I have been seeing a few tweets in the twittersphere over the last week or so indicating that some companies are now fully booked up until Christmas. This is good news it seems, but a pinch of salt should be taken with these sorts of statements.
For example, a company with only one fitting team can quite easily be booked up for six weeks in advance, while in comparison a company with two or three fitting teams will only have two, maybe three weeks work booked in advance. There is though a positive and a negative way to look at work booked in advance.
First the positive. If you do have worked booked in up until Christmas, that is a demonstration of how well your business is performing, whether you have one fitting or ten. Your products are clearly flying of the shelves as it were and will have plenty of cash coming in during the quietest part of the year. It’s nice for people outside the business and within the industry to see you busy.
Now the negative. It isn’t the end of the month yet, and if you’re having to tell people that you can’t fit their new windows and doors until the start of 2014, you may risk upsetting the customer, or worse, making some customer look at alternative that can fit before Christmas. Yes there will be some people who won’t mind them being fit before Christmas. But more often than not, people are still coming into the showroom with the intention of their windows and doors being fit before the holidays, in order to benefit from a warmer house. Having a long lead time while great for cash flow in the medium term, can be potentially damaging if it is allowed to get too long.
Let’s take a look at where I work. At the moment, from memory, I think we have work booked in up until the end of November, with the odd free day knocking about. So at the moment I’d say we’ve got a 4-5 week lead time. As far as we’re concerned, that is a nice manageable lead time for us and it’s just about long enough for people to be happy with. And, we are still able to tell customers that we can fit their new windows and doors before Christmas.
Agree or disagree? The longer the lead time the better, or is 10 weeks too long? Please leave your comments below!
We have 8 fitting squads on windows and doors and we are booked up until Christmas with the odd day here and there for single doors/1 window jobs etc – although it is good to know you have so much work in advance we could definitely do with another squad at least, however the problem at the moment is actually finding that squad! Doesnt seem to be too many new, good ones available at the moment.
That is good news Bryan! And yes, finding quality fitting teams can be difficult sometimes, but it is always worth holding out for a good one! What do you blame your success on?
We have been in business for 40 years next year and without a good reputation you simply dont last that long, we’re not the cheapest but customers trust us and i’d like to think we do a damn good job. I do agree with Paul, although it can be difficult convncing some customers to use us when there is a good chance it will be after Christmas, in the end if they can trust we will do a good job for them they will wait.
40 years is excellent! It’s not often you hear of double glazing companies getting to such an age. The company I work for is 33 years old in January and we work on the same principle as you. We rely on our good reputation to get us the business and we pride ourselves on having quality installers to do a good job. I can see your point as well about customers preparing to wait if the company is a good one.
Mine is 2 weeks at moment.This is still too long for some people.
I lost an insurance contract because they wanted them turned around in a week.
Some people have no patience.
Funny thing is though they didn’t want to pay me weekly.
Better off not doing it me thinks.Probably lucky escape.
I agree with you Mark, probably best leaving that one. Would have taken you ages to get paid from it!
I tend to think that the householder will wait as long as it takes if the company is honest, reliable and well established (this is usually from recommendation).
5 weeks is our ideal lead time but getting quality fitters this time of year is tough. As a small business we would rather fit work well than try to cram it in before Christmas. Next year we will be fully staffed by September, not with 8 fitting teams though, impressive!
3 teams booked up till the 3rd week in January , with the odd day or two here and there , we might have to consider putting the prices up at this rate :)