March 2022
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Installer Insights<br />
A LIFE IN THE INDUSTRY<br />
Liam Hulme, Director of Yorkshire-based installer Global Windows, talks to Total Installer<br />
about following his father into the industry, sector challenges and opportunities, and why<br />
online reviews – both good and bad – are always greatly received...<br />
Total Installer (TI): What was your path into<br />
the sector?<br />
Liam Hulme (LH): My Dad has been in the<br />
window industry for a very long time, circa 50<br />
years, and set up the Global brand in 1995 after<br />
working with several double-glazing firms. Fresh<br />
out of sixth form and deciding that university<br />
wasn’t the route for me, I started helping out the<br />
Operations Manager at Global on a part-time<br />
basis and later moved into a role on the customer<br />
service and warranty side of the business.<br />
Thinking that golfing was where I wanted to<br />
take my career, I worked as an assistant<br />
professional golfer for a few months,<br />
but it turned out not to be for me and<br />
I came back to the business to do a<br />
processing role and later moved into<br />
operations.<br />
In 2014, I became a Director and from<br />
there I’ve really been focused on continuous<br />
improvement across the business, developing<br />
operations, implementing new systems, working<br />
on sales and marketing, and generally making<br />
sure that we are doing an excellent job for all our<br />
valued customers.<br />
TI: If you had one piece of advice about<br />
starting an installation business, what would<br />
it be?<br />
LH: You need the right people and you need the<br />
right products.<br />
Everything else in your business could be perfect<br />
– sales, customer service, fancy showroom,<br />
lovely brochure – but if you’re doing a bad job of<br />
installing and fitting a poor product, none of that<br />
matters.<br />
It’s all about building good relationships with<br />
your team, with your customers, and with your<br />
suppliers.<br />
Finding people who have the right attitude and<br />
approach to customer service is crucial – if you can<br />
get that right from the start, you’re on to a winner.<br />
TI: Tell us about a recent project you are<br />
proud of. ..<br />
Above: This project by Global Windows won them the Installation of the Year in 2021<br />
Left: Liam Hulme became Director of Global Windows in 2014<br />
“Everything else<br />
in your business<br />
could be perfect – but if<br />
you’re doing a bad job<br />
of installing and fitting<br />
a poor product, none of<br />
that matters”<br />
LH: That would have to be our most recent award<br />
shortlisted project! It’s up for Best Installation -<br />
Residential (up to £20,000) at the GGP Awards<br />
and we’re looking forward to seeing if we can win<br />
the category for the second time! It’s an amazing<br />
installation.<br />
We replaced 23 timber windows, 3 timber French<br />
doors and 2 timber front and back doors with<br />
energy efficient uPVC cream-on-white windows<br />
and doors.<br />
With the old windows being timber you have to<br />
take a lot more care when taking them out to not<br />
cause any damage to the existing plaster reveals.<br />
So extreme care was needed when replacing so<br />
many timber products.<br />
Being nominated as a finalist again for best<br />
installation with this job is a huge testament to<br />
the amount of effort and hard work the team did<br />
for this installation and customer.<br />
TI: What is the most difficult/challenging<br />
project that you’ve worked on?<br />
LH: It would probably be the one we won the Best<br />
Installation award for last time! It was a project<br />
where we replaced a full house of old timber<br />
46 T I MARCH <strong>2022</strong> PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST
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