e-Jobs

[kwatt]

Well you’ve all seen it on the agenda for September so I guess I better fill you lot in and let it sink in before then so we’re all aware.

Essentially e-Jobs as I call it is a module for PHP that is being written for the site to specifically handle CHARGEABLE work, you know the type we all like that means cash in the bank when you do them?

What it will do is ask the customer three initial questions:-

Manufacturer
Product Type
Postal Area

Based on that information, for example, it will then direct the call to say, Martin, who does RG postcodes for Bosch but to Joe Bloggs in the same area that does Hygena as Martin doesn’t touch them.

It will then, dependent on the match for those criteria, continue and allow the customer to “log” a call that will then be emailed to the relevant repairer. Happy days, you get a nice a chargeable call from someone that, if the demographics of UKW are correct, is perfectly prepared to pay for a decent service.

For now this will be offered for free on the site but I have to warn that we may have to charge for it if I can’t get a decent revenue from other places for this eventually if the traffic gets silly. But I do have a plan to extract funding from other places to pay for it, if that comes off it will remain totally free to the independents. The software guys need paid for their work and, you get nothing for nothing.

Before anyone asks there are measures in place for multiple agents in the same area/s and also to weight the calls towards subscribers etc. but I’ll explain all that malarky at the meeting as it’s a bit complex.

It kills many birds with one stone. The people that don’t view the forums every day and don’t keep up to speed with it will now be able to get the repairs emailed directly to them which should give a far better and faster service to customers. You lot don’t have to trawl through the forums looking for the odd call or two and it’s good work that people want to pay you for.

Any questions please ask.

K.

[Martin]

Re: e-Jobs

kwatt wrote:Any questions please ask.

Sounds good to me, no questions either 🙂 nice for those of us that will “keep up to speed” 😉

Martin

[kwatt]

Sorry, meant to get back on that. 😳

Yeah, it’s pretty clear TBH what I’m about with this, I hope, as it gives a nice easy way for the customer and the repairer to communicate.

Hope to be live with this shortly after the September meeting and it’s all rumbling ahead nicely ATM.

K.

[kwatt]

Re: e-Jobs

Just so you all know, heads up for the subscribers….

UK Whitegoods Launches e-Jobs

UK Whitegoods today announced the planned launch of its e-Jobs system for independent whitegoods repairers in the United Kingdom mainland covering repairs of most major domestic kitchen appliances. The system has been introduced to allow customers to place a service call request online 24 hours a day with the details sent directly to the most appropriate specialised repairer in the area and negate the need for the customer to trawl through a telephone directory making several calls to obtain service for their faulty product.

(PRWEB) September 23, 2004 — The customer simply inputs their postcode, the product type, brand and the details are automatically matched to the most relevant repairer ensuring that the customer gets the best possible service from a specialist in the chosen field. The details are then emailed to the repairer to contact the customer.

It is the intention of UK Whitegoods to have this remain as a free service at all times to consumers and the independent repairers. Blanket coverage is available to corporate clients in many areas as well, please contact site admin on admin@ukwhitegoods.co.uk for further details of this feature.

It is hoped that this new addition will allow customers receive the best possible care and the repairers to receive the work that they specialise in, a mutually beneficial arrangement for all parties. With over seventy different leading brand names to choose from UK Whitegoods is sure that the independent repairers can cater for almost any domestic appliance sold in the UK and more areas and brands covered will be added through time.

For the moment e-Jobs is limited to out of warranty repairs, i.e. where the appliance is outside of its manufacturer’s warranty and not under any form of insurance cover, with the exception of pay-an-claim policies. Other avenues may be explored in time that will allow logging a warranty or insurance call to the system.

Primarily this feature has been instituted to give the independent repairers the most relevant service calls straight to their inbox, giving a very high conversion rate of enquiries to results without using the traditional Yellow Pages “hit or miss” approach to advertising in this field. There is no fixed pricing for a call as the rates are set by the repairers dependent on area, products and other commercial factors.

