oh dear
Called at customer this week, 1 wood ven at £198 and one at £185, not bad i think, until out came lap top and web blinds put in front of me, very same blinds for £75 and £80, 5 day delivery.. Thanks Hillarys, i get £50 for 5 minutes work fitting to wood frames. Cant be negative all the time can we..........
Get real..............................!!!!!
Oh but what about my conversion though
oh dear dear
At the last regional meeting we were all told anyone caught being paid to fit Web Blind orders would be terminated immediately. In the FSM's words - it would be treated as working for a competitor!
errr oh dear dear me
So how can Hillarys justify giving a ''competitor'' a direct link from our website ?
dear dear dear
Talk about kick us while we're down. First there was the increase in fine for mismeasures from £7 to 20 without anything for us when Hillary's mess up. Then forcing us onto SAM whether we like it or not. Then D8 came along with us having to adjust controls for no extra commission. Leads are down, prices are up, the marketing con tricks of the "selected fabrics" in the small print for the Spring Sale followed by the so called Summer Collection bringing accusations from customers of underhand dealing. Finally today we get a letter saying no more drill bits! It might not be the end of the world but it's just the final straw for me.
deary deary dear
Phew what a week, had 27 appts booked into diary this week and struggled to get £2400 in orders (which is my absolute minimum to pay the bills!) Call after call was hard work, whats the 3for99?, whats half price?, whats in the sale? etc etc, was even quoting 2 clouds cream at £134 and was told way too much. I am usually around the 70% conversion rate as well! Just couldn't sell a b****y thing! Lets hope next week all the scummy mummys are not making appts and the proper customers are getting there wallets out!
oh my dear
IT APPEARS THE PINCH IS NOW BECOMING A MAJOR SQUEEZE AND NOT A PLEASANT ONE AT THAT.
After having a couple of reasonable weeks at the beginning of May, I have seen the number of appointments fall dramatically over the past three weeks. The situation this week is that from a diary availability for sales Mon to Wed for 20 appointments, only four appointments have been booked.
Spoke to ADS a couple of times this week and it would appear that the situation is the same with lots of advisors, if not throughout the whole company.
One thing I cant get to grips with, although in my area I dont have a problem with duplicated cover, is why when business is slack, do Hillarys still continue to pursue their recruitment drive so vigorously.
If this goes on much longer me thinks "pastures new" might not be a bad idea.
oh dear , not double dealing then
Same here, leads dropped right off, not going to earn much at all this week, very worrying when this is full time job, recruiting in my area too!
deary deary deary dear dear
From full diary to pretty empty diary in a fortnight. Conversion rate this week, less than 50% (on what I did get). If it wasn't for a year old converted quote, I wouldn't have made £100. Not brilliant really. Have to sit it out and hope some other agents leave.
dear will you never learn
Feel sorry for you guys who have to work full time,don't know how you pay bills at mo-been very quiet for weeks in Hudds area,yet youv'e guessed it there setting on MORE advisers next week cannot see the sense in it!!
there are ways my dear
No doubt all expecting to earn between £300 and £500 per week. (Given the current trading climate, more like in a month). What a laugh!
why don't you be that other advisor working the same post code DEAR
Its now Thursday night and the end of my allocated 25 hours sales availability for the week. Of these only 5 hours / 5 appointments were booked, conversion rate is 60%, commission earned; less than £100.
In terms of appointments, this is the worst week I have had since joining Hillarys in 2006. As far as earnings go its the second worst week experienced.
Just looked at my diary for next week and not one forward booked appointment in there.
