Luke Wedgbury | COMMENT AND OPINION
The pandemic forced the Coalville Kitchens MD to reinvent the way he does business but, he believes it’s made things work even better than in pre-Covid days
opportunity to EVOLVE?’
‘Disaster or W
e watched in horror, glued to our screens, as the events in Italy unfolded. How could this be happening? It’s 2020 and we’re watching a world fall to its knees under the impact of Covid-19.
Looking back at when this outbreak first came to light is incredibly uncomfortable. Did we do enough? Did we prepare for the worst? No, is the obvious answer.
The loss of life is the hardest thing to digest and now we are into September and we’ve lived through what can only be described as the biggest financial disaster since WW2. Probably bigger.
But what can we learn
from it? Out of all the situations that have been forced upon us, there were also opportunities. I’m not talking about financial opportunities – although I’m sure others jumped on that ship. I’m talking about being forced to evolve. Now, being forced to do anything is a big no-no for any business owner, and for those of us who work in retail, we like to call the shots. However, when you’re being forced to evolve, forced to work differently and, more importantly, forced to look at things differently, now that’s the kind of thing I like. Along with my wife Kate, I run a kitchen design studio, Coalville Kitchens, in the heart of the Midlands. We specialise in luxury kitchens, offering a turnkey solution for all our wonderful clients. Picture this. It’s February 2020, our business is nine years old, we
are very busy, very happy and enjoying working with all our lovely clients. Then Covid-19 hit us hard. No installs. Studio closed. Staff sent home. Ultimately, we had no business. We had hit the pause button, but couldn’t find the remote.
Fast-forward to September and I can honestly say that I’m
incredibly proud of my business, my staff and our amazingly understanding clients. Our kitchen business is once again an amazing place to work and visit. So what’s changed? You may be surprised to hear that almost every change we have had to make to our business to accommodate
September 2020 ·
the rules around Covid-19 has been an incredibly positive step forward. All of these changes have been based around our customer experience and service. Here’s what we did. The first thing was to offer a free download of our brochures. No need to leave the house and drive around to collect as much info as possible, we can send it all to their inbox in a matter of seconds. We can even post out hard copies if they want. We are finding this is a great way to start their journey. So they’ve had the brochures and now need to get the ball rolling on their design. They’ll be offered an appointment in our design studio. But how is this different from before Covid-19? Well, our doors are closed and locked meaning when they come in for their appointment, they’ll be treated like royalty. They get the whole showroom to themselves and no one will bother them, because we already know who they are and what they have come to look at. They then get their own designer to sit down with them, 2m apart of course, so they can discuss all the exciting details of their new space. If they have concerns over a visit to us, all of this can also be done virtually, too. Be honest, had you even heard of Zoom before Covid-19? Most people hadn’t, but now it’s a household name.
We’ve been forced to evolve and every aspect of this means our customers get a better experience
And it’s
been a fantastic tool for our customers to use. We’ve been able to have face-to-face meetings and share ideas and images during a live chat over the internet. It’s been brilliant! After their space has been designed and agreed, it needs to be installed. We’ve had to tweak this slightly to make
sure we keep everyone safe. We now deliver a Portaloo to every household where we do an install, which means our installers don’t need to use the customer’s facilities and this keeps contact to a minimum. We make sure that any trades working in the household are fit and well and only ever work alone in a space. No more plumbers tripping over electricians. We also make sure that only one installer is assigned to a project, seeing it through to the very end. This gives both the customer and the installer a great opportunity to build a brilliant working relationship together.
Now imagine it’s 2021 and we have a vaccine, Covid-19 has all but gone and the world has gone back to normal. People have gone back to how they used to work. Not for us! We’ve been forced to evolve and every aspect of this means our customers get a better experience. And if any changes to our business mean more happy customers then those changes stay no matter the cost to us.
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OPINION
LUKE WEDGBURY
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