Another Idea

[kwatt]

I want to know what the interest would be in this and if we should open the idea up to non-subscribers, so I’m looking for some input here people if you don’t mind.

I have had a good chat with one of the major detergent manufacturers, as you probably all know by now anyway and we were looking at ways to promote the use of their products, obviously, as posted in the “Detergents” thread and other ways in which we can help each other. Now, as a benefit to UKW members this was one of the ideas that we have come up with.

We all use “out-cards” and, as suggested by that nice chap Jp, cards to postcard the customers when we can’t get them in, so why not use that to promote ourselves, the detergent manufacturer and UKW? It’s really blindingly obvious that this is a superb idea and does everyone a favour, we all look more professional with proper printed cards, UKW gets promoted, the manufacturer gets promoted and the best bit is that the manufacturer will give us this for free! Yep, that’s right it won’t even cost us any money to do this as I think I’ll manage to get this done for us at zero cost, so we even save money.

Personally I don’t think there’s a downside to this at all and we can only win by such a device being in place so, comments please on this one.

And as a taster, there’s a sample design below i’ve been playing around with. 😉

K.

[Martin]

Re: Another Idea

Ken,

I don’t wish to sound the least bit negative here at all so please do not misunderstand. Your idea and obvious enthusiasm is readily acknowledge for sure but ‘Out Cards’ are not the best route to take. I have no idea what rate of issue your company or anyone elses for that matter would need to generate these little cards, but I suspect a very low percentage. Besides, when a customer reads the card he or she is not going to look at the fancy logo’s and stuff but be totally pi**ed off at not being home when the man called!!!!

I have a much better idea……………..Invoice Stationary. 💡
It costs me a fortune year after year getting Invoice/Repair Dockets printed. 🙁 (Current rate costs me 25pence per invoice as an accurate example) Why not get bulk orders going using the same format and detergent logos and stuff????

Why not get UKW to negotiate a deal with a printer for bulk purchasing? Each UKW company shares the same logo but different address/phone number/VAT number etc details 💡

In a typical financial year I may have less the half a dozen customers out by the way 😉 So no use to me I guess 🙂

Martin

[kwatt]

One step at a time Martin eh? 😉

This is an ideal starting point as it’s not excessive volumes we’re dealing with and the idea of an “out-card” is the same for almost everyone as we all only need the same details on it. Invoices are totally different and anyway, I print them straight off the PC, I do not use carbons, if I did I’d want tractor feed to a dot-matrix printer in an A4 format which is expensive and not what you’d need.

In other words, I do not want to be handwriting 20+ sheets a day.

By contrast, for the single employee, handwriting the sheets is not so much of an issue, but then my aim here is to eliminate those bits of paper totally eventually and do it ALL electronically. Therefore, that would be of no use, also, for most agency work on any real scale pre-prepared paperwork is provided for the likes of Whirlpool and Lux agents, so again of no use to them.

K.

[Martin]

kwatt wrote:One step at a time Martin eh? 😉

Fair enough, point taken, we all have so many and varied formats of stationary I agree, not possible to make uniform in this instant except for out cards…..put me down for a box then, they should last me out 😆

Martin

[kwatt]

Yeah I meant to say, if you do the math Martin lets suppose that every engineer gets one no-access call per day on average just as an example…

There are over 250 trade members here of which about 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} run companies with employees, when you actually even that out you end up with a VERY rough average of 2.5 engineers per account. 2.5 times 250= 625 no-access calls a day, = 1562 no-access calls a week, = 81000+ a year!

The figures are quite startling when you actually start multiplying it out like that and even if it’s only half that it’s still a sizeable amount of potential hits for UKW as well as providing the side benefits for everyone in general.

Then how many people ask for your company’s details? Can we use these to leave the details? Do we want to do something else and try and get a deal on printing?

See, so many possibilities and ways to promote ourselves, UKW and anyone that wishes to foot (or partly foot) the bill for it. Like I should care if I’m not paying for it, too right I’ll go for the free option every time (and don’t anyone dare make a Scots joke outta that). 😉

K.

