Albert Einstein is credited with defining insanity as, ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’
A Quiet Period of Reflection… For Some
With 2018 now firmly in the rear view mirror, one of the benefits to this quieter period of the year is that it gives us a chance to catch our breath and reflect on how our businesses have performed. More importantly, it gives us an opportunity to identify any weaknesses and, in turn, ways in which we can improve.
For many, Q4 was a double edged sword; a period of considerable demand that bought with it the inevitable pressures of ensuring a reliable and cost effective supply.
However, for many in the fenestration industry, this reliability was not forthcoming.
Quality –A Problem Again in 2019?
It’s no secret that quality was an issue across the composite door sector last year. For whatever reason, many manufacturers struggled to deliver to a consistent standard and this caused many people – particularly at the sharp end – a lot of headaches.
More importantly, it cost them a great deal of wasted time and money.
Rejecting doors on delivery resulted in many delayed installations. In worst case scenarios, it led to call outs and replacing doors on site.This labour cost was doubly punishing for the installer; not only did they have to rectify the immediate problem, but it used valuable time in their day when they could have been generating additional income.
To rub salt into the wound, those delayed installs invariably resulted in a delay in payment and so the cash position for installers was also impacted.
Keeping The Consumer Happy
All of which leads to an unhappy customer, and the resulting goodwill lost will ultimately effect referral sales. As consumers we align ourselves with strong, trusted brands, and our levels of expectation are set accordingly. The same is also true when it comes to trade brands. Nowadays, if the consumer has anything less than a perfect experience, the means to communicate their views to the wider world are readily available. The key is making sure that the consumer has the best experience possible.
At Solidor Group we know that our job is to make your customer happy.
Everything we do is focused on that one goal.
A Quality Driven Culture
Over the last 5 years our operations have been spearheaded by an award-winning group operational director at the helm. With him, his team, and our committed workforce we have created an environment that is now world class in all aspects of business measurement. As a result, the entire organisation – from Nicedor panels, to Residor GRP doors, and solid timber core Solidor – is immersed in a quality focused culture.
Seriously, we live and breathe it.
So whatever the brand, you have the complete reassurance of a world class manufacturing, logistics and support team behind it.
Building Our Customers Business
But our expertise doesn’t end with operations. We’re one of the few businesses in our industry that targets the consumer; creating demand and distributing enquiries across our dedicated network of trusted partners. To give you an idea of how effective our marketing machine is, last year we generated over 30,000 leads for our customers.
Over Christmas and into the new year we also ran our first TV ad campaign, which drove traffic to both our own site, but also to our customer’s show rooms and trade counters. The timing of this campaign was deliberately intended to direct consumers to our partners businesses in the traditionally quieter Q1. So while the start of the year might be a quiet time of contemplation for some, for our customers it’s like 2018 never ended.
So if you’re quiet at the moment, perhaps now is the time to ask yourself…
Are you working with the same old supplier over and over and expecting different results?
