FLAMERITE FIRES – CASE STUDY
The warm glow of success
Flamerite Fires is a British company, set up by brothers John and David Watts, more than 20 years ago. They manufacture a range of innovative and award-winning electric fires and fireplaces that look at home in any traditional or contemporary setting.
Their story
Like any business, Flamerite Fires has had its share of highs and lows, but it’s gained a great reputation in the market, thanks to the hard work of three generations of the Watts family. In 2018, David decided to leave. So, John, who led the design and manufacture side of the business, became sole owner and the singular driving force.
With Flamerite Fires now supplying a network of around 300 shops nationwide, John was keen to connect with the customers using his fires. He wanted their feedback, both on the design aspects of his products, but also on how well they found the whole buying process. However, he knew he had to tread carefully as he didn’t want to stand on the toes of his very supportive retail network.
John Watts, Managing Director, Flamerite Fires
The plan
John contacted Completely Satisfied, after himself receiving one of our gifts, and asked if we could help. We worked with him to set up a gift fulfilment programme for his customers. We settled on a box of biscuits as a ‘thank you’ for their purchase – something they could enjoy with a cup of tea, curled up in front of their new fire. Along with the gift, we mailed out a personalised letter from John and a feedback card to be completed and returned to him.
The result
John was delighted with the way the gift fulfilment programme worked. He received highly valuable feedback – something he’d never had access to before. From suggestions about the design of his fireplaces, to comments about the ability of the retail network to supply and fit them, it was all fascinating stuff. The responses gave John a far better understanding of the customer journey, but also helped to positively change the relationship between his management team and the retail network.
As a result of the feedback, John was able to make instant improvements to delivery times, as well as give a faster response if any problems were highlighted. It also showed him where improvements were needed to his internal operations. We helped him address this, by providing training to his incoming call team on personality types and telephone handling techniques. And also, with his area managers to boost their customer relationship and activity management skills.
Completely Satisfied
The net effect of our work with Flamerite Fireplaces was that John saw an almost instant improvement in his online ratings, referrals and ultimately, sales. We then built on this further by adding a referral voucher to his customer gifting pack, one that could be used for a second fireplace or passed on to a friend.
Speaking about how it felt working with Completely Satisfied, John said,
The following week I met with Jason at Completely Satisfied and it became clear he had a passion and deep understanding of how to grow a business through great customer satisfaction and outstanding service. I felt we had done a decent job for our customers up to a point, but acutely understood how competitive our market is and how negative feedback could easily damage our reputation.
The work pieces we built with Completely Satisfied felt more like a collaboration; they were not prescriptive and met with all our demands and industry peculiarities. My conclusion is we now have control over our customer satisfaction program and valuable feedback which in turn will help me grow the business and secure our future.”
Do you want to get closer to your customers? Get in touch and we’ll get to work.
