Although we might be generally quite busy as an industry right now, there remains a number of issues that as we continue through 2017 that appear to me at least to be getting worse.
I am sure it won’t just be me that has noticed problems such as poor product quality, lax customer service, rogue home owners and price increases are all topics that have already been widely discussed and bemoaned so far this year. And we’re not even at Easter yet. I get the sense that being a fabricator and an installer is hard work at the moment.
I don’t want to pile on the negativity, but I think it might be time to take a look at what the biggest problems facing the industry right now are.
Poor customer service
When it comes to installer relationships with their fabricators and other suppliers, it is poor customer service that can be the most infuriating. I work at an installations company. Trust me, poor customer service is perhaps the most irritating thing to have to put up with.
If you look on social media, mainly Twitter and LinkedIn for our industry, it won’t be long before you see tweets or status updates complaining about the lack of poor customer service from suppliers to installers. That relationship between installer and supplier is perhaps one of the most important, if not most important for both the companies and the industry involved.
I don’t want to criticize fabricators and suppliers too much. The industry has become vastly more diverse in such a short space of time. It must be hell trying to be a proactive fabricator trying to handle perhaps a dozen, even more product options for installers who are demanding more and more variety year after year. It must be a logistical and planning nightmare. But if we as an industry, across the whole supply chain, are to function efficiently as a sector, we have to get the customer service right.
Product quality, or lack of it
I’d say as an industry we’re making and installing more things, but a more diverse spread of things. For example, we’re installing less and less shiny White windows, but more and more wood grained and coloured windows. This creates pressure at fabrication level as companies have to quickly scramble to be ready for new types of home owner demand. Easier said than done if you’ve been used to making a select few products for a long period of time.
This diversity and speed to deliver can often lead to poor product quality. From private discussions with a few of my own connections, I think poor product quality and general product problems are seen to be the norm now. Which is dangerous and potentially very costly. It’s OK to be offering such choice as an industry to home owners, but we all have to refocus on the quality of what we’re producing and installing. At the end of the day it is home owners that are the most important part of the supply chain. If they’re not happy, we’re not happy.
Lack of youth and skilled workers
I promise not to labour too much on this point, because we all know this is a problem, but our industry continues to limp on with a chronic shortage of young, skilled people to replace the older generation now retiring and leaving the sector.
We’ve got problems with it now. If there is no meaningful change, no concerted effort to turn the situation around, it won’t just be the window industry that grinds to a choppy halt.
Price increases
The fall in the value of Sterling has been the primary reason for price increases from fabricators to installers in the past few months. There has already been some fairly hefty price increases already this year, and with signals of more to come.
Although price increases are generally higher at the top end of the supply chain and watered down by the time they get to installer level, our industry can only take so much before bigger price increases are eventually passed on to to home owners. Problem is, if you pass on too much, it is going to start putting some potential customers off from purchasing. At least for the moment.
There is a growing consensus that the drop in the Pound might have been too steep, and there are a number of institutions that see Sterling above $1.30 by the end of the year, and nearer pre-EU vote levels by the end of EU negotiations. In the short term though, we’ve got a lot to ride out before things get better.
Bamboozled by choice
I was pricing a contract yesterday. Nothing major, two sliding patio doors and a three section bi-fold doors. But, because of the ways the home owner wanted the products pricing, I have to now work out nine different product options. Three items, nine options.
I am also working on a very large scale project for a home owner at the moment, easily one of my biggest for the year. Which is great. Except that the number of options involved, differing materials and the varying options and restrictions each of those come in mean I’m probably going to spend over a week on that quote, perhaps longer. It means I may have to side line other quotes to make sure I get this one done so it doesn’t clog up my own quote chain. It also means that I may lose some others because I’m having to spend so much time on a small number of quotes that I don’t get to some others in time.
That is what life is like now for an installer when pricing up for contracts. The amount of choice available means home owners now often want a house full of windows and doors in two, three, four or even more product options. It’s time, or lack of it, that then becomes your enemy.
Rogue home owners
I touched upon this subject not too long ago on here, after my experience with a particularly difficult home owner, and the feedback told me that our industry has a growing problem with rogue home owners.
We hear all so often about rogue businesses in our industry doing harm to home owners. And there is no doubting we have our fair share of those. But what is rarely mentioned, but is growing in seriousness, is the number of rogue home owners out there causing grief for good and honest glazing companies.
To me, there is less and less protection for businesses against customers out to cause harm. It costs good companies time, money and creates stress and emotional harm.
Poll
I have created a quick poll where I want to gather your thoughts on the points above. Out of these six areas I have identified, which are the biggest problems that faces our industry right now? You can vote for more than one option if you can’t decide on which is the most serious. But please take a second to vote before you leave, as it will help show where the industry thinks the biggest threats are going to be coming from. Of course comments on this post are very welcome via the usual space below.
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