Interesting Snippet

[kwatt]

On the front page this morning from ERT’s Newsletter about how customer service is set to become the next retail battleground, which to an extent means us as well as general customer service I would assume, the article is a bit vague on it.

What it signifies, to me, is that the whole price war thing is more or less over. We’ve had the prices of the appliances erroded to the point where I really don’t think it can be sustainable much longer for retailers and as a spin-off from that, us as well. So are we reaching a pivotal point in the industry? Maybe.

Over the past decade we’ve all seen service being treated as the poor relation to sales when in fact it is a symbiotic relationship as one needs the other in order to survive. If sales people don’t sell the appliances we repair then we have no business, if we (or someone) don’t repair them then the brand will falter and die or if the quality is terrible then again the brand can be killed. If you want a case study of that theory just look at Philco. From the dizzy heights of the early to mid-90’s they sold shedloads through both independents and the sheds but where is the brand now? We all know why.

What I also see in the little article from ERT is that service is at long last being recognised as a sales benefit to a retailer or a manufacturer, most independent retailers have long since realised this.

However the industry is now posed with an interesting conundrum as, years of neglecting service has now produced an alarming shortage of people to actually repair appliances, there just isn’t the bodies on the ground. Even taking that into account many repair businesses are not viable propositions as a profitable business so attracting new investment and people to the industry will be at best difficult and, at worst, almost impossible. I think we’re in that situation already.

If you think this is untrue just look at the Whirlpool service partners that have gone bust in the past year or so or the state that Merloni is now in or the mess that NESN made, the manufacturer’s touting about looking for cheap or cheaper ways to get service. Look at the spares, prices being hiked to support OEM service as well as agency service, insurerers paying little more than manufacturers for warranty calls in what was always percieved as a premium market. End user charge work dropping and erroding the profitability and therefore, the viability of a repair business.

To get service back to what it should be will cost money, to get new people into the industry will cost money and to bring service into the 21st century will also cost money. Show me one single manufacturer that’s willing to invest in the service industry or in their agents to any degree other than a little helping hand. The mere fact that they will not do so except under severe duress speaks volumes.

Then people wonder why they can’t get a bank loan for a repair business! 😕

K.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Interesting Snippet

Indeed K. I read only the other day THE article in ERT Weekly with great interest. It was headlined “INDIES AT RISK AS MULTIPLES TO BATTLE IT OUT ON SERVICE”

One minute I feel I have to get out of the industry altogether, the next minute I think I should just get a job as a domestic appliance engineer working for someone else but then I wonder who I can go to that won’t go bust or be forced to let people go in the end? Then I start to think maybe if things are a changing I could hang in there and survive another 20 odd years self employed.

I’m not so much indecisive as totally confuddled.

[Martin]

Re: Interesting Snippet

kwatt wrote:If you want a case study of that theory just look at Philco. From the dizzy heights of the early to mid-90’s they sold shedloads through both independents and the sheds but where is the brand now? We all know why.

Is it ‘cos they were swallowed up and flushed down the toilet by MERLONI? 😯

Martin

[kwatt]

Actually they were 51{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} owned by Merloni at the time. 😉

K.

[Author]

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