Thank God I dont have other advisors working the same postcodes as I do.
dear dear deary dear
Just left this site to check my e mails to find one from Hillary's saying that if I and any other advisor use the freepost address we will be charged for this. If I had any lingering doubts about what a bum outfit this is, they have just been dispelled. I have never known a company treat it's workforce (albeit only by association) with such disregard in my long working life. I shall be pleased as soon as possible to disassociate myself from them.
oh dear
E mailed my FSM last night terminating my agency, enough is enough, they have been whittling away at our potential to make a decent living for too long as far as I am concerned
my dear don't give them ideas
I feel time to pack it in now too, they don't deserve anyone working for them, very poor show. Next they will be charging us for delivery of the blinds.
dear dear dear dear dear dear dear dear dear ME
Not so sure about a lost leader,quote's dept are now offering massive discounts to get the orders.I quoted £1550 for 16 venetian and cust has been offered for £850,thats approx £50 per blind and none of them were on special.This makes a mockery of the pricing structure and the small discounts we are supposed to be tied to. No wonder customers doubt our integrity.
Please don't bother telling me thing are tough out there because I already know my turnover is also well down.
possibly time for rethink altogether DEAR
Problem is that massive discounts lead customers to believe that you are over-priced in the first instance and can have a negative effect when trying to close the order.
Possibly time for a complete re-think over the list prices of all of our products.
dear spin dear spin dear me
I do think the approach the company has now adopted towards discounting and in particular the levels that the quotes dept seem to be prepared to go to, could end up back firing on us.
If a reduction to list prices were actioned, what I class as the 35-50% OOT levels wouldnt be required.
I think the multi-blind deal on it is a complete rip-off and have said as much in a posting on the web-site some three to four weeks ago.
well spotted dear
just shows the craziness of our pricing strategy.
clearly not DEAR
Didn't you receive your crystal ball in the post? It's the new Hillarys communication system.
time you broadened your horizons DEAR
On one side of the coin it seems to me that Hillarys go out of their way to distance themselves from other companies in the group and as such will not "cross trade" products. (Thinking of a conversation I recently held with an advisor who had a cust who wanted a particular fabric to match some other blinds. Hillarys no longer do the fabric but it transpired that Arena did. However, try as he might he couldnt persuade anyone down at Hillarys to give the go ahead for the order to be taken).
On the other side of the coin, and despite the increasing problems they know it is causing advisors, they continue to promote their link with Web-Blinds.
dear dear it always goes from fairly good to bad to worse you know that dear
Fitted my first shutters from the new supplier Today. Might just be me but I didn't think they were of the same quality as before.
please dear
I had the same experience, also the corners of the frame did not join up exactly and the finish did not seem as good. Made in the same factory as before but not to the same standard.
suspect standards dear dear deary dear
I fitted 3 LDF shutters this week and would agree that the quality is suspect. The units were all 3 sided. The Hoffman key slots broke away as the keys were inserted. The panels looked as though they had been made to suit 4 sided frames and so had big gaps to the window cills. There were no magnet striker plates on the light block bars. There were no magnet striker plates on the panels to hold the bi-fold pairs together when folded back. I tried to bend a hinge pin to create some friction but the pin snapped in half so I fitted wood venetian valance returns screws to the panels to engage on the magnets. One pair of panels would not fold flat without some force being applied, which the customer was not happy about. The hinge frame was rubbing hard on the rebate on the panel. With a lot of effort I managed to reposition the hinge assembly and get the closing action to feel the same as all the other units. And finally not one single fixing screw was supplied. It took five and a half hours to complete the job which the customer then rejected because the light block bars didn't "eliminate the light"! At £650 for the 3 you have to wonder if it was worth it! And the customer thinks they were expensive!!!
I'm fitting more 4 more shutters tomorrow. Apprehensive?? you bet!
ahhh now we are getting somewhere DEARS
Jesus, five and half hours, I can fit 30 verticals in that time and regularly do! Makes me glad I don't do them!
dear dear stay positive dear
Not worth the effort,poor you,did he pay,have you got to revisit or will he cancel the order?? or will you now have to wait for commission degrading your income even further
errrrrrrrrr OH DEAR ME!!!!!!!
You must work at the speed of an Inter City Express. With the new D8 rails and all the messing about associated with them, the best I would expect to achieve would be 4 reasonable sized rails per hour. I usually work on 2 hours fitting time for a 6 or 7 rail conservatory fit.
ha dear ha dear
