G’day there, Chris Peach OZ-UK Innovations M.D. here,
We have some good news with the OZ-UK brand really starting to take off now this years sales to date & turn over is showing a great improvement over previous years & OZ-UK are looking set to break the record of any year to date.
In a very unstable climate where many companies are struggling & prices have taken a huge knock with some companies out there willing to do work at a loss just to keep their erection teams going. We however made a very clear choice towards the end of last year not to compete with other companies on price as we have both seen & heard that this practice is not good for the customer or the supplier. I know of five steel companies similar to OZ-UK that are no longer trading and all these companies dropped their margins to unreasonable levels before they went under. This trend although seeming to benefit the end user with a cheaper building on the face of it, leaves big gaps when things go wrong. We have had a number of customers come to OZ-UK Steel buildings to put things right that other companies were either unwilling or unable to do. In two very serious occasions customers came to us to supply them with buildings which just never showed up on site from another steel building company that for legal reasons I cannot name here. Suffice to say it wasn’t an elephant or a hippo.
This is one very strong reason why we encourage every customer of ours to use the BONDED ORDERING SECURE SYSTEM or BOSS system as this is by far the safest way to purchase a building with the full cost of the building being guaranteed by building or return. This system has been in place for around four years now & has proven a satisfactory way to procure your building with no real risk to your capital investment. It’s too late to lock the stable door once the horse has bolted. We do have numbers available on request of these two customers who would love to fill you in on the whole story I’m sure. Just contact us for details.
The other serious issue we have found is that time & again we seem to be loosing customers to companies who will under quote us & over charge the customers!
How can they both under cut us & over charge their customers you might ask.
Well what is happening is that our quotes are fully inclusive of thing’s like plant & consumables and we only add extras if they are actually extra to the work that we quoted for. We had one situation recently where we quoted a good price of £20.000 to re-clad a building, this was a competitive quote and we were assured the contract. Another company (which I cannot name here) came in £2000 under us (to beat our quote) & was given the contract.
When this company had finished their work we went to look at the work they did and I have to say they did a very good job. They hadn’t however used the insulated guttering we were going to use & neither had they applied the same support spacings that we would have used but that aside it was a good job.
However when we talked to the customer they told us that when this company had finished they actually ended up charging £2000 more than us. That’s a whopping £4000 more than they had quoted to under quote us! Suffice to say that we are now quoting for another re-clad & we feel pretty certain that this time they will actually go with us!
What this goes to show is that there are many desperate people out there doing desperate things to ensure that they get the job at all costs no matter what they have to tell the customer! We are just not willing to go into that war & die upon that battle field. It is our honest belief that if you treat your customers fairly, honestly, & in an upright manner, they will come to you time & again. This short term gain will prove to be their long term loss & visa versa our short term loss should turn around into a long term gain not only with this customer but many more like them who are fed up with being lied to time & time again.
We have had over this year three or four customers who have come to us regardless of the price & knowingly spent in one case over £1000 more with us for a very similar building to another companies quote! This customer was happy to pay the extra as he said he felt he could trust what we were saying & this meant a lot to him. In this case £1000.
This encourages us to keep doing the right thing & not to be drawn into the “pricing wars” as integrity & honesty in business are actually a very valuable commodity. It’s something that in this throw away society more people are beginning to look for often with burnt fingers and appreciate it very much when they find it!
So with this year fast coming to a close what are our hopes & aspirations for the future?
It’s a very unstable world that we live in & yet there are some things that no matter what happens cause you to stand out in the crowd.
We want to encourage honest open communication with our customers & continue the mandate to treat every single customer with respect & integrity as a person & not just a number or bottom line. To this end we are looking to give one on one service that is second to none. We are only really happy when we are customer, supplier & all, happy together at the end of any given transaction!
So thank you to all our customers without you we have no purpose! Thank you to all our suppliers! Thank you for taking the time to read this! & most importantly at this time of year with Hanukkah & Christmas upon us and our thoughts hopefully heavenward to that one to which I am eternally great-full (No not the CLAW too much Toy Story with my 6 Children) Jehovah God who sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the price for my sin upon the cross. Everyone seems to love the baby but He grew up & not so many choose to like or accept the King of Kings & Lord of Lords.
God Bless
Chris Peach M.D.