The UK Whitegoods e-Jobs system is due to go live in before the middle of October and is currently undergoing final revisions and testing.

Goes live on PR Web, which distributes press releases throughout the world on the 23rd September. It will be followed by targetted notifications to some press and industry related news.

Subscribers will, of course, get first crack at the the areas, skillsets and brands so have a pen and paper handy as well as a known list of brands that you cover as you will need them. I have not yet seen the finished article as it’s not even installed on UKW as yet, but I am led to believe that you will be able to actually manage your postal areas of cover and the brands covered so you will need to set that yourselves and Dave and I will be busy boys creating logins. I have however seen the mock-ups and let me tell you, it looks sweet. Make sure you guys are first in the queue! 😉

Remember, for any that doubt this, any member of the public and the back of my fag packet tells me there’s about 8000 of them a month, are here because they have a problem, let’s make sure we offer a solution that we can all profit by.

It is my sincere hope that we all benefit from this endevour and get something tangible from it, at last a result that can be seen in the bank!

K.

[appboy]

Re: e-Jobs

Excellent work, my sincere thanks to Ken, Dave and Kevin for all the hard work that has gone into this project. This is a great step forward for the Whitegoods industry.

Well done!

Phil 😀

[kwatt]

Re: e-Jobs

Thanks Phil, we do try you know. 😉

Which leads me on to an interesting and, probably, topical topic…

Livery and merchandising.

The thought was mooted by Del (so you can blame him :lol:) that it may be worth getting some stickers made up for the vans. 💡

Now in actual fact that’s not such a crazy idea if you ask me, if people would put them on of course! 🙄 As, when you think about it we have a whole load of vans tearing up the countryside being seen by hundreds of people a day. Now they may not remember the full URL and they may not catch your phone number but if they tap “UK Whitegoods” or “whitegoods” into Google they’ll almost inevitably end up with UKW. What with e-Jobs set to go live the more people that remember that the better and, therefore, the better chance you have of getting them to uses e-Jobs and/or the site in general.

So you do in two sparrows with one brick, you get promoted in a place where it becomes easy and the crap calls are already filtered out and the site gets promoted. I can’t see a downside for any of us in that.

So the question becomes, what’s your thoughts on the idea?

K.

[Dave_Conway]

Re: e-Jobs

kwatt wrote:what’s your thoughts on the idea?

Sounds like a damn good idea to me. Van window stickers are best IMO, the same type/size as the DASA one’s.

Dave.

[kwatt]

I was thinking on being a bit more technical that the old stickers like that and offering more than a few options on it to suit as many people’s various needs as possible. 😉 It means a bit more work to put them on, but offers a far, far higher level of flexability and gets the vehicle noticed, even with a small sticker, but then getting the van noticed is the point of livery I guess.

I had some thoughts a tad away from the normal approach to such things, as is my way. 😈

K.

[appboy]

Re: e-Jobs

Great idea Ken, count me in for stickers on my thirteen vans. I have plenty of space around my own signage but they would have to be tailor made for individual companies to look professional and not just an after-thought.
I look forward to viewing some samples! 😀

Regards
Phil

[Alex]

Re: e-Jobs

I think us beneficiaries need to have something in place to reward the site & in particular the people/person who are doing the legwork. I know there is little room to add onto our calls what I might call a referral or commission fee, but you don’t get owt for nowt. It needn’t be mega-bucks but I think consideration should be made.

To honour the integrity of the site we must make sure we are up to speed at our end as well to accept any work. What I mean is to have almost instant/constant access to the forum that pass the calls on, not just pop in when it suits every now & then. Accepting e-mails is o.k. but some operators only log on once aweek or so. These will fall by the wayside unless they get up to speed.

Next week we are going Broadband with a fixed IP address and a router to 4 terminals as I know this is where the industry will be heading. If anyone looks at the CDSL booking regime they will see what I mean.

Regards Livery, may confuse some customers, a good sign of advertising I know, but I never thought having a DASA sticker on my van had any impact, also if you are not careful the van could end up looking like an old leather suitcase. Just a thought.

