June/July 2020

Customer Service
HARDWARE & ACCESSORIES
IT'S GOOD TO TALK...
As the return to work gathers pace, Mila’s national sales manager, Julie Holmes, is
appealing to fabricators to talk to their suppliers as much as they can so that they can
deliver the kind of support which will make the biggest difference.
Mila has been phoning and emailing
customers regularly to find out exactly
what they need from us in terms of stock,
lead times, deliveries and sales and marketing
support to help them through the crisis.
The feedback we are getting is helping
us to manage our resource in house so
that we can make sure we have the right
number of staff available and can work
out where to focus our efforts. We’ve been
encouraged at how quickly the demand has
increased from such a standing start and
we’re grateful to customers for keeping us up to
date, because it’s meant we’ve been able to get
people back in our sales office quickly to keep
orders on track.
“The Coronavirus crisis
has shown us all just
how interdependent we
are in this industry”
We’ve also reduced our minimum order value
directly in response to customers who asked
for our help in completing orders from before
the lockdown, and we’ve switched to 48-hour
deliveries because that is what customers have
told is the most appropriate option for now.
As things move forward though, we are planning
new digital solutions across sales and marketing,
and we want customers to tell us how useful they
would be so that we can tailor our approach.
The Coronavirus crisis has shown us all just
how interdependent we are in this industry and
the mantra throughout has been that ‘we are all
in this together’. The vast majority of suppliers
Above: Julie Holmes, Mila’s national sales manager
really do want to help, and I think if fabricators
talk openly and share their experiences and
expectations with us, then they will undoubtedly
see the benefits.
Mila plans to survey customers over the coming
weeks to gauge the level of demand across the
whole market so that it can ensure optimum
stock availability moving forward, and we will be
sharing those results with customers so that they
can gear up their own businesses to match the
shape of the likely recovery.
High expectations
Customers rightly have very high expectations
of Mila and I’d like to think we’ve lived up
to those throughout this crisis so far. During
the lockdown, we were proactive in terms of
signposting customers to the kinds of financial
support available, and we were amongst the first
to issue practical advice on how to implement
safe social distancing protocols in factories and
warehouses. We also urged our customers and
the wider market to consider the potential mental
health implications of the crisis on themselves
and their staff and, again, pointed out where to go
to access support.
We have been praised for our efforts so
far and, as a team, we’re still working
hard to identify other areas where we
might potentially be able to help even
further. What we’re very aware of is that
there are still very challenging times to
come. Customers need their suppliers to
be proactive and responsive and to work in
partnership with them to make sure that we
deliver the kind of initiatives and service which
they really value.
“If fabricators talk
openly and share
their experiences and
expectations with us,
they will undoubtedly
see the benefits”
We all recognise that things aren’t just going to
go straight back to normal and we will have to
adapt how we work. At Mila, we’re committed to
doing that whilst maintaining the market leading
product availability and personal level of service
which has always been our trademark. By talking
to us and giving us feedback, our customers can
help us to do just that.
Contact Mila:
01327 312400
www.mila.co.uk
@milahardware_uk
40 T F JUNE/JULY 2020 CONNECTING THE WINDOW, DOOR & ROOF FABRICATION SUPPLY CHAIN