Saving Time (and Money) for Customers

7^th June 2023

When it comes to benchmarking your customer experience, it’s one thing to measure yourselves against the biggest names in your own sector, but how about benchmarking against the biggest names in the UK?

That’s what Barnsley based Rehau trade fabricator Euroglaze has set out to do with the latest improvements to its production control software, which aims to mimic the likes of Tesco, Amazon and John Lewis in how it processes and manages deliveries, returns and product shortages.

Trade customers are already seeing the benefits via an even more streamlined logistics and delivery service from Euroglaze and meaningful savings in the time they spend dealing with their fabricator. One 30-frames a week customer, who switched to Euroglaze from a big-name rival, estimated that they will save at least 500 hours a year just from not having to chase up missing items, sort out invoices issued for items returned or wait on the phone for someone to advise on stock availability.

Euroglaze’s production control software is largely bespoke, but it has been designed to achieve the same kinds of efficiencies as the retail giants.

Like Tesco, the Euroglaze despatch team scans every item as it is loaded onto the delivery vehicle and the driver scans every item as it is unloaded. If anything is missing or incorrect, an alert is triggered ensuring that orders can’t be delivered wrongly, and nothing can be left behind in the factory or on the van during the delivery process.

And, like Amazon, as soon as a delivery is completed by Euroglaze or a return collected, a notification is automatically sent to the customer to confirm. There is even a ‘notify me when the item comes back into stock’ option integrated into the Euroglaze online ordering tool which, like John Lewis, automatically sends an email to a customer if a product or component they have been waiting for becomes available. If they choose to order at that point, the production control software ensures that it slots straight into the factory, and the customer can expect delivery within the usual 3-5 days.

Euroglaze’s Managing Director Martin Nettleton says the software has been specifically designed to suit the needs of the customer as much as the fabricator. He says: “With our lean manufacturing environment, I know that ours is already one of the most efficient factories in the PVC-U trade market, and this software obviously helps to support that. It’s not just about our efficiency though. We know that time is money for our customers, and they don’t want to waste time sorting out problems with their supplier.

“This kind of service is pretty commonplace with the best retail experiences, but we don’t see why it should be any different in the trade. Customers who come to us from different fabricators almost invariably comment with how easy we are to deal with - and that’s thanks to a combination of our software efficiencies and our helpful customer service team.”

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