure of dealing with a very nice family who have been organising for their mother/grandmother to have her very tired old porch replaced.


The customers were quite elderly, hence the reason for the involvement of their family. And I can honestly say it was a pleasure to deal with them. We had some great humour between all of us. We even had all 3 generations in the showroom, the eldest managing to get my Dad into a conversation about her childhood in the 1940's!


They gladly gave me the time to let me talk to them about us and our products (unlike on more recent leads!) and the atmosphere was very friendly.


As you get to talk to these people you sort of get to know them a bit more personally, and it's nice to know that there are still some genuinely nice people out there to do business with. Needless to say they did go ahead with me, this evening.


I'll post a before and after picture when the installation is complete. We're taking down and old porch with felt roof and installing light oak on white frames with 35mm polycarbonate roof onto existing brickwork.

The Quality Of Internet Leads

There is no doubt that the future of the double glazing industry relies partly on the integration of the internet. Gathering leads by way of the web is going to become one of the main ways in which to attract customers.


We started the internet journey properly about a year ago, aiming to have a better website to communicate our business and products better to the customer, and to get people to make enquiries online. All in all, I can say that the design part of the website and the content is well done and as we wanted. Though one area of scepticism is the quality of the internet leads.


When designing the website we wanted to make sure that the leads we bring in are ones that are of a good quality and are serious about having the work done. We didn't want to do is fill our diaries with time wasters and tyre-kickers. We've mostly managed to do that. However, if you read my last post, we still have the odd lead which is a complete waste of time and not worth spending the petrol money!


You'll never get a perfect system where you manage to filter out the genuine customers from those who are just curious about numbers. You just have to make it clear on your website that your not a cheap and cheerful, here today and gone tomorrow company who fit cheap products. That way those who want a good job doing are likely to contact you, and those who just want the cheapest possible will go to those who specialise in that.

When Your Not Given The Time

When visiting a customer to quote them for a new conservatory, you would think that due to a conservatory being quite a big purchase, the client would dedicate some time to go through with you your product, company and all the other details entailed, to make sure that your quote meets completely their expectations. Well no.


A couple we visited this evening after making an appointment via our website seemed to care very little about what they were wanting to buy. We sat them down and tried pretty much in vein to go through the details of the product. But any question posed to the couple were shouted across the house as we were sat down with him, but she was in the kitchen! 


After the first half dozen questions shouted around the house, it was clear the husband was growing more and more irritable. You could tell that both of them weren't interested in the slightest demo of what we had to offer. It was a case of just going in, getting measurements, deciding on the design and just leaving.


When asking a company to come visit you at your home to quote for something as big as a conservatory, or a full house of windows and doors, isn't it common courtesy to allow that company some time to do their job. Plus, it's better for them to listen to what the company has to say so they can make a fully informed decision on who to choose. 

How Far Would You Go?

I sat a lead yesterday where I was up against Safestyle UK. Pretty standard stuff, but the tactics their sales woman used were astounding.

She did the usual stubborn, don't want to leave your home without an order act. But then told the customers that she would drive around locally and then come back later on to see if they made a decision. Upon telling her that they were seeing another company after her, she asked if she could sit in and watch the other company's sales pitch to see if they were 'talking rubbish'! The cheek! Actually asking to stay in a house your not welcome in to watch another company!

I was the third company they saw that day. During the time I was there she rang the customers twice, first to see if they had gone ahead with me yet, then secondly to say that she would wait in her car outside, wait for me to leave then come back in to drop the price yet again and see if they would make a decision then.

So, later that evening I dropped the quote back off in writing later on that day, and the customer then told me she was there another two hours, asked if she could stay there while the customer picked her child up from school, and proceeded to make the customer late for work! She also said she shouldn't go ahead with us because we didn't bring a sample window out and that they could be buying anything! The customer then informed her that I invited them both to our brilliant showroom!

At what point do companies think that this harassment is the right way to go about dealing with people? They've said they would never go with them, based purely on how she conducted herself, and the utter rubbish she was coming out with about the competition.

Despite this, I do like selling against the national companies, their hard sell and harassing tactics make it very easy for those who take the more laid back approach and don't make customers feel imprisoned in their own homes.

If there are any sales people who work for the national companies reading this and wish to defend their corner, I'd love to hear what you think of this and what should change. Or if you think this practise is acceptable.


Oh, and to top it all off, they offered them an 'E' rated window, something which has been illegal for four months!

