Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Postcode

[squadman]

Out of interest for those of you who are Amica Service Partners and operate in your original Postcode Setup, do you have any other Engineers or Retailers who have been signed by Amica who are also operating in your same post code allocation and are able to either service what they sell or accept warranty work from Amica. I am aware of at least three other operations who duplicate service in our postcode and wonder how Amica select who will be given the work ?

We operate in a high density populated area and have in about a year been passed four calls total, so either Amica has not found its way into homes in any great number or warranty calls are allocated between agents where multiple agents are concentrated.

[kwatt]

Re: Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Post

Hi Squadman,

Just to kill any conspiracy theories stone cold dead…

Work is allocated to the primary agent in the area on the first pass by the Amica call staff and, bear in mind Amica employees have a lot of latitude on who they chose to use.

We will recommend repairers in any given area but, as it is Amica’s business we have no right whatsoever to dictate who is or is not used. So far as we, UK Whitegoods are concerned, we’re Switzerland in this as the deal is between you and Amica.

If there’s any issue with the primary they move onto any alternative repairers that are available.

If however the appliances are sold as being “seller service” then the call will be routed, in the first instance, to the retailer that also services. This will override any primary agent unless there is a problem where you go back to the start.

So, if all the other companies that you refer to are seller service then, chance are, you will see little service work and certainly none for appliances that they sell. Rightly so and, if you were the one selling and servicing you wouldn’t want any service calls going to the other surrounding retailers either.

Then given that Amica pass 200-300 service calls a month nationally it isn’t huge volumes even when you take into account the reduction in certain geographies due to a high percentage of seller service dealers.

All in all, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you don’t service appliances that you sell that you see only a few calls.

What happens is that you see the calls in geographical clusters around sellers. If the sellers also service… well, I’m sure you can do the math.

ISE also employ a very similar way to distribute calls, not exactly replicated, but more or less.

But I’m glad you opened this up as at the meeting on the 24th Amica are issuing service awards, I don’t know if anyone knew about it but now they will, where John will be explaining how work gets allocated in more detail. If you really want to know how it’s all done and the various factors that sway things I’d suggest you take the time to attend.

Also there will be Anne that runs the Amica service office as well as Simon Freear, the Amica UK MD and very likely one or more from Poland that run service across Europe. I’m sure that they will be more than happy to talk to you about it.

K.

[squadman]

Re: Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Post

Thanks for troubling to offer a response on this, although I know you have said Amica is not your forte its interesting to read the points that you put forward some of which are common sense others which are expected. I also hope that apart from maybe a official response any other dealers, service partners may want to offer their own comments on the original post.

Just to kill any conspiracy theories stone cold dead…

I also hasten to add that I was not ever suggesting that a conspiracy was taking place but asking a fair and honest question.

For instance when we were approached to work as Amica Service Partners all the postcodes to which we could offer service was a requirment from Amica and by having postcodes to set areas we were led to understand that for those areas then we would be first port of call, as we also sell Amica Appliances we fall into both camps of Service and Sales, in fact we have sold two Amica Appliances today, its also curious that doing a search on the Amica Website we are not listed as suppliers or service where another agent within a mile is.

I take onboard the idea regarding geographical fringes and of course I accept the view that where we are selling the appliances then we would of course want to pick up any work.

The problem comes in that where you have agents like us offering service and sales for what is a niche brand currently, the area becomes saturated with other agents it would just be like ISE having competing dealers, much like having two or three Ford Dealerships in close proximity which you never find for obvious reason. Unfortunately I am away on the date of this meeting as certainly I would have had a number of questions for those present but I think you have thrown enough light for me to get the gist. It is also interesting that in the case of one of the other dealers near us they do not promote Amica where we do, even listing it in our Yell Advertising.

The whole reason I posed this question was that it was assumed that Amica would have dedicated agents in each postcode blocked areas with the next Agent picking up onwards and covering any other postcode in the event of failure of the adjacent agent or skill issues as opposed to Agents being shoulder to shoulder as in our situation.

[kwatt]

Re: Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Post

Common sense is allocated freely. 😉

I wasn’t implying that there was a conspiracy theory, just nipping any in the bud with a forthright explanation.

Whether or not the seller advertises Amica is pretty irrelevant, fact is that if they are seller service agents and they register the machines/sales to their account then any service work will wing its way back to them.