Alex

[kwatt]

Re: e-Jobs

Thanks for the support guys.

The application form for e-Jobs is now online in the downloads area. 😀

PDF file only at the moment, available from this link…

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.p … load&cid=1

K.

[kwatt]

Re: e-Jobs

Alex, you know my sentiments on money only too well. 😉

You are dead right, we will need to be well up to speed to cope with the work from this as it will be chargeable work from people that have a few brain cells in the main I think, i.e. internet users. The reason for using email and not a web-based system is that it is easy to check and filter in almost any mail client, using Outlook you can create rules to alert you with sounds and all sorts. Also, many people check their mail far more regularly and it can be routed to several places with a bit of clever manipulation, all in all the flexible and sensible answer as well as being low maintenance and fault reporting built-in, failed delivery reports etc.

It’s a system that works, why re-invent the wheel. 😉

The Advisory Council have a role to play in who survives and who does not, that is the reason it was implimented. This will essentially make UKW, to an extent, a self-governing body of independents and all the power of that is held within OUR ranks and not used against us as it has been in the past by outsiders and prospectors that simply wish to take their food off our plate.

As to the livery, I think it’s a start and I want it to be subtle but in your face if you see what I mean, but also tastefull and felxible. I spoke to Del about it for a bit last night and he’s on the case. 😉

K.

[kwatt]

Just a reminder, e-Jobs will go live very soon, if you’ve not sent us in the form then please do so ASAP as we are going to be installing the module next week by the looks of things.

K.

[kwatt]

Re: e-Jobs

Ages since an update on this and it’s been more of a slog that I had anticipated sadly, what with getting the module ready, deaths, accidents and illnesses as well as the issues with a new server there’s been a few delays. 🙁

That’s the bad news over with, here’s the good news…

I mailed the finished SQL file and PHP bits ‘n’ bobs off tonight to Trevor (resident star and PHP geek) and Li for their approval and installation. Obviously it won’t get looked at till Tuesday probably but at least you know it’s happening. I want this in place before mid-January.

As billed since I stick by what I say there is three levels to e-jobs for call allocation…

The top level is left open for now as a future option for shareholders in UKW, independent repairers only. I will not submit to corporate greed on it as this is for us, not some pleb suit in an ivory tower.

Then there’s the subscribers, you guys.

Then there’s all the rest.

It works that way in order of how the calls are allocated.

The shareholder thing may or may not come to pass, I’ve not fully made up my mind on it and I will NOT ask for anyone’s money without having something of substantial substance to offer. Hence leaving the option open but not setting it in stone. This will also be discussed more if/when it happens in here before anything is done.

Now, you may have noticed Kevin and I on about the Advisory Council of late, well there’s good reason for this as well as they will decide the postcode allocations if any of the above cross and it is not resolved amicably between the members. I sincerely hope that such intervention is not needed and so far we’ve all been total gentlemen here irrespective of the competition even within the same areas. So, I don’t think it will be required but I do think it’s better to have a system to resolve any disargeements in place before the thing goes live and the rules made clear.

It would be, or could be, construed as being unfair and/or biased if any of the three of us (myself, Dave or Kevin) were to take on the role, using the Advisory Council means that it is an independent view that is made by peers. A far better way to go I think.

Anyways, if I’ve rambled on too much or not explained well enough just ask.

K.

[kwatt]

So much for Plan A!

E-Jobs is now a live module on UK Whitegoods, in under 6 hours! I am currently sorting out the data etc to test it out before we make it live for one and all, i.e. the public, to have a look at.

I also need to re-do a load of text for an intro and write up all about it for a help page etc. so I’ve a bit of work to get done for this over the next few days and I was busy as things were. 😕

What I do want is as much detail from everyone as we can get so please fax back the e-Jobs application for so your details are on there from the outset. This will not be as easily accessible as much of the site for a while as, until the admin interface is complete, the data has to be manually uploaded and there’s only really Trevor that can do that right now and I don’t want to be bugging him every five minutes with this.

K.

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