[admin]

I like the idea, start with out cards as it would be very low volumes and is a place to start. Even more useful though are contact cards, ie for when you can not contact the customer on the telephone. These will especially useful for those how do a great deal of contract work and receive work from work providers rather than the telephone. These types of cards customers will read because they need to know what its about and who to contact, an ideal advertising medium for all, hence the contact K is having.

Martin with regards to your printing, is it gold embossed? We use large triplicated tractor feed pre-printed invoices at 3.75 pence per invoice. It keeps the writing down to a minimum.

[johnmac11]

Re: Another Idea

Brilliant idea Ken,

We use a dual format card which is like a business card on the front with two sections on the back.

The first section has the usual,

“we called today at 2.05p.m. to repair your appliance and got no answer, can you please call our office on the telephone number overleaf to rebook call quoting job no. 12345“

And we have recently added a second section which says,

” we will return on 20/8/04 to fit parts to your appliance, if for any reason you cannot be available on this date can you please call our office quoting job no:12345 to change the appontment”

We found we were getting a lot of no access calls on return visits and this second section seems to help.

John

[Martin]

JP wrote:Martin with regards to your printing, is it gold embossed?

Nah! I get standard 2 part pre-printed ‘Repair Dockets’ from : – http://www.nebs.co.uk I just checked my last order with them and the cost per copy after ordering 600 was 19.8 pence each!! So not cheap eh?

Those ‘Twinlock’ plastic ‘registers’ invoice/repair dockets are slightly cheaper at 13pence each but I don’t like using them, too bulky etc.

kwatt wrote:625 no-access calls a day, = 1562 no-access calls a week, = 81000+ a year!

Bl**y ‘ell, I believe someone recently worked out the cost to get an engineer out to each call at around £23. Based on those stats that equals a staggering £186,300 lost by the trade 🙁 Strikes me someone needs to pull their socks up and go on an efficiency drive 🙂

💡 “Yes Mrs Bloggs, we can call tomorrow, will anyone be at home when our engineer knocks on your door?” 💡

johnmac11 wrote:We use a dual format card which is like a business card on the front with two sections on the back.

Much better idea 🙂

Martin

[Dave_Conway]

Martin wrote:💡 “Yes Mrs Bloggs, we can call tomorrow, will anyone be at home when our engineer knocks on your door?” 💡

I really don’t think anyone just turns up on the “off chance” Martin. Customers go out unexpectedly deciding it’s a nice day, can’t be bothered to wait, etc etc, it happens !

This is only a starting point, and as you rightly say, it’s a low percentage, so, surely it’s best to start with the easy option and take it from there (walking before running and all that ;))

The possibilities are endless to be honest.

I did have one other idea also, ID cards for engineers, and yes I know no-one likes them, but it will eventually become a must, if not a legal requirement at some point.

Dave.

[kwatt]

Re: Another Idea

Thanks JP and John, I do think this is a great idea and an ideal starting point to the venture that will get results.

The idea of the card is in no way set in stone and suggestions like yours John is exactly why I asked the question, it’s a bloody good idea. Like most things, the more ideas and input the better it gets.

Martin, as you don’t do manufacturer service you’re not as liable to get as many no-access calls but believe me it is a problem, especially when the kids are off school and the weather is nice. 😉 Some people do just bill the customer but for the most part we are simply expected to absorb that cost.

The important thing for me is that this is an idea that costs us nothing and proves that we can work with large organisations to glean results for them and, as a by-product, improve ourselves in the process. To me, that is the goal here because if we can succeed with this who knows what else it will lead to in time? Well, I have some ideas, but I’ll shut it till I know they can be realised. 😆

In the end, what’s to be lost from trying? Nothing! With loads of potential gain for the trade in the long term, not least in credibility besides the potential financial savings which in this case are not high I grant you. But, where else can we apply the same basic principals? You see, as a starting point this may only serve as a springboard to other things in time as it’s only the nucleus of an idea.

K.

[Author]

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