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Re: Merloni
Well done chaps for all the info, not much else to say other than….a friend of mine just happened to say to me that if hotperloni move to independents then the dsg work won’t. As always this is for warroom only so as not to compromise myself or those who pass on little gems like this.
Regards
kevin
LMAO @ Brian’s comment in that pattern spares thread! Maybe they are starting to see the light after all but I guess we’ll see in time.
The thing of it is that none of this information should be a secret and in recent years, largely due to the internet, many large companies have been forced to cough up the information or it damages sales. It’s at the point where that happens that service and spares sides of the business are simply told what to do as, as we all know, sales rules the roost end of story.
But the same thing applies to service as a whole when you think about it, if the service is crap as it is with Hotperloni ATM then sales suffers, when that happens arse gets kicked from on high. What they don’t ever think about is using service as a marketable device. In fact, we don’t think on service in that way either in the UK, it’s a breeding thing, whereas the Yanks whilst their service isn’t as fantastic as everyone likes to make out they do have one thing sussed, how to market service and thus add value into the marketplace.
Us sitting and saying that we won’t work for £XX rate is fine and it will gain short-term results but we have to do better than that I feel. What we have to do is turn ourselves into a marketable entity, something that could not be achieved as individuals really. By doing so you should be able to command higher prices and, by volume, make certain demands on information, rates and a lot of other little goodies along the way.
Bugger all harm in trying though.
K.
kwatt wrote:LMAO @ Brian’s comment in that pattern spares thread! Maybe they are starting to see the light after all but I guess we’ll see in time.
Certainly Brian and his department have gained a lot from our comments. I feel sure the future ‘Partfinder’ discs will be more comprehensive and include technical info. Their parts supply/discount structure may similarly improve to keep up with wholesalers and Pattern manufacturers.
kwatt wrote:Us sitting and saying that we won’t work for £XX rate is fine and it will gain short-term results but we have to do better than that I feel.
The Merloni Franchise thread could as easily alienate us as do us a favour. Whichever department at Merloni that reads this stuff may well take on board our gripes over poor service rates and the Franchise Scam, BUT they could so easily think “sod those upstarts on UKW, they don’t speak for the entire service trade anyway. We still have the majority by the balls!”
That bloke from Merloni (Graham- forgot his surname- Regional Service Manager) I saw the other day was not the least bit concerned over his current workforce. His business calling from his superiors at Merloni was to ‘solve the state of after sales service quickly and as cheaply as possible’. He readily admitted the current position they were in was ‘a nightmare’ and that the ideal solution for them was to recruit franchisees, full-time and part-time 🙁
If only UKW could affect sales 💡 then we will be a force to reckon with, and only then will they co-operate I reckon. We need up-to-date ‘Product Information’ that can be published on this site, both positive and negative comments from retailers and consumers alike. To date we have bugger all 🙁 Once the consumer has bought the product it’s too late and we at the ‘bottom end of the food chain’ continue to scratch a living from the crumbs 😥
Martin
Re: Merloni
Yes, enough free market analysis for Merloni methinks, the points have been made and are hopefully not lost on them.
Martin, your comments regards the manager’s statement about quickly and cheaply… welcome to our world! This is the sort of shit we put up with day in, day out and have done for many a long year.
I have a strong suspicion that the fear of UKW from the manufacturer’s perspective is twofold, one is that we can affect a lot of their service arrangements and are breaking up the “secret society” approach to dealing with agents, which will hurt them. But, more importantly, if this site does hit the public domain in a big way then it could very well affect sales. That’s the point I was making in a veiled way in that final post, along with some other little nuggets that, if they bloody well read it, they might just get an inkling of the reality that people like THEM are putting us all in, including them!
If we start telling people not to buy XXXX brand then that’s when the pain for these people will really come. That whole Whirlpool debacle, they didn’t give a shit about the service partners really as they can and will replace those, what they were more worried about was losing a £5 Million contract with someone because it appeared that they were a shower of shitbags. To which my reply was, “well stop fucking up your agents then and I’ll leave you be” 😉
K.
