Bathroom buying process????

[Bathrooms.com]

Hi everyone,

As you may have already seen, we are seriously investing in the trade side of our business. A key part of my research at the moment is trying to understand the relationship between plumbers/bathroom fitters and your customers. If you can help me by answering the following few questions or leaving me feedback it would be much appreciated.

Typically how much influence do you have over the choice of bathroom products?

What percentage roughly of the bathroom products do you actually purchase for the customer?

Do you normally take brochures of your preferred suppliers to show your customers when quoting?


Very much appreciate any feedback you can give me on how you typically operate.

Regards
Paul

 

[Paulus]

Hi Paul,

Personally I don't advise customers on bathroom products except taps so they don't buy high pressure for a low pressure system. I will also recommend where not to go ( a well known .com company) as I have had so many problems with fitting.

I also try not to get involved in the purchase of products simply because the customer will then expect me to sort out any problems with the guarantee. The only exception to this is when I can get a decent trade discount that both myself and the customer can benefit from as this compensates to some extent for any future messing about with the supplier to get something sorted under guarantee. I guess I