Working through the next six months, and beyond

Andy Ball, managing director at Balls2 Marketing, talks about how the new restrictions don’t have to limit your business.

Over the last few months we’ve seen the supermarkets ramp up their online services with more deliveries and click and collect slots made available by the stores. Even Aldi, which had previously resisted online shopping, has added a click and collect service.

Physical supermarket queues seem to be reducing as our spending switches online. Indeed, when Ocado switched from Waitrose to M&S groceries, demand for its deliveries outstripped availability, and it’s proven so successful that even a month after launching they still don’t have enough slots.

Supermarkets were always heading more online, but the pandemic has driven the speed of change.

In the window industry, we can see that ‘business as usual’ might look different in 2021 than it did in 2019. We will look back on 2020 as the year that stimulated that change as we have to cope with restrictions for companies. It looks likely that there will be different levels of restrictions on physical business for at least the next six months.

Our checklist for installation companies being prepared includes:

Offering virtual showroom tours

Making online sales appointments available

Ensuring all products are on your website

Updating your website and social media with the latest options

These are simple things that can be sorted quickly and easily and will give businesses the opportunity to keep going through the different levels of restrictions.

We learned a lot while in lockdown about the changing behaviour of consumers, and we saw the industry could adapt.

We have a guide available for installation companies looking at adding online appointments. If you would like our free remote selling pack go to www.balls2marketing.co.uk/remote-selling-pack

Much of the market has come back very strong and many installers are reporting record highs in sales. We want to ensure that companies can work through any future restrictions and keep their businesses going, albeit more online.

Marketing tips can be found each month in Glass Times, on the Rear Window page.