Re: Merloni
kwatt wrote:I have a strong suspicion that the fear of UKW from the manufacturer’s perspective is twofold, one is that we can affect a lot of their service arrangements and are breaking up the “secret society” approach to dealing with agents, which will hurt them. But, more importantly, if this site does hit the public domain in a big way then it could very well affect sales.
Ken,
With the greatest respect, please remove your blinkers 🙂 You and I are Service Engineers first and foremost right :tup: as are all the other guys in here. We know what we know and do it well..fact. Surely here we are not only talking of the greater well being of ourselves and our businesses BUT to harness the greater potential of UKWHITEGOODS.COM. That potential is to cover all aspects of the trade to which it tries to associate itself.
Lets not fuck about here wasting our time doing what King Canute failed to do. You have unleashed a potential here with UKW that for the most part is only just beginning to bite. Do not simply surmise that it “could very well affect sales” IT SODDING WELL HAS TO! Otherwise we will be talking the same talk this time next year, and the year after….. 🙁
Just scan all over the UKW site pretending you are ‘just looking’ and tell me you don’t conclude it is geared almost totally 3 ways, 1) Boys in the service trade chatting and comparing notes 2) Public help with after sales. and 3) Headline World Trade News……….thats it!!!!
What has happened and is happening for UKW so far is brilliant and way, way above all expectations, don’t missunderstand me here. I applaud you sir and hope I and others have played a positive part in its well being and will continue to do so. But to reiterate my opening comment, you and all of us need to take off the blinkers and open our eyes to a greater potential beckoning. Get that sussed and we can look forward to a better future with or without Merloni’s help 😆
Martin
Martin,
I’ve already started work on “The Engineer’s Opinion” I just need another few hours in the day to get it done. 😉
The trouble is that as I have said before, walk soflty but carry a big stick. That means in effect that everything has to happen in a set order and pattern to ensure that all the pieces fit and you maximise the potential of each developmental stage. Ergo, you get the big stick. Jumping the gun serves no function in that at all and in fact can do more harm than good.
I have a set plan of things to come in my head, cause it’s the only place I know it’s safe and bits of that are starting to gel together now, albeit way, way ahead of where I thought we’d be by now.
If you look at the bits out there now you can see the scope of it, corporate looks using workwear and livery which sustains and further feeds the work levels on chargable work, software handling systems, potential deals to enable us to be more profitable and a host of other things including, very importantly, working with some of the big names in the industry and government. But all these things take time and a hell of a lot of effort.
The other thing is that we have to change the thinking, the whole concept of service is wrong and that will indeed take time.
But here’s something for you to think about…
e-Jobs has to be online so as we all can profit from the endevour at least to some degree right now. Consider it a gift to those that take part although you have to remember that it could in fact open Pandora’s Box in many ways.
Then we need to build the image of UKW up a bit using various means.
Then we have to launch and make a success of the opinion thing.
Then and only then can we really go to town on the sales aspect and trust me, I won’t miss and hit the wall. 😉
And in the meantime I have a few mini-projects bubbling away as well!
K.
Oh and BTW, I don’t have blinkers on. I KNOW we can and will affect sales eventually, just not today. 😉
K.
Re: Merloni
Fair enough Ken, I just feel we (that’s the royal we by the way or whoever like you and me gives a toss 🙂 ) should put our cards on the table more decisively for the greater well being of our trade. But I guess we are, shall we say, “all too busy earning a living out of our trade, to make money from it!” I guess ❓
I will hold fast on what you have “in your head” and see what comes of it, but I sure wish someone else could see may point of view, have positive ideas in their head, and share it with us 🙁
Martin
P.S We could so easily have this conversation via ‘pm’ I know but I thought this way might get a response from others here 😉
Re: Merloni
Yeah Martin, there just isn’t enough hours in the day in all honesty.
