ERT Weekly: Open Mike - Brief Article

As we make our way perhaps a little nervously into a brand new year, we should try to focus on what sorts the men from the boys in our business.

The year that has just passed saw a shake-out of more than one seller of electrical goods who traded purely on putting the loot in the till and ignoring the consequences. I fear, however, that one or two more have lined themselves up as worthy replacements.

How difficult is it to give good after-sales service as a retailer in the current climate?

It is not quite in the same league as going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but it compares roughly with shoving one bullet in a revolver and playing Russian roulette.

If we take brown goods and use the football league structure as a guiding principle, I would say there are about five Premiership manufacturers.

These I would select on their ability to supply spares, advice and know-how in a time period that is in keeping with the general expectations of the customer who has purchased their brand.

Then there are the Division One makers and again there are about five or so. This is again based on their ability to supply parts and so on, but neither quickly nor expertly and certainly with a thinner back line of service support.

Unfortunately, we do not have any Division Two or Three makers. We seem to plunge immediately into the mysteries of the Old Whitgifians league of part-timers, past-timers and goofers, who via some third party, or even fourth in some cases, have a few bits available, no data and certainly no technical back-up.

I would not say that, given the time, these manufacturers' products could be fixed. But it would be better if neither the owner of the product nor the engineer working on it was too old, as it may take some time!

I am making this point early in the year as I anticipate we are going to see an increase of breakdowns involving the latest technology during the coming months. As in the case of widescreen TV, for example, as it approaches three years in the field.

Speaking for my business, we always feel `superior' when confronted with a brand we do not sell. It gives us a ready-made `out' to tell the customer that if they had paid more attention when they were buying perhaps they wouldn't be trotting their problem purchase around trying to get it fixed.

We don't actually use these words, but if the punter gets angry or cuts up rough, we have them in our quiver ready for use.

My concern is that 50% of the premiership and quite a lot of the Div Is are committing professional fouls. All done in the good name of streamlining and cost saving, but leaving us to explain to the crowds why the game is deteriorating and the admission charge is going up.

What about a system, say, financed by the manufacturers, using a neutral body, it could be Retra for example, where a mixed sample of 200 servicing outlets fill in a form on receipt of a product for repair.

Its progress could be recorded right up to the final return to the customer. This would show any delays by the servicing dealer as well as the supplier of parts.

At the end of 12 months, there would be a measure of just how good each supplier is at backing their product in the field. This could be used to produce a league table for the benefit of future purchasers and the ultimate buying guide.

This would solve more than half the problems and frustrations suffered by the general public. Sadly a lot of these buyers frankly do not have a clue when it comes to buying electrical goods. These people think all TVs, kettles or washing machines are the same.

The price is only more from one manufacturer to another because "you are paying for the name".

There are, of course, lots of sellers out there who play along this line of thinking and kid the punter.

In turn, we've witnessed the quality manufacturers starting to lower standards and produce products down to a price not to a quality standard.

If you care about standards and the quality of products you sell to your customers, you should follow this slogan for 2002: "We don't stamp down the price, we ramp up the quality."

One manufacturer, who a little over 12 months ago would have been Premiership but could be `Whitgifians' in the next 12 months, told us recently the reasons they didn't have this and didn't have that back-up was "progress"!

My service manager said: "Ah that's progress, but that is not the same as improving, is it?"

He has only been with me 33 years. By Jove, I think he's got it!