NEWS | Round-up
People are funny and in this regular series, our bathroom retailer proves it, recalling some of the craziest moments they’ve had dealing with customers
Cat poop, driver drama and a late payment
DURING COVID, we had a break from site calls and surveys. It was nice for a time, but we did miss seeing clients’ homes and checking installations. We’ve been back into the swing of it recently and loving every minute of it. However, the joy was quickly extinguished by one client’s cat. Said client had gone away halfway through their installation and left their cat at home. There was a cat sitter coming in and feeding the furry cutie but, generally, the fitters were the cat’s only company while the owner was away. This was not a problem, until the cat had a nasty poop one day and it was dangling and running down its back legs. The fitters were freaking out as the cat was essentially smearing poop around this client’s high-end property and no one on site had any experience with cats, so they didn’t know how to help the poor creature. Two of the showroom team had to go to site to attend to the feline and save the client’s cream sofa from a terrible fate. This was certainly not on the risk assessment. Talking about running around from place to place, we call delivery people a range of things here at our showroom – all polite, I promise. For example, we might say couriers, carriers, posties, drivers… So when a new team member was asking us why two drivers were needed for two spotlights, it took us a minute to understand what she meant. She had ordered two lights for a job and we said don’t forget they will need two drivers.
The fitters were freaking out as the cat was essentially smearing poop around this client’s high-end property
She assumed that meant two couriers. Good job she asked, otherwise this would have been rather embarrassing down the line if she had gone months thinking all lights ordered needed such an entourage. Continuing the running theme, have you ever had a client who is on and on at you during the project by email, text, WhatsApp, phone and then, once the project is complete and money is due, they suddenly aren’t so easily contactable? It had been a while for us, so we were shocked when
recently, on completion, a client was delaying payment. After chasing them for ages, she said she wasn’t in town, so hadn’t had time to check the finished room before paying. Well, that very same day, someone from our team spotted her in John Lewis. Adding insult to injury, she was buying towels for her new bathroom. The super- sleuthing worked in our favour when we emailed her, saying we knew she was in town, as we saw her in John Lewis and the towels suited the bathroom perfectly. Within five minutes, we had the funds.
12
AS A WAY to keep up with demand and keep good customer service, Lakes Showering Spaces has increased its stock availability,
The British manufacturer sees the importance of product availability in the current market and has increased stock to ensure that there are still quick turnaround times for a wide variety of products.
Chris Thain, supply chain director at Lakes, said: “Increasing our stock will inevitably result in our customers spending less time sourcing, waiting for, and collecting products. During the last 12 months, our stock availability has been running at more than 99% on a consistent basis. The service levels we have provided have been at a frequently high level, and we have been able to maintain delivery lead times despite the wider challenges in global supply chains. “We are always looking for ways to save customers valuable time and at Lakes we believe having high levels of product availability will help customers battle the ongoing supply chain issues many businesses have faced following the pandemic.”
Lakes’ comprehensive stock availability provides customers with the choice of holding its stock or relying on the ability of Lakes to deliver in a short lead time. Mike Gahir, managing director of Lakes, comments: “As a manufacturer, we are glad to share our strong industry position and continue to invest in areas that are important to our customers. They rely on our high levels of stock availability, and it provides them with confidence when they are making their buying decisions.”
Moores Furniture Group names new CEO
MOORES GROUP sales director Mike Barrett is to take over the role of chief executive in the new year.
Current CEO Steve Parkin will continue to work alongside Moores as chairman, as he had done for the past eight year.
Barrett (pictured) has led the sales and commercial team for the past five years and will build on his established track record, which saw the company hit record sales this July, with 2022 predicted to hit £73million to £74m in 2022, breaking its previous high of £70m in 2019. Barrett has played a pivotal role within the commercial team and his close working relationships with customers and key partners makes this strategic move a natural progression to maintain those key relationships. Barrett said: “Our focus remains on developing partnerships within our core markets, and we will be continuing to evolve our service and product proposition to support our longer-term growth plans.
“Our team works tirelessly to ensure we are offering our customers the very best products, constantly analysing the patterns in consumer
demand and latest trend directions to develop new colourways and special features, all of which cater to contemporary lifestyles. While we plan to evolve and diversify our ranges, we also want to continue providing the very best service to our customers, making any interaction as easy as possible. Quality and attention to detail through our products and service proposition will always be paramount to our success.” In his exclusive interview in the November issue of kbbreview, he said: “It’s a great opportunity and I am proud to be supported by the management team and the investors. It’s great that Steve is going to stay with us as chairman as he has been so integral to the journey the company has been on. He led the strategy development we did back in 2016 and the MBO and has been a constant source of pushing and challenging us all to be better.”
• You can read our full interview with Barrett on pages 43-46 of the November issue
· December 2022
Lakes helps retailers with increased stock availability
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