Company ethos

[desmorse]

Moaning is getting quite bad on here again. Clawbacks I can understand and really winds me up, but the days of Hillarys as a friendly, family run company are gone and we have to accept that.
CCT (or whatever the venture capital company is called) are a business. Business' legal requirement is to maximise shareholders investment. We are no longer seen as part of Hillarys, we are no different to the small local blind companies supplied by Arena. Hillarys aren't here to look after us, they're here to make a profit from us.
Having said that, what Hillarys don't seem to understand is that any contract needs to be mutually beneficial to be long term successful. So yes, we need to push Hillarys on things like clawbacks and quality, but for those still harking back to the old Tony Hillary way - get real, it ain't going to happen.
We need to find ways of moving forwards with Hillarys, not backwards to "the good old days".
No I haven't been got at, I'm being realistic (or fatalistic depending on your view)

[BlindWizard]

Spot on GVM

Had good team meeting, Simon Dalby (new Commercial Director) was there. He's on most of the project teams that have been set-up to manage the key issues from the forums. I was impressed with him (takes a lot for me to be impressed at first meeting, like to see action first), straight talking northerner, willing to listen and not giving pat answers to keep you happy.

Your right gvm, the company are only interested in what is profitable for them but I did feel that Simon believes that to get the best from us they need to get rid of our frustrations, sort out certain things that he felt appear to be just unfair and also to put things in place that help us do a better job so we can sell & fit more blinds so that Hillarys do well.

I've stopped posting as much recently as most threads are negative, going over old ground. Most the issues seem to be on the table now and management seem to understand them so no point going on about them on here. I'm taking up any personnel issues direct with FSM and will go high if needs be.

Personally I think actions during the next 6 months will show how much really has been taken on-board. We do need to be positive and help work with Hillarys, if things improve then great if not then we can all make up our own minds what we want to do longterm.

[BlindWizard]

Know what you mean wise owl and I'm not saying we shouldn't moan (I'll always have something to moan about, my wife says I'm victor meldrew, but I just don't believe it ) but just seems that other posts such as asking advice, general discussion or jokes seem to be in short supply at the moment.

Funnily enough after I did my "positive" posting I spoke to FSM and was being told that unless I change my diary they will have to take on another advisor. Also only found out a few days ago another advisor has been taken on and been covering some of the postcodes I do for that last month or so. Thought threats, openness and discussion about additional advisors was the order of the day. May be it won't take the 6 months I said earlier to make up my mind

I'll try again tomorrow to be positive, see if I can get through the whole day ;D

[saxman]

duncanh said:

my wife says I'm victor meldrew, but I just don't believe it

no your not, i am................

[desmorse]

I'll be another one ...... just let me know what format you want it in.

[mendipmagpie]

Me 2 Dont mind keeping track. Not be a lot though as still very quiet .Like others well down on last year.
MM

[RED]

desmorse said:

I'll be another one ...... just let me know what format you want it in.

OK then.
I will over the next week or so come up with an easy format and will keep everyone posted. I will start a new thread when ready and get motters to e mail the format out to every adviser.
A start date and finish date, say over 3 or 4 weeks period. To start in a few weeks time when hopefully we are all a little busier and to give a better and truer reading.
If I go to the trouble of doing this then I want full commitment from as many advisor's as possible. If I can give up my time to collate it all then the least I will expect is 150 advisor's. Any less and I will do something really nasty to the ones that dont participate. Jump leads and nipple rings are on stand by.

[desmorse]

Red,
I'd be happy to help on this. Maybe if a few people took a product line each it would be less onerous.
My feeling is that we should treat this as a simple initial survey and not get too complicated.
If we just logged by product ....
total number of blinds (not orders)
total number DOR'd
total number repaired on site

This would tell us the scale of the problem, though not the cause. If it turns out that repaired on site is only around 1%, it's not worth worrying about, if it's 10+% then either we, or perhaps Hillarys, should implement a fuller survey which would involve much more detailed analysis.

Just a suggestion, but great believer in keeping things simple

[brazil]

Count me in Red. But not for the jump leads and nipple rings.

[Bear]

Yes Count the Bear in I'll send you such a load of s**t you'll wish you hadn't started, Red,

I type this as I sit waiting for the promised Carrier Delivery (remember those?)
Will be with you before 10.00am guaranteed"

So thats ok then, as its 10.12am now

Can Crappy delivery -not on time-not right- rollers falling out of badly stuck boxes also be a column, Red.?

Cannot get hold of FSM today, as they are having a meeting---Planning a "H"ow to dodge agents session, I guess, or is it" I've got a new way to rip off Advisors"-Lets all share it, down the pub".

[RED]

bear said:

Yes Count the Bear in I'll send you such a load of s**t you'll wish you hadn't started, Red,

I type this as I sit waiting for the promised Carrier Delivery (remember those?)
Will be with you before 10.00am guaranteed"

So thats ok then, as its 10.12am now

Can Crappy delivery -not on time-not right- rollers falling out of badly stuck boxes also be a column, Red.?

Cannot get hold of FSM today, as they are having a meeting---Planning a "H"ow to dodge agents session, I guess, or is it" I've got a new way to rip off Advisors"-Lets all share it, down the pub".

Hi Bear,
I dont think everything can go on to this, only manufacturing problems. It would be too diverse to include every thing that is a problem.
The thing is, this is something, someone at Hillary's should be doing instead of burying their head in the sand.
Manufacturing problems have a knock on affect to all advisor's but it must be more so for Hillary's, lost confidence of the customer, manufacturing costs and so on. Whoever said dors are not manufacturing problems but adviser errors needs to do a month fitting blinds to see what really happens.
I will be coming up with a simple format over the weekend, not too much info just basic problem and solution maybe.
Get my thinking hat on tomorrow.

Red

[nonails]

Fine Red, Count me in too but can I add a point having just come in at 11.00am having done my 1 fit and one sale for the day..no more appts till Monday....

My fitting customer was a fairly astute guy who knew Tony Hillary of old...reminisced a bit but uttered 2 points worth noting by all of us..
FIRST POINT
"Tony sold out when it was right for Tony, I believe it has changed hands a couple of times since...that won't do much for quality of life for staff, nor quality of product as these companies who buy up "cash-cow" business like Hillarys, and catalogue shopping companies are only interested in milking it for today, and then legging it!!"
SECOND POINT.."
"They have no interest in long term client loyalty-why should they?
They will have a data bank of "former customers" to tempt possible new buyers of Hillarys, but most of them will have been put off by shoddy treatment from any current crew decisions made when jumping to the shareholder whip today"

How very true.

I wonder will they have a list of existing agents to hand over as well, if any of us are left.

Nonails

[j]

nonails - how very true, I dont think they want advisors wiyh experience anymore.