Communication and advisor support

[phugly]

We have just one week to go before the first meeting. If you have any thoughts at all on on any matter relating to communications between us and Hillarys please post them here, or you can send to me via personal message on the forum or e-mail me direct. (if you use e-mail to [e-mail] please put either "forum" or "seminar" in the subject field so that I can readily identify them in my mail box)

[phugly]

So far there has been very little response on this subject

[greenpesto]

Perhaps 'Phugly' there is little response because of a 'break down' in communication!!!!!?
Hah!!!!!!

[saxman]

perhaps they could explain why, that the service centre called me on monday saying that a customers blinds that had missed the van, would be sent out by courier today, as they had noticed that they were due to be fitted tommorrow. excellent i thought, guess what..............no courier.

i called the service centre and they said that an email had been sent to arrange this, but nothing seems to have happened.

so this tells me that departments are not communicating among themselves....eg service centre and dispatch for example. so perhaps they could sort that side of things out as well as sorting out how we can get through to right people when we need to.

[greenpesto]

This is a good point!!!!
I had a conversation with Service Support a few weeks ago about this. I was told that 'Dispatch won't answer the phone & only look at emails a couple of times each day.
Requesting a 'Carrier' is not always the fault of 'Dispatch' however, as I had a case recently that the Service Support 'Person' did not make or follow up a request for a 'Carrier' .

[desmorse]

Email response is very poor. I find it easier to email DORs in, often late at night. It's a d**n site better than sitting on the phone for 10 minutes, but we never get a response.
All emails should be answered with a summary of what action is taken, even if only "DONE". That way, I wouldn't have to follow my up email with a phone call. The automated response only tells I've posted to the correct email address, it doesn't say anyone has looked at it.


I would like to be able to view my tracking report live, whether by SAM or my own PC, with a link allowing me to initiate a chase. Again, this would greatly reduce the number of calls handled at H/O.


I would like the Sales Talk to be honest, and not to tell us 4/£99 is a fantastic success when we all know it's a desperate and unpopular item. Or wooden venetian "teething problems" are over, when we all know they're not.


Postcode coverage should be transparent. We're not allowed to check our postcodes or know who else is covering the same


Minutes and actions from any focus group, held anywhere in the country. I attended one on 20mm roof and was promised follow up, but again mushroom syndrome.


A formal way for advisors to feed back problems and suggest product improvement, perhaps even participate in a suggestion scheme. Between us, we could probably suggest £1m/year in cost savings.

[desmorse]

service support/despatch is a very good example of poor communication. They're as frustrated as we are. I had 3 promises of 1 order, and in the end was told "All I can do is another email, they won't look at and they never answer the phone, so I'm really just wasting my time. But I will try again for you"

And this is a multi-million pound company?

[blindmanbill]

Hi everyone,
Some good threads going at the moment, Keep the ideas flowing, keep the momentum up.
Ther is one major resource that Hillarys are failing to make take advantage of, as this forum is proving.
There cannot be many advisers that do not have a home computer. Soon after the Hillarys website was launched I thought that they should be developing a secure corner for adviser access to our account info.
Banks, building societies, self assessment tax, e-bay, and a whole load of other shops allow millions of people to access their own accounts securely, would it not be possible for us to access our accounts at Hillarys to check order progress, raise (some if not all)DOR's ourselves, check commision payments, print off statments as and when we need them, for those without SAM to enter their own orders, e-mail colleagues through Hillarys intranet, and the 101 other things that are frustrating communications within the company. This would free up the personnel to actually give that rarest of events a 'live answer' to a customer's phone call.

[desmorse]

A couple of small points, but most of the major items have been done to death
Hillarys want us to look professional and wear the brandname, but when we hand out business cards, we suddenly look rank amateurs with home made rubber stamps.
Occasionally I communicate with customers via email, especially business customer, but I don't have a Hillarys email address (I do actually, as we all do, but I can't give them [e-mail] can I?).

I can understand Hillarys not providing these to new advisors, but I've been with Hillarys 16 years and do £300+k/annum. They must be able to provide us long term, full time advisors with this professional image.

[Augustus]

Hi des,

You can get some good business cards from the link at the top of the page.

I 'grabbed' the hillays logo from their own site and designed my own business cards from them.

It's simple to do and it looks alot better.

Go for the design service rather than the freebee ones as they get vistaprint printed on the back and the others can be plain or whatever you like.

Much better.

P.

[Blind Scout]

Advisor support generally good and helpful, although some names are better than others. Geting through is a problem especially at certain times of the day. I try to email DORsa and Component requests, as it gives me a record. However, ther eis a problem with HO identifying the correct part. I have even given the Agents manual page and description, and still got the wrong parts. So an improvement would be for a parts list and unique code number in the manual.

As already said dispatch seems to be a rule unto themselves. Before Christmas I received a DOR h/r by courier, it could have waited until the new year. Another DOR h/r, order a week before that one, didn't come until this weeks delivery. There seems to be no standards. Are we still a BSI registered Quality Company, or has that been dropped. I notice the Kitemark no longer appears on Hillarys stationery.

[kwikfitfitter]

I maybe echoing what others have said but here goes.
when the Hillarys website was first set up I asked if we would get access to the intranet, good job I didn't hold my breath, they are missing a huge opportunity to cut costs as well as make our life a lot easier, as others have said if we could order DORs, spare parts, check progress of orders etc, much better than sitting on the phone for hours every week.

Sales Talk
Its a propaganda sheet, nuff said

Service Support
I think it depends very much on who you get on the other end, i find the evening staff much more helpful

Dispatch
Still waiting for blinds i should have had before christmas, blind carriered before christmas that are STILL not required yet and two failed carrier deliveries in the last two days because they hadn't been marked "No signature required" and the best bit, got to tell you this, a girl from Customer services told the customer it's my fault she won't be getting her blinds fitted because I should have been at home to recieve the delivery.

Qoutesteam

What do they do, its months since i had a qoute converted by them, I've asked, through FSM and direct with them for some feedback as to why the qoutes aren't being taken up, are we too expensive etc, but nothing at all, are they hiding somthing?

[phugly]

What an excellent response since yesterday. I will try and collate these points into order for use at the meeting

[desmorse]

Just got a commission statement showing £50 clawback against a discount given to a customer for roof blinds fitted 3-4 months ago. Now this customer had selected, progressive memory loss every time I spoke with him and has obviously wound himself and H/O staff up over the months.
My point here, is why don't customer services talk with advisor before giving discounts? We all know every argument has 2 sides, why are they throwing money away by only listening to 1?

[mendipmagpie]

Tipical Frustration aahhhhh
As I have a poor SAM signal at home I decided to contact Diary Maint at 1810 tonight.
Greeted with answerphone message. This dept is now closed ,please call between 8am and 8pm 0r leave a message.
So thinks I try another option. Greeted with a pleasant hellow , no problem I will put you through. Phone rings for several miniutes voice comes on Sorry this number is not recognised,please try again.
Why have a twelve opening if its not available. grrrrrr