National Hoovering Of Service Work

[kwatt]

I’ve seen a few now and, you guys have to realise soon that this is the real competition that you have at times.

So, I thought I’d start to put all the new ones onto one thread.

Start with this one…

http://www.hotpointrepairs.co.uk/

http://www.thedomesticrepair.co.uk/

Comes up on LOADS of local searches, someone’s gone to real effort with this.

K.

[Martin]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

From what I can establish Productfeed UK Ltd acts as a referral company for local services and charges commission for each referral….I think that’s how it works? 😕

[kwatt]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

Indeed it seems so. But I’ve never seen anything about it and, on investigation, there’s nowhere for you to sign up and pay to get the work, if it were commercial in that way that’s the first thing they’d have done as it’s the revenue stream.

So, that begs the obvious questions, who paid them to do it and where is any work going?

K.

[Martin]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

kwatt wrote:there’s nowhere for you to sign up and pay to get the work,

Apart that is from filling out the ‘contact us’ form on their web site that is.

I might just do that out of buggerance…. 😈

[kwatt]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

Here’s more, some we know, some we don’t….

http://www.go-localuk.co.uk/

http://www.repairandprotect.co.uk/

http://www.masterfix.co.uk/

http://www.repaircare.co.uk/

http://www.0800repair.com/

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-an … ances.html

Obviously we know the last four.

I’ll post more as and when I find them.

K.

[Martin]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

…also whilst Googling, though a tad off topic… I came across THIS GUY handing out free advice (nothing wrong with that mind, don’t get me wrong)and this is his local web site.

Just amazing what there is out there….. :rolls:

Edit: GoLocal have even knicked your tumble dryer photo and put it on their fridge website….! 😯

[kwatt]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

I forgot…

http://www.comet.co.uk/static/services/ … ts-repairs

K.

[timdowning]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

Heres the one I found other day:
http://www.repairyourappliance.co.uk

Ive just fung GoLocal & it went to some wierd extension number mailbox, no proper company message. Shame, I wanted to know their charges and if they can be out in under 90 minutes to mend my poorly washing machine.

[Lawrence]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

I think that this is the Sleeping Giant in our Industry ,our competition used to be the other repairers around and about us ,but now you have national companies targeting our customers ,It staggers me that a call centre in Birmingham can take a call from a Customer in Ipswich and thats one of my potential customers gone
I am not saying that competition is a bad thing but to compete properly you need to know who the competition are ,and its becoming more and more obvious that its no longer the local companies its the national ones .

Which leaves us with a choice as independents
1.Carry on as we are ,trouble is the work is disappearing .

2.Do what we have always done ,trouble with that is we are in danger of being what we have always been.
Or we compete ..
But how do we compete ?
Be a bit savvy about stuff ,learn how the internet works and adapt accordingly.
Look outside of our own little worlds at whats happening around us ,join the WTA and be a part of something that desires change in our industry .
I really think that if the independent repair industry doesn’t wake up to whats is slowly gaining a momentum around them and start to offer a viable alternative then we are in trouble ..

Lawrence

[funkyboogy]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

there are few nationals hoovering work – but i think once customer twiggs its not a local company they normally back off ,

i think ive said this a few times now – but i will say again

google somehow wants local business to take presidency over the rest .. and offer a local map etc this is for local customers to find local business but if you dont have a google places you wont be found

if you dont have a google places – do it now it takes 30 minutes

you will then have a advert for your business on page 1 of google free of charge ,

you dont need a web site to do this ,

.. also we do have a huge weapon to compete , and no its not r600 ..lol

UKW find an engineer – i know kens been playing with ppc adverts on google as ive seen them , why dont we all contribute something per month to have more off …

collectively we can compete

ally

[kwatt]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

funkyboogy wrote:UKW find an engineer – i know kens been playing with ppc adverts on google as ive seen them , why dont we all contribute something per month to have more off …

Yes, I have been.

It was as an experiment and limited by budget I’m afraid as I don’t earn a bean from doing it. So competing with some of these above is a non-starter in the medium as I don’t have the cash to throw at it.

I am open to suggestions though on how to promote it further.

K.

[Martin]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

Lawrence wrote:I really think that if the independent repair industry doesn’t wake up to whats is slowly gaining a momentum around them and start to offer a viable alternative then we are in trouble ..

The trouble we are faced with though Lawrence is one of simple mathematics. By that I mean the appliance owner almost always adopts the ‘viability formula’. Namely dividing the years of service their appliance has given, minus the cost of getting it fixed, plus the cost of replacing it. Whereas we use the more complex ‘realistic formula’ in our calculations, which involves adding the know-how, divided by the practicality, over the square root of the cost.

Meanwhile, the national hoovering companies operate an extremely simple mathematical formula based entirely on the ‘numbers game’. Blanket coverage over the Internet attracting new business nationwide over an entire product range. Their revenue stream based on the well tried and tested ‘fixed rate sting’. Getting paid up front. Employing an army of repairers to go out all hours of the day, night and weekends in the full and certain knowledge that at least 65-70{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of those appliances attended to will be rendered BER by them. It’s a pure, undiluted and yet sophisticated game that they play all the while.

Us lowly indies suffer directly as a result. Simply because we still operate the old fashioned skills and experience route, selling our services on well established fair trading principles.

It is true that what you say about uniting as members of the WTA and being listed on the UKW ‘find an engineer’ list. Selling ourselves through that medium in increasing numbers has to be a good thing, for certain sure. But I fear it’s not the answer you seek, not the solution to the problem.

Our only hope is that at some point in the not too distant we can prove their game to be a ‘national hoovering scam’. That we can gather and broadcast evidence sufficient in the fervent hope of stopping such practices. We could just simply sit back and pray for the old philosophy “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” to take effect. Or, we could join them and all start the ‘charge up front, fixed price scam’.

I’m sure you’re only too aware that a fair few small companies dotted around the UK, (many of whom are trade members on this site in fact) apply that tactic and benefit from it accordingly. After all you only have to realise that new business can easily be generated by advertising that you too do a ‘fixed rate’…. Lets look at an example: –

All Service Visits just £50 – includes all parts, labour and VAT..!
All work carried out is guaranteed for 12 months.
On completion of a successful fix your entire machine is guaranteed against any further breakdown for 3 months.
If we cannot repair your machine we will immediately give you a £20 refund.
(For further information please read our Terms & Conditions)

[kwatt]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

It’s actually not as fanciful an idea Martin as it may first appear and, it has been mooted in hushed tones in the past. For a while actually when I come to think of it. I’d say that it isn’t a notion without some merit basically.

Technically, it is possible to do and in fact there’s little to stop it from being done. After all, RC, 0800 and others have all done it and there’s a lot of the guys do that work for them, why not for themselves and get paid more?

Of course, the devil as always is in the details and it’d take a lot of work to set up and market which would incur some cost.

But it is for sure food for thought.

K.

[Martin]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

I’m not at all sure you’ve caught the drift of my post Ken? 😕

I’m not condoning the fixed rate practice at all! It’s a scam, con, fiddle, should be outlawed….etc etc… 👿

[kwatt]

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

Neither was I.

K.

[Author]

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