I have loads of stuff in my head, but all in good time and certain events have to come to pass and things put in place before many of them can come to fruition. As I am fond of reminding people, a plan is merely a list of things to go wrong, so I remain very fluid in my approach to most things. 😕
There is loads of stuff we can do, but e-jobs is the start, if that can be made a success and give all the guys a bit back then we’re on the right tact. Plus it may allow a lot of us, if we can generate enough volume through it, to become not just so dependent on contract work and inject a bit of value back into our businesses. That’s a positive start.
However, before you go banging the drum about the media et all as to how good UKW is you need that online to capture that business, once it’s there and running then you get the maximum potential from it and some of those hits can be turned into pound notes for the guys. At least that’s the hope for it and we move on from there.
Do one thing, make it work (hopefully well), move on to the next.
K.
Martin wrote:
That bloke from Merloni (Graham- forgot his surname- Regional Service Manager) I saw the other day was not the least bit concerned over his current workforce. His business calling from his superiors at Merloni was to ‘solve the state of after sales service quickly and as cheaply as possible’.MartinGraham Cole, lives in Alderholt just outside of Fordingbridge. He would have drunk all your coffee I suspect, seems like an affable guy but will stab you in the back as when you least expect it.
He was the guy who was given the job of Bollocking me for posting something on the old Whitegoods E-mail forum. He was nasty in the extreme at that point. Wouldn’t trust him at all.
Alex
Re: Merloni
E-JOBS is the way forward !
If we can make this work,( and I see no reason why it should’nt ) Then as a group we can project and promote ourselves as a national organisation.
This would benifit all of our members, from sole traders, to limited companies with several engineers. It would allow us to compete on a more even footing with the big guy’s. Let’s face it how many of us could get away with their charges.
We all have to get behind this because this is where we convert the site from a talking shop into a national organisation that deals directly with the general public, targeting the very best work possible, yes chargeable work!
It is my own personal view that we should put all other buisness on the back burner until this is up and running. When this is made to work then far more additional benifits and services can be bolted on to it.
We can all see that of late the public hit’s on the site have vastly outstripped trade hit’s. This does not mean that the trade interest is diminishing, just that we have almost reached saturation point with regard to reaching service providers.
So if we are to take advantage of this level of interest and internet traffic we have to stike while the iron is hot and get moving with the launch of E-JOB’S.
We already know that we can beat the big guy’s hands down when it comes to level of service, value for money and best advice. Just look at Merloni for instance their level of service at this moment in time is nothing short of a joke.
It is no good to any of us to be the best kept secret in the whitegoods industry. On our own we cant do much as we all have limited resorces but as a committed group we are capable of moving mountains. So let’s all get focused on our one big chance and go for it !
As ever JMHO Del
Well, let me outline a couple of scenarios to show how I’m thinking here and I will use personal gain in this one…
Hotperloni are quoting people 7 days + lead time and wanting to charge the punter £90, I’ll call in 48 hours and charge £60.
GIAS are roughly the same and Hoover and Candy aren’t exactly a challenge either.
Some of the “weird” brands we do I can charge what the hell I want to charge for them!
I’d rather be doing that and banking money every day or other day than pissing about with some of the contract work we do. Hence the importance of e-Jobs and it’s the key that can open a few doors and more than a few possibilities IF we can make a success of it.
K.
Re: Merloni
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.
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 needs to be heading.
Alex
Re: Merloni
The plan is to have the calls passed by email Alex, the customer will also recieve an email with your details on it.
Dave.
Re: Merloni
I answered Alex’s post in the Sub Forum as I think it’s important to explain why I went the route I did with e-Jobs, essentially it works and many of us are recieving work via email anyway so there’s no hassle in adding another avenue to that, It’s merely a case of seeing that as a valuable, or possibly luctrative, way to recieve calls.
Once that works, we move on to the next stage. 😉
K.
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