Repairs@ Update

[kwatt]

If you’ve been reading the site lately you’ll have noticed that we were making some small changes to repairs@ and many of these are complete now. The backend stuff is of little interest to most people but essentially we now have better reporting and admin facilities for control.

The interesting bits for repairers are…

Random Allocation

This was enabled some time ago but I felt that, whilst there was a drop-down with three possible repairers listed at any one time, that there was little to allow the customer an informed choice of who to use for repairs.

The top (default) selection is also randomised.

So, I expanded that idea by instituting this upgrade where the three random in any area are shown still but now in boxes above the area to enter details to. The customer chooses the repairer that they wish using simple radio buttons.

This new format allows more information to be added about the repairer, which you can control.

Blurb Field

This is the bit that completes the above really. The field added is what we reffer to as the “Blurb Field” and it does what it says on the tin. It allows you to give us a bit of text, two or three sentences/lines and not a short novel, describing the business.

This allows you a chance to stand out from the competition and, coupled with the random selection, I think that this offers the fairest system for all on there.

New Products

I’ve added the following this morning:

Waste Disposal Unit
Waste Compactor
Gas Oven

If you want any of these or the new manufacturers I posted the other day please let us know.

If you’re already on repairs@ and you want some text added you’ll have to contact myself or Dave with the text that you want put there along with your trading name. Some we know, but not all as there’s just way too many people on there to remember everyone now.

You can also post that info to this thread if you like.

If you’re not on repairs@ already and want to be on it just ask or send us in a completed form and we’ll get you on there.

K.

[iadom]

Re: Repairs@ Update

Is the ‘randomization’ the reason why if I put my own post code in the repairer at the top of the list is not myself but someone in Ashton several miles away. 😥 My next door neighbour wouldn’t be impressed.

As I have yet to receive a single call from Repairs@ no doubt due to the Luddites around here 😉 I just wonder how many calls in this locale if any, have gone to the Ashton business?

EDIT. Perhaps it would be a good idea to give some idea of our approximate address, for instance in my case, just Shaw,Oldham would suffice.

[kwatt]

Yeah Jim, we just can’t drill it down to that degree without spending a small fortune on mapping data and software. We can do it, we just couldn’t do it for free by any stretch.

IIRC the postal data alone costs about £10K to automatically fill in the address fields. I’d love to do it and it would add so much to the system, as well as making it even easier to use, but it’s financially impractical at best unless we can get funding for it.

Some areas have a higher hit rate than others, it’sodd and there’s little ryhme or reason to it at times. The most popular area by far is London, but then you’d kinda expect that to a large degree as there’s more people with less time and good proliferation of internet use. Currently they reckon that 38{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of homes have abroadband connection and that’s set to rise massively with the current telecoms bundles on offer. About 45-55{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} (estimated) people in the UK now use the internet daily.

For location use the blurb line, “For fast, economical service based in Oldham…” 😉

K.

[APG]

Re: Repairs@ Update

I have been testing your system on repairs@ by putting in our post codes but we are not coming up on all brands which we repair, which is everything
Can you assist please 😯

Andy G.

[kwatt]

The only things you’re not listed for is In-Sink Erator and Tweeny Andy. But, if there’s more than three companies in the area that you cover then, because of the randomisation, you won’t appear every time.

Anyway, shuddup, you get a LOT more than I do! 😆

K.

[APG]

Re: Repairs@ Update

That was a quick reply 😀

Many thanks Ken

Andy

[Author]

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