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Re: PKI
Del wrote:
I can only assume that Alex must be on holiday or he would have been in with his two penneth.Regards as Ever Del
Hello! Did I hear my name. Make it 2 bobs worth.
Bloody typical isn’t it, bugger off for a few days (Trying out golf courses in Notts), and this comes to light.
Give me a day or two & I’m sure I will think of something.
Alex
Re: Ariston Margherita 2000 ( AWD 10 UK ) Problem – please h
Small point. Ariston branded products carry a 5 year parts warranty.
The repairs on this range is for a specialist though as part of the kit is a remote control unit as in your T.V. If you call them out, hope you get a Merloni trained engineer from the old regime, there again I’d love to see a Hotpoint tech. get his head round one of those.
Alex
Martin wrote:
I think mines big enough and my missus agrees 😆 😆 Especially now I have got ‘dots’ in front of it 😆 😆 😆Martin
Really.
Less said about that the better I think. 😉
Re: Yellow Pages Ad
We were spending about £6K a year on Yellow pages, and thought despite the cost, we must have this.
One day when it was quiet we carried out a liitle research. Our yellow pages cover the centre of our area. If we want full coverage re. the area we cover, we need to be in 4 more editions of Y.P. Right, too expensise so scrub that. On the strength of the above I looked at the ratio of chargeable work and spares sales in the areas we are not in Y.P. Guess what no difference at all.
We asked chargeable customers over a 3 month period as to how they found us, the majority came via the manufacturers listings. Of course that is a luxury that isn’t available to many of you. There was a few who saw us in Y.P. and mainly from the Service Force ads which are in all editions with a national number.
I can only speak from having the benefit of Service Force and the image they provide as to where the customer can have service. Without that, then it is up to us, and I do beleive Y.P. is the most likely source especially when it comes to browsers who are looking for anybody. I feel if the advert is too big, it puts people off.
Re: Posh Plumbers
Yes I saw it.
Did anyone pick up what the rates of pay were, £50 to £90K depending on the plumbers skills etc.
I was impressed by the operation along with the van cleaning & support staff on site. All this comes at a cost to the end user though. As long as they are honest & up front with the customers, then they can operate at these levels.
It is a shame the likes of us, with as much, if not more expertise, are not recognised the same. It is no wonder this industry is evaporating.
Alex
Re: Web Site
[
“andy_art_trigg
I’ve already written a full page dedicated to promoting DASA and its members and I link to the DASA members list from my site.I am considering creating a list of washing machine repairers and linking to their sites for an advertising fee. If anyone is interested let me know and they may be the first ones listed. At this time though I can only consider DASA members, otherwise I can give no assurances that any vetting or accountability exists for my list, which would seriously undermine its validity.
O.K. Rant & Rave over, 1 bottle of Frascati later & I’m now seeing the benefit of this debate. I love an argument as well as a conciliatory solution.
Well done Andy for the DASA link, and YES please put leads to some of us on your site. If you get a bite of the cherry for the initial parts sale, so be it, after all the punter found you & not me. (Don’t remind me why or how). I’m all for us working together on this & I think we are fragmented enough throughout this land not to tread on each others toes.
I’m only too aware regards DIY as I’m in the business of selling spares, hence the website. There are those out there that would never dream of using the professional service of an engineer, that is why that person has taken his chosen route in buying the part himself. However I think there needs to be some progression from what Andy offers when the customer reaches the point of giving up. Of course we must not tell them, “Well you should have left it to someone who knows what they are doing”, we need to use it as a compliment to the service the customer has chosen, in this case washer-help.
So are we now moving on and can I be one of the 1st to ask Andy to consider adding a repairer to his site?
Alex.
Re: Web Site
O.K. I’ll chill out a bit, no problem Martin, as your comments along with Ken’s & Dave’s has been complimentary. I’ll just say that someone else has touched a nerve. All I want is a pretty little site that does what I need. It works and I’m happy with it. It is still early days on the site; it went live at lunchtime yesterday, give it time & I’m confident it will cover my needs.
Google for example takes into account more than just the optimised content, and Google also looks a how many pages link to a site to get an idea of how popular the site is. This also makes a small 6 -10 page site struggle among the huge sites.
Perhaps Washer Help could put up a postcode direction field onto his site. This could send service calls or enquiries to us members, then when a customer realises that he/she may not be able to facilitate his/her own repair, or even worse become aware they may kill oneself, he/she will be directed to a professional. Andy has a good site, but we have staff to keep as well as a running operation and a business to maintain. Therefore what is paramount to us is to keep the customer, assure them they are getting a professional repair and moreover value for money with a guarantee. I do not advocate DIY or self-repair & particularly giving advice where electricity is involved. My grandmother used to say, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”.
Maybe I should hit the little Ignore button and get on with life.
Alex
Re: Web Site
andy_art_trigg wrote:“dishwasher repair somerset” is a search term that no one is competing for. There is no site that I can find that is competing for it, so it’s one of those search terms that even a very badly designed page can get high on search engines for. In fact most of the ones brought up by Yahoo and Google are awful. With a bit of search engine otimizing, I recon you could dominate all the search engines for that term.
The same goes for “washing machine repairs somerset” etc etc.
There may be thousands of people who search for “washing machine repairs”, but they will be distributed all over the UK.
There’s just no pleasing some people.
Look, I’m happy with it, the old worked despite being very girly and amatuerish.
I don’t really need a website, but I was the 1st Service Force company that I know of to produce one & that was back in 1998. I have links through Service Force and all the appropriate makes as well as Yell.com It is on all my stationary and adverts/headed paper etc. The old site worked, and so does this one. I only use it as a cheap means of promoting what we do. It does what it says on the bloody tin.
I’ve never found a site for Andy Trigg, but there again I’ve never needed to look.
I will get the link to UKW attached in the fulness of time. At the moment I seem to be too busy defending my site against the odd one who still try & belittle it.
Alex
Re: Web Site
andy_art_trigg wrote:
It’s much better than the old one, and much more professional-looking, I’m afraid the site is very unlikely get high in the search engine rankings at all though, as it’s not even remotely optimized for them.
?? What ?? I’ve just put “dishwasher repair somerset” on Jeeves and we are up there 3 times. The top one is the new site, the lower ones take you to the old site. The old site is being modified and within a week only the new site will show.
I’m assured we will be on Google but it may take a week or so. I looked this afternoon and we were third using the same key words, tonight we are not showing on google, but I’m confident that is being adressed.
I take Martin’s point regards charges, but I’m an advocator of being up front. I find most who want a repair, want an instant response and will pick up the phone. Spares sales is the cash generator & generates most traffic from the web I find.
Alex
Re: Web Site
eastlmark wrote:Alex, I remember looking at your site years ago and it hasnt changed….a bit! And I have never been brave enough to ask you, the background, is that kitchen roll?
No it was tiolet paper.
Anyway, at long last I’ve revamped the site completely, this time I used a professional. Will take a week or two to get up on the high profile search engines. I’m sending Ken the music on MP3.
http://www.sedgemoordomesticappliances.co.uk If you’re sad enough to look.
Re: Wages
Cam wrote: Thanks for the responses – I will endeavour to give a realistic but encouraging view of the industry!
CamPlease feel free to do so, any accolades or testimonies gratefully accepted.
If any prospective trainee approaches, I do take an interest as long as the interest they show is genuine.
I have been talking to the engineering recruitment officer for one of the biggest chemical factories in the town, and he tells me he is having great difficulty now in getting apprentices, this in all affiliated trades, from plumbing, electrical, pipefitting, machine maintenance etc. In fact he is working closely with the Nuclear Energy Authority at a local power station, and they are pooling rescources. The supply is from the local colleges as well as schools and recruitment centres. Between them thay take about 30 apprentices a year.
Re: Do you recognise this?
I had one of those once, i.e. sleeping bag for a mouse.
I was struggling to remove a foreign body from the vortex impellor of a Hoover 2336H without stripping the pump, you know get your fingers in the end of the pump & twiddle the impellor & fish out the problem.
The lady was intrigued to know what it was in the pump & I was saying, “feels like an elastic band to me”. anyway, out it popped into the bowl she supplied, I pushed the bowl out from under the machine & let her empty the cloudy water. Poor lass, she went all quiet.
We have since had a customer brazenly phone us and asked us to attend her machine as she was sure there was a condom inside. She asked the engineer not to put on the invoice what the obstruction was, wonder why?
Re: Wages
Cam wrote: Also, how easy is it to get into this profession as a young school leaver with no experience? What’s the best training route to follow?
Cam
The going rate does tend to vary according to skill levels as well as areas. £18 to £25k is about the areas to look at.
Some engineers only carry out laundry work, whereas others are trained to CORGI gas levels or refrigeration technicians. If you get a tech. who is multi-skilled, it is an asset to your business, and you have to pay over the going rate just to keep him.
As regards coming into this profession from school I doubt if there would be any appeal. I left school in the mid sixties, and those days to get a trade was a high achievement; it was either that, join the forces or go into the local factory. Anyone over 50 will know what I’m talking about. I have dealt with the local careers advice centre on a few occasions and there has never been any interest, except those who failed their exams, or found there wasn’t a job for them out there and they are clutching at straws by September. Every one of these I’ve taken on hasn’t lasted more than 6 weeks.
We have tried school leavers in the past, and if there was any enthusiasm out there, we will get someone trained and up & running. Unfortunately we need young people that are willing to be adaptable and learn. It also takes a few years to get the experience, and we need to remove from customers the impression we “sent a boy” to attend their product. I used to get told that when I was in my 30’s. On top of that, most of us have vans insured for over 25’s only, but that can be changed. There is the fear that a lot of potential employers hold, where they spend a small fortune to train someone, who decides the job is not for them, or even worse that the person I have put through all the training leaves and sets up in competition with me.
Regretfully this industry doesn’t carry any recognised qualifications, only experience & skill levels dictate who can do the work in general. When it comes to Gas there are criteria laid down, but usually for plumbers who have been through an apprenticeship. The only qualified City & Guilds techs. you will find repairing products have gained the qualification through another route, i.e. apprentice electrician or plumber & then progressed into this work.
The best way someone can come into this profession from school, is to approach all the reasonably sized companies, knock on the doors and tell them they really want to do this, and will be prepared to attend training courses and accept a low pay whilst on training. Somehow, I can’t see it happening. I will always listen to any prospective trainees.
Alex
Re: PKI
I will remain as moderator of this forum unless any of you disagree, in which case I will step aside with no regrets, let Kwatt know if you wish a new moderator appointed
Don’t you go anywhere.
I’m sure I speak for the majority.
Reading the earlier post saddens me. I hope W/Pool doesn’t say, “ I told you so”.
When I terminated Merloni they gave us 6 months without their income, they had pleasure in telling me that I was about to put good engineers futures as well as what they perceived as a nice business into jeopardy. My accountant gave me 6 months if I kept the Merloni work. Funny thing was they had no hesitation in shedding all the agents themselves a year later & bugger the engineers etc. then.
We were nearly there ourselves in 2002/2003 I lost loads of sleep & my drinking increased big time for over a year. I ran my credit cards to the limit & still paying them off.
I take my hat off to you Kevin, & I feel for you. I hope you bounce back all the stronger.
Will have a quiet chat when I see you.
Alex
