feature: customer service


from it all was a new look website. “We had previously had a hideous website,


but my 18-year-old daughter Emma decided it was her lockdown challenge to design a totally new one. And it's brilliant”, says Helen. Customers would then ring, order and pay over the phone. Helen even arranged a very novel way of


collection – she set up a table in a nearby car park where customers came and picked up their orders. Wherever possible they delivered larger


heavier items to doorsteps keeping to very strict guidelines. And Helen invested in proper PPE and


sanitizers, allowing her husband and their engineer to install electrical equipment in emergency situations. She says: “So unlike AOL and JLP we were still


able to deliver from stock everything that we sold and install it under the very careful and strict guidelines laid down for us by Retra”. They kept busy delivering things like


microwaves, kettles and toasters and sometimes even groceries for the more vulnerable of their customers. And that’s something you wouldn’t get from the big guns. “As a small independent we have to look


after our customers through thick and thin,” says Helen, adding “We needed to do it for them and for ourselves and also to move the business forward. I dread to think what would have happened if we hadn’t gone down this route.” Meanwhile, over in Bedford Paul Mead, MD of


Michael R. Peters, was utilising new technology to stimulate sales while helping customers at the same time. “We have really been pushing the boundaries with Facetime and What’s App by using them to take customers around the shop virtually and describe all the functions of a


September 2020


certain product. And this has certainly ticked a lot of boxes for consumers,” he explains. Interestingly, I see that the John Lewis


Partnership has recently started offering virtual home design appointments. A JLP stylist will make a Zoom call to you and display certain items on line to meet your requirements. So it looks like Paul is ahead of the game here!


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Top left: Emma Johnson and Andrew Lord with the Lord's of Leicester website which took off during lockdown


Above: Paul Mead of Michael R Peters tuning TV


different format over in Maldon, Essex, at Foulkes Electrical. “As our shop is very small some customers


I must confess I have


always somewhat begrudged our investment in time and money for the website, but it really came up trumps during lockdown accounting for a staggering 70% of our usual turnover. Some days we could hardly cope with the demand.


And if you think that’s clever consider the


following – Paul even carried out a service call online to one customer. And after almost an hour’s worth of on-line help she happily offered to pay a £50 service fee. Another elderly customer of Paul’s was


having great difficulty with their TV. This problem was solved by carrying out a retune externally through the window nearest the TV, using a remote from the shop! This is an excellent example of the lengths to which a local retailer will go to help a customer. I don’t think any of us can envisage even


John Lewis doing that! But surely it’s this ‘local’ touch that makes our independent electrical retailers stand out from the rest. Let’s not lose sight of this. And let’s capitalise on it.


Helping the locals shop took on a slightly


were unwilling to enter, so I devised a scheme whereby they could see products on a 43’ TV in the window” explains proprietor Barry Moss. He did this by using his laptop to find the products on their website and then relayed this info to the TV screen. It’s not only retailers who are changing their methods of working though. Some of the Big Red brands are also adopting new ways of doing things. Take our new highly acclaimed headphone


brand, beyerdynamic, for example. They are planning to offer training videos for shop and home use. Explains John Midgley, MD of Polar Audio, the headphones’ distributor: “We are now looking at producing training videos on line for our retailer customers similar to ones we have done for many years for our CI trade and university customers”. He explains why. “Products such as headphones historically just sit on a shelf or counter and, apart from the retailer just turning the box occasionally, they don’t get much of an in-depth demo. We feel that products such as our headphones costing £1k qualify for just as much info and demonstration as a turntable or loudspeaker of the same value.” So as you can see in the words of Bob Dylan,


“the times, they are a-changing’, so keep close up and local while using the new technology out there. Good luck, and remember – you are already streets ahead of the multiples!


www.innovativeelectricalretailing.co.uk | 23


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