Well, after an experiment last week with my weekly review post, I’ve decided to change it again. Whilst last week’s looked good on the page, I made a rather rookie error. As I continued to post blogs throughout the week, they also showed up in last weeks review, which meant they were replacing the posts I was supposed to be reviewing! So I’m not going to try that method again. However, I am trying to make these look a bit better and less wordy, so lets see how this one goes.
Yes today is the final day of voting in the National Fenestration Awards. The industry has been voting from a 13 category shortlists of people and businesses that you all spent most of 2014 helping to compile from your nominations. The response this year has been absolutely amazing. The backing they have had from the sponsors, trade media coverage, increased nominations and massive number of votes as meant that the NFAs have not just grown from 2013, but exploded into the industry.
Summary
Monday began with a last call to all potential voters as we entered the final day of voting in this year’s National Fenestration Awards. It has been an amazing second year for the NFAs, with massive engagement from all areas of the industry. There are going to be some figures released next week to detail exactly how big the awards have been this year. The winners video might also be about to be released sooner than previously stated too ;-)
For us at the day job, November started OK. Not as busy as the summer don’t get me wrong, but sales were healthy as leads we had gone on earlier in the year started to come in. The pre-Xmas rush was definitely in full swing and customers were putting pressure on us to get prices to them and fit them into our installation schedules before the end of the year. Not always the easiest task if you’re an installer.
Summary
Because of the importance of the final voting day for the NFAs, I delayed my usual monthly review post to the day after. November, it was safe to say, was nowhere near as rip roaring as earlier months. Homeowners are starting to wind down for the year as they start to turn their attention to Christmas, shopping, food, and a two week period to relax. Attentions for the industry are now turning to 2015 and how to build on what has been a pretty decent year.
The development of digital technology has created endless marketing possibilities for installers, such as with interactive window or door builders. The Composite Door Network have developed their own composite door builder with the help of Purplex Marketing. The composite door builder acts as a great interactive sales and lead capture tool, helping the Composite Door Network sell more doors.
Summary
Next up, a sponsored post which generated more uncomfortable tweets and questions than I thought it would. Sent to me by the team at Purplex, this was to be a post focusing on the Composite Door Network launching their own door builder based around the Solidor product. However, it seems to have raised an issue about door builders and how they themselves are built. Lets face it though, as we continue to evolve online, door builders are going to become more and more used, maybe even becoming a standard feature on a lot of websites. How they are licensed and put together however is a different matter.
We all like posting images of our hard work online for the rest of the world to see. It’s pride. Satisfaction in the work we have done and interesting to everyone else to see what work other people are doing. There have been some really great examples of work this year, unfortunately, there is a worrying increase in the number of images being stolen by other individuals and companies for them to be passed off as their own work.
Summary
Image theft, a growing and rather irritating problem which has struck a few of us in the past few days. You’ll remember the spate of problems many of us had back in the summer. The issue of image use and image theft is a growing problem and in 2105 I think it could be on of the major problems our industry has to deal with.
After a two year hiatus, I plucked up the motivation to get myself back into the gym. My girlfriend had recently joined Exercise 4 Less and said that it was a good gym. It was only a tenner per month and I got a free day to test it out before I decided to join to see if I liked it. So I went on Monday evening to try and get back into a routine.
Summary
This week finally saw me get my arse in gear and get my personal column up and running! This is my new section on DGB which I am reserving for topics other than double glazing. I have flirted with the idea of setting up a new blog for other topics I want to write about. But then I thought about how much effort that would take. So, I am working in a personal column here on DGB, which will cover absolutely everything else other than windows. Because lets face it, reading about windows can sometimes be boring!
There is no doubt that 2014 has seen a noticeable rise in business for many of us this year. I don’t think we’re quite back to booming, but I’m hoping for steady growth over the next few years which should bring us all a healthy state of business. However, the pace of the recovery this year seemed to catch many of us out. In 2013, the predictions for growth this year were in the very low percentages. But the British public fueled that recovery stronger than we all thought, and we were caught on the hop.
Summary
This week also saw me start my mini series of reviews of 2014. I could have written one enormous yearly review post, but it would have been stupidly long and take far too long to write, it’s been a busy year after all. So I have decided to tackle the year in parts, covering several areas. The first review post, covering the subject of the poor customer service our industry has suffered from this year. It’s an issue I think we have all had, so I thought it would be a good place to start.
These are NOT your ordinary window fitters vans. These are some vans that would look great at a custom van auto show. They have clearly been looked after and are one of a kind work vehicles. They look great. So, with permission sought from the owners of the above, I am starting a new feature on DGB – Industry’s Funkiest Vans. My little mission to find the industry funkiest, coolest, weirdest work vehicles.
Summary
Lastly, the start of a fun new feature that I hope will take root on DGB, my attempt to find the industry’s most unique and different vans. I got the idea after Mark Warren and a few others started to post images of other funky work vans to Twitter. Our industry is proud of it’s vans, so I thought it would be a bit of a laugh to try and find the weird and wonderful ones out there.