Proof That Consumers Are Getting More Vocal With Their Complaint

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8576264.stm

This is a link you all need follow and read up on. It is an article on the BBC Business website that explains how more and more people are using social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to complain about bad experiences they have with companies.

Customer complaints is a subject I like to prattle on about, and many times I have written about how companies need to improve their customer services area to make sure they don't fall foul of the customer that uses the interent to broadcast their bad encounters.

The article also explains how a third of all customer who have had poor customer service from a company would go on to the company's website to write about their negative views.

It is imperative that businesses, especially in this sector, take note of what is happening with customers and the internet and make sure that if they are having problems in the customer services department they sort them and quick.

It's All To Do With Your Existing Customers

Dan Elson left me this comment last night:

"Customer retention is the key here everyone. Keep retaining your customers and keep selling more and more to them.

"0% of your customers account for 80% off your sales...so why do companies focus so much on acquiring new customers?

Yes you always need knew customers but surely reading the above statement, don’t you feel retention of your customers is more effective?

Keep your customers happy, and sell more and more to them. You’ve already done the hard part, you’ve already acquired them! Now sell more and more to them through cross selling and up selling.

Customer relationship marketing is the key thing here. The more companies, especially the smaller ones realize this, the more money will be made :)"

I could not have explained that better myself.

Previous customers are a rich ground of extra business. Finding new customers is always a harder road in which to make money. The job of selling to previous customers is much easier as you have already laid the foundations the first time you sold to them. Plus, it is much easier to upsell to a customer that had used you previously.

There are lots of companies focussed on growth by obtaining new customers. Lots overlook the already established large previous customer base they may have as an opportunity to grow.

How Best To Treat Your Customers

A recent guest post on RCG has dealt with the issue of how best to treat and respect the time of your customers. The author Dave Blakeman of RPS put forward the idea of sending the customer a gift i.e. vouchers or chocolates as a thank you for your time. The idea is also supposed to increase the chance of a sale. I can see his logic behind the idea, but if I were a customer, I would think that it would be lame attempt at buttering me up.

The best way we have found to deal with customers is to be honest and upfront. We make sure we don't overstay our welcome, we don't push for the sale that day unless they want to go ahead, no hard-sell or no pressure. We like to keep it nice and informal, make sure the customer doesn't feel uncomfortable in their own home. This works nearly everytime because there are still lots of companies using the hard-sell methods and trying to get the sale right there and then. Our customers are always pleasantly surprised when we finish the appointment without lots of pressure to sign immediately.

Treat the customer right, no pressure, no hard-sell and the need to send the customer a gift to say thanks for their time shouldn't be needed.

More Rediculous Pricing

My evening appointment last night gave me some amusement. I was there to measure up for a door and top light, and they told me they had Everest in previously to quote for the same. The customers showed me the quote Everest submitted (which was on a tatty piece of pink carbon paper) to them. The price started off at a very reasonable £5500, but with their discounts they could have it for a tad over £3600. A bargain if you ask me! The quality of their products must be second to non!

On a serious note, they obviously didn't want the job and was just fobbing the customer off. That seems like a complete waste to me. When trading conditions have been as tough as they have been, every salesman from every company should be making the effort to competitively sell every lead they go on. Nationals should throw away their minimum order rules and take advantage of what they have to go on.

Needless to say the price we have submitted was a lot less than they had quoted, and we like to think our product is better than their's also.

The Importance Of A Good After-Sales Service

Part of the reason why the double glazing industry has such a tarnished reputation is due to the fact that companies tend neglect the needs of their customers after the installation has been completed. No company is perfect and problems will occur in all areas of installation. But what really earns businesses credibility with the customer is the ability to rectify those problems.

There are too many companies in this industry that ignore the after-sales side of the business, and this is what can ruin their reputation. They tend to be either one-man-bands who cannot be bothered, or businesses that are too big and find themselves unable to provide an efficient after-sales service.

We are a business which prides itself on rectifying any problems that might occur as soon as we physically can. Our customers wait no more than a couple of days for our service engineer to visit them, and that is what surprises our customers the most. Due to the terrible reputation of our industry, it seems they assume that we will put them in such a back-logged waiting list it will take weeks for them to be seen to. That is not the case however, and we receive many letters and phone calls of thanks for providing such a quick and efficient service.

This is such a vital area for businesses in our line of work, yet a lot just view the after-sales side as a bit-part player, and is therefore neglected, harming them and our industry as a whole.