It isn’t so much about competing dealers, I think you may have gotten that a bit wrong in part, it’s more about who wants to sell and be promoted as a dealer and, very importantly, supports the brand. Then couple that with results as in, customer care, general diagnosis and parts use along with a heap of other things.

For example, we (ISE) have dropped several dealers as they used the ISE listing on the website for sales and/or service to switch sell onto other brands. Customers aren’t completely stupid and often phone us to find out what the score is and why, as an example, they get Miele recommended over ISE. This obviously doesn’t go over well in ISE Towers and dealers that do this often find themselves ostracised tout suite.

For why you’re not listed as a dealer on the Amica site, you’d have to talk to Amica about.

But the problem is that, like many things in this industry, that tends to get brought up in conversation and the more disreputable characters can often find themselves with more than just ISE as a problem. And, the same goes for many other brands.

You’d be amazed how word gets about when someone “steps out of line”.

It’s just human nature as nobody wants to be passing work to anyone that’s “dodgy” or that you can be fairly sure will dump you or on you at any given opportunity.

For a manufacturer acting responsibly and ethically, having multiple outlets in one area is a Godsend, it gives you choices. You might not use them or even have call to look at it but, at least you have them. You also are then afforded options on who best to attend a particular problem.

That might seem a bit harsh and, in some cases I do understand that such a system could be open to abuse but, it’s the way it is.

Bottom line, if you offer a good service and good customer care, you’ve probably not got much to worry about at all.

When you hack off call centre staff, wind up customers and so on, you probably have got something to be concerned about.

K.

[squadman]

Re: Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Post

it’s more about who wants to sell and be promoted as a dealer and, very importantly, supports the brand.

Well we have been actively promoting and supporting the brand since we signed up so as far as thats concerned I have no concerns on that scale K,

For example, we (ISE) have dropped several dealers as they used the ISE listing on the website for sales and/or service to switch sell onto other brands. Customers aren’t completely stupid and often phone us to find out what the score is and why, as an example, they get Miele recommended over ISE. This obviously doesn’t go over well in ISE Towers and dealers that do this often find themselves ostracised tout suite.

Again we have actively promoted both ISE as well as Amica although ISE has been our main thrust, as we do not offer service or sales for Miele we have never upsold off of a ISE lead or enquiry quite the opposite in fact.

For why you’re not listed as a dealer on the Amica site, you’d have to talk to Amica about.

Amica have signed up there choice of dealers and they know who they are, I can only imagine this is decided by the powers to be and certainly I will not being even asking such a question.

But the problem is that, like many things in this industry, that tends to get brought up in conversation and the more disreputable characters can often find themselves with more than just ISE as a problem. And, the same goes for many other brands.

You’d be amazed how word gets about when someone “steps out of line”.

It’s just human nature as nobody wants to be passing work to anyone that’s “dodgy” or that you can be fairly sure will dump you or on you at any given opportunity.

Well we certainly do not fall into any of the scenarios that you offer there ! far from it I would firmly say, of course unless anyone knows different ! based on what you say K it’s difficult to make much sense of the whys and wherefores of all of this, all I know is that having promoted the brand, attended to the few calls passed, co-operated with Call Centre Staff, and sold the brand whenever the opportunity presents itself it seems that by diluting the service between competing dealers on each others doorstep sooner or later its going to be come a issue and problem for those dealers and Amica maybe in the long run.
We have also never seen anyone from Amica, Never received any promotional materials, support works both ways does it not ?

We will have to see how this pans out and I am only sorry I cannot get to the meeting as face to face contact is my choice, maybe there will be a lot more information passed out to service partners after this meeting who knows ? but it would be extremely interesting to see a nationwide chart of service partners who have been awarded Service Awards.

[bazza500]

Re: Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Post

kwatt wrote: fact is that if they are seller service agents and they register the machines/sales to their account then any service work will wing its way back to them.

K.

Squadman, this is the main thing to concentrate on. If you sell an appliance and the customer doesn’t register it then Amica don’t know who sold it and then the service call is a lottery. If I were you I would register the appliance for the customer and then you are assured of any service work on that appliance.

[squadman]

Re: Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Post

Thanks bazza, noted

[Amicaanne]

Re: Multiple Agents Servicing and Selling Amica In Your Post

I will post this separately, but if you would like your business to show as selling Amica products on our website please send the following info to

comments@amica-international.co.uk

company names
address
postcode
contact tel
email
web

Anne

[Author]

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