The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

I think we’re all saying the same thing really.
It’s just that some look at it with optimism and hope.
And others (like me) with a fatalistic, even pessimistic, view. I know that’s not a healthy way to look at things but I’m past caring because I’m rather bored with washing machines, dishwashers and kitchens and will be quite happy when the crisis finally forces me to get up out of this comfortable rut and change it for something more exciting. 😀
Mike.

[Martin]

Re: The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

It’s also important to bear in mind when asking the question “Is there a future in this industry?” you will almost certainly get a different perspective from those within the trade based on their personal experience and viewpoint. The proverbial ‘one man band’ relies totally on day to day repair/service call requests direct from the public at large. 2 plus businesses are tied toward contract work. Larger still and appliance sales are a major addition to working turnover.

Brown goods repair services declined almost entirely as a result of improvements in technology and massive imports of cheap reliable far eastern products. Whilst the demand for a TV repairman declined almost overnight, many diversified and branched out into satellite TV installs and Computer sales and services as well as branching into white goods.

The Internet too has since created a major rethink toward customer sales and service availability. Companies large and small have had to radically adjust their business practices, pricing and speed of services offered to keep pace with this 21st century revolution. If they don’t keep pace then some time in the not too distant their shopfront will also be boarded up as so many have done recently.

Technology has hit this trade big time in the last couple of years, affordable and easily disposable goods and services rendered at the click of a mouse. Every man and his dog has access to the www and many don’t even have a computer, don’t even need one! The mobile phone and digital TV will even outnumber the PC and Mac as a means of access to a wealth of choice and opportunity.

Unless you realise and rationalise your business to keep pace with what’s going on around you the inevitable will happen. Yes there is, and will always be, a need for a white goods repairman but he or she will be far fewer in number due to built-in obsolescence and the ever increasing cost of labour and parts. There’s no need for a crystal ball in order to realise that a ‘service only’ business will be the first to fall. Unless you diversify into selling as well as repairs your customers will go elsewhere. If you do supply new appliances the price too has to be right and your margins as high as possible to offset costs. And to generate repeat business those goods you sell must not only be affordable but above all reliable.

The future says you have to go out a grab what you can from it. Sit back and wait for them to come to you these days just won’t happen. If, when a customer comes your way you have to say “no, sorry, can’t do!” Take time asking yourself why, when your shop doorbell rang you had to turn them away, no sale? Ronnie Barker as Arkwright (Open All Hours) would never ever say that!

[admin]

Re: The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

Martin wrote:Unless you realise and rationalise your business to keep pace with what’s going on around you the inevitable will happen. Yes there is, and will always be, a need for a white goods repairman but he or she will be far fewer in number due to built-in obsolescence and the ever increasing cost of labour and parts. There’s no need for a crystal ball in order to realise that a ‘service only’ business will be the first to fall. Unless you diversify into selling as well as repairs your customers will go elsewhere. If you do supply new appliances the price too has to be right and your margins as high as possible to offset costs. And to generate repeat business those goods you sell must not only be affordable but above all reliable.

The future says you have to go out a grab what you can from it. Sit back and wait for them to come to you these days just won’t happen. If, when a customer comes your way you have to say “no, sorry, can’t do!” Take time asking yourself why, when your shop doorbell rang you had to turn them away, no sale? Ronnie Barker as Arkwright (Open All Hours) would never ever say that!

This is how i see it martin…….well put…..the future is in your hands… 😯
you just have to adapt…and make changes….. 😯

Everything changes IN LIFE… so embrace it……and move with the times…. 😀

The things that i have to do now that i never use to do 25 yrs ago….
you have to get on with it ….BUT IN A POSITIVE WAY…. 😀

canufixit

[kwatt]

Re: The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

In many ways, spot on Martin.

The thing about CE (Consumer Electronics) is that it has been a constantly evolving field since the fifties. More so as silicon chips asserted more domination within the field, consumers got a taste of what might be possible and so on. But, the big difference between CE and LDA’s (Large Domestic Appliances) is that CE is seen as “sexy”, “desirable” and most of all that the advance in technology is worth paying for.

Add to that the plethora off online press, blogs etc. as well as offline interest and you end up with a hype driven market.

Everyone has to have the “next big thing”.

Recently it’s been flat screen TV or maybe satellite TV, even a DVD.. BluRay… the latest incarnation of Playstation… mobile phone… the list just goes on and on.

A washing machine? And oven? A fridge?

Where’s the innovation? The desire? But most of all, where’s the hype or differentiation between brands and products.

Sony gets OLED, 3mm thick flat panels you spend hours looking at and we get…

Indesit Moon!

Samsung Ecobubble!

LG whatever rubbish they’re peddling this season and, so on.

But behind the veil of marketing claptrap, they wash clothes (or should). They keep food fresh (or should). They cook stuff although how well is up for debate. You get the picture.

The whitegoods industry builds machines that carry out a chore. The browngoods industry has a degree of luxury that the whitegoods industry does not not, will ever have. Our stuff just does the job, it doesn’t have to be sexy and, most people really don’t care so long as it does as advertised and keeps doing it.

So, the business has changed. Big deal. Move on.

Yep, more people throw stuff away rather than getting it fixed, yup. That’s because they’re not educated enough by retailers that it’s an investment that should last. And, there’s no glossy magazines explaining it in simplistic terms backing that up.

However there’s a lot of people waking up to the fact that throwaway appliances aren’t as good an idea as they thought a few years ago. More importantly, government are waking up to it as well and we’re not exactly slow in explaining to them why they should care.

I can’t say that there’s going to be a glowing report card for this industry, I wouldn’t presume to be that intelligent that I can see the future. But, if I were to bet on it, I’d say there’s a fair chance that many of us will still be here in twenty or more years time unless there’s some huge technological change in the wind. and, even then, whatever people use to wash clothes in, cook food in and keep it fresh in will still break. If it breaks, you need someone to fix it unless you go to total throwaway which government cannot afford to happen.

I’m quite sure that many a small garage with some older guy fixing Fords with dodgy carburettors said much the same thing a few years back… damned computers, can’t fix them, rubbish, life used to be so simple…

Same thing, different industry.

Now, slightly less indy car repairers but the ones that are still around are much more switched on and, they specialise in what they do. They don’t go off fixing things they don’t know anything about.

Our little repair industry has to mature as well and learn.

What cracks me up is that we have a load of decent examples to follow and yet we feel hell bent on either self destruction or we want to go off and hide in a cave because the sky is falling. It really isn’t that bad.

And, I’m not having a go at anyone really, just a sweeping generalisation.

But then, I have a bit of insight as I see some of the stuff that repairers do from different angles. You see them ordering up a load of parts for machines because they can’t be a***ed to diagnose properly or, they haven’t really got a clue what the problem is because they don’t know how to diagnose the problem, so, they guess. You see them order up a shedload of parts for the same reason or in the vain hope that the machine will just get written off.

But they can’t even be bothered to run a diagnostic, which they all too often have.

Now, when you don’t have the information I can get that, it’s totally understandable, but when you do… it’s a little bit harder to reconcile.

Some repairers are absolutely brilliant and do that sort of stuff, others are just hopeless.

So, when someone asks me, is there a future for the LDA repair industry I say, yes, there is… it just might not be the one you expect.

The simplistic laws of evolution apply to this industry, the ones that are fittest and smarter will survive. The rest will perish.

You just have decide where you sit on the evolutionary scale.

K.

[funkyboogy]

Re: The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

yeh eh …

what he said ! .

also if we have to sell cheap rubbish due to demand manufacturers- sheds should be made to offer at least 5 year warrantys – and guarantee there is a service network to look after the appliance …

maybe if the goverment forced them to pay a decent repair rate – they would stop selling crap ,

ohhh wait a minute thats my alarm clock going off

oh well back to sleep …

ally

[DrDill]

Re: The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

funkyboogy wrote:yeh eh …

maybe if the goverment forced them to pay a decent repair rate – they would stop selling crap ,

Hmmm… maybe there is a case there for a little bit of regulation!

[leavemetogetonwithit]

Re: The Future…….. is there one for this industry.

DrDill wrote:

funkyboogy wrote:
yeh eh …

maybe if the goverment forced them to pay a decent repair rate – they would stop selling crap ,

Hmmm… maybe there is a case there for a little bit of regulation!
That’s a bit harsh; the poor chap was only dreaming 😆 .
Mike.

[Author]

Posts