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SPN DEC 2011 InMyView
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
John Scott is Managing Director of Engineered Pool Supplies Ltd in Basildon, Essex. He was President of The Institute of Swimming Pool Engineers between 2007 and 2009 and is set to take the chains of office of the British Swimming Pool Federation in February 2012
temper under control. But some things have been irritating me lately.
D
My problem? Websites! I know that debates rage regarding direct sales, websites and in particular chemicals. The latter many would agree are barely sold from pool retail sites any more as a result of discounted prices online. My complaint regarding websites is different. My irritation is the utter disregard for any sort of honesty shown on many pool company sites. They, in my opinion, are designed to give a false impression of the company that customers are seeking to buy services from. Thus with a small investment into a talented web creation guru you get a web site that makes your newly formed company seem more impressive than the established third generation family firm down the road, at the expense of which you have just obtained a major contract.
Now I am not talking about a bit of glitz and glamour achieved by using the latest flash animation or some other widget. Neither am I referring to the use of pool photographs in the web sites’ gallery from other people’s work, which again seems common.
I am referring to the bare faced lies some company owners are basing their sites around. Like the brand new company whose web site
o I seem an angry sort of guy? Despite my known addiction to ice hockey as a fan, ex team owner and team photographer I think I keep my
proclaims “most of their business is repeat business”. How a new business can claim to have repeat business is a mystery.
Or the one man band that has a “team” of seasoned professionals with “decades of experience” behind them!
Then there are those that enter the industry, fresh from perhaps a related trade or supplying role. Would you have the audacity, in your first few months of trading, to suggest that yours was THE market leading company? I know my conscience and respect for others in the trade wouldn’t have allowed me to print such nonsense 20 years ago when I formed Engineered Pool Supplies.
If you are a new company with limited experience then don’t lie about it. Trade on your positives, such as small, dynamic, fast service, personal service, attention to detail etc. A few years back when I had very good reason to be aggrieved by the word perfect copying of my website by an ex-employee, Trading Standards advised there was no action that they could take. I made the point that unsuspecting public would be trading with a company with none of the resources they claimed to have and that they (Trading Standards) had a duty to try to protect the public.
Within 18 months I was taking calls from precisely these “victims” who had all manner of incomplete, leaking and unusable pools thanks to a new pool company that had far greater
“If you are a new company with limited experience then don’t lie about it. Trade on your positives, such as small, dynamic, fast service, personal service, attention to detail etc”
capacity to acquire jobs than resources to produce them. At least one of these unfortunate customers was attempting to seek some form of recompense from Trading Standards who had allowed the misrepresentation to continue. As of September 2010 and March 2011 the Advertising Standards Authority obtained new powers in respect of online advertising, such as claims on websites. Has this made a difference to the claims of our industries very own rogue traders? Not one iota.
So why does this mixture of plagiarism, copyright theft and bare faced lying cause me grief? Well in the time that companies such as these have been obtaining work, through false pretences in my opinion, we have lost companies to this damn recession. Companies have ceased that would quite possibly have been very capable of completing the job in a reliable manner. Companies that perhaps didn’t quite have the web knowledge to ensure their own web site had them at the top of the Google clicks chart. So my irritation is a three way split between:-
1) The companies that corrupt the good reputation of our industry.
2) Customers that make their choice of contractor through who’s website looks. glossier and higher up search engine rankings.
3) Craftsmen forced out of business through this combination.
Now that’s off my chest I am off to spend time on my new website. It’s going to feature photography, one of my hobbies, and will prove my claims that I am the best photographer in the south east of England. The shots I’ve got from Joe Cornish’s website should sit very well on there! spn
i FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
F ENGINEERED POOL SUPPLIES LTD ( 01268 418808 :
www.dehum.co.uk
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