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


Sealed with a kiss?


HAVE YOU ever bumped into a customer ‘out and about’? Isn’t it weird when you lock eyes over the kiwis in Waitrose and you know so much about this person’s home, their family, their financial situation, but yet you have nothing to talk about other than ‘oh hi, how’s your bathroom’… and as soon as the words escape your mouth, you are then praying to the Lord above, they don’t say it’s leaking! One of our female staff members crossed paths with one of her clients in town once while she was shopping with her husband. She was in rant mode the next day at work when she told us of how her client had proceeded to talk only to her husband about all things water pressure, boilers and building work for a solid 15 minutes, assuming he was the brains behind the operation. How wrong he was – her husband is an accountant and thinks that a flange is a dessert. Then for every aloof customer, there’s the accidental ‘I love you’ customer. There have been too many times to count when a client has ended a phone call


with ‘love you’


and then called straight back to apologise.


Equally,


there’s the signing-off a text or email with ‘XXX’, which is followed by a quick reply saying sorry! It seems like an opportune time to mention how our fitters often get propositioned on-site, although we will spare your blushes, as some of those stories are only fit for erotic novels. Personally, we would rather ‘I love you’ and kisses all day long than someone complaining about something – and we all know that happens a lot in our industry. Sometimes we get people complaining before they have even made it to the showroom – phone calls about parking, asking about discount before they’ve even told us their name. One client even said they would never come in for a second appointment as the drive was too stressful, so we needed to nail it there and then or she was off. We have also had to give our fair share of counselling


Fitters often get propositioned on- site and we will spare your blushes as some of those stories are only fit for erotic novels


– much like we imagine a hairdresser does. One minute it’s all toilets and tanking, and the next they offload about their spouse, job, kids… One time, we were left with three small children in-store as their parents stepped outside to scream at each other over the choice of grout colour. Needless to say they didn’t proceed to order, probably for the best, as we don’t think their marriage would have survived building work. Isn’t that sad, but true, we have several clients who have done larger renovation projects or self-builds that were no longer together at the end of their projects? Perhaps we should give away a marriage counselling book with every bathroom sale!


10


AO delays results as profits look set to take a pounding


ONLINE RETAILING giant AO has announced that it expects its full-year profits to plummet from £64 million in 2020 to just £8m in 2021/22.


Not only is AO predicting a fall in profits, but it also expects sales to be down from £1.66 billion in FY2020/21 to £1.56bn, although that is still up from £903m in FY2019/20. AO blamed the anticipated drastic reduction in its profits on the impact of lower sales volumes and higher costs in its logistics operations, driver shortages in H1 and significantly higher marketing costs in Germany. It also warned that its latest data suggested higher than average warranty cancellations “could lead to a material impact on FY22 profits”. In January, AO announced a strategic review


of its German business, because of “a number of material changes to the local trading environment”, intense local online competition and spiralling marketing costs.


AO said in a statement that because of “volatile market conditions, inflationary cost


pressures, logistical challenges in the supply chain and the escalating cost of living for consumers”, it remained cautious about its revenue and profits outlook in the short term, albeit confident in the long term. The company reported gaining 1.5m new customers and a “notable step up in post- Covid repeat purchase rates” with its online MDA market share increasing to 54% against 43% pre-Covid.


Because of the review of the German market, AO is to delay the announcement of its full-year results by six to eight weeks.


BiKBBI calls for more employers to back its Fitted Interiors apprenticeship scheme


DESPITE UNPRECEDENTED numbers of applicants, the BiKBBI is urging more employers to get behind its Fitted Interiors Apprenticeship programme by creating more vacancies across the UK. The British Institute of KBB Installation (BiKBBI)’s Fitted Interiors Apprenticeship programme was launched in October 2021 to create career opportunities within the KBB installation sector and combat the industry’s widening skills gap. The BiKBBI said employers taking part in it have seen exceptional levels of interest from potential recruits, with over 30 applications for every vacancy advertised. The BiKBBI has warned that there are still areas of the country where employer uptake has been low and is calling for more KBB businesses to get involved with the programme by offering apprenticeship positions. BiKBBI CEO Damian Walters said: “The entire industry now needs to help us kick the


programme on by opening up more apprenticeship vacancies. We know that installers are crying out for talent to help meet unprecedented levels of demand for high- quality KBB installation. Our apprenticeship programme provides all of the answers to this call with a fit-for-purpose apprenticeship in the Level 2 Fitted Interiors programme, a package of support to help with recruitment, and a growing pool of enthusiastic candidates. The job now is to spread the word.”


As part of the initiative, which was backed by a three-year £250,000 funding pledge from Quooker, the BiKBBI also developed BiKBBI Skills Plus support service, in partnership with The Apprenticeship Management Group, in a bid to make the process of taking on apprentices as easy as possible for employers. To help encourage more employers to take an active role, the BiKBBI has developed an ‘Apprenticeships Toolkit’. Free to download, the toolkit provides a package of assets – including template emails and social media graphics – for the industry to use to help spread the word and encourage vacancies to be created. Speaking of his experience of taking on a


new apprentice through the BiKBBI scheme, Colin Tomkins, director of SystemXL – the company behind Redwood Kitchens and trade- focused KitchenXL – said: “Apprenticeships bring vital new blood to our beautiful kitchen industry. Let’s train them well, celebrate their successes and help them set and achieve their goals – it’s the best formula to shape and build the workforce we want and need.”


· June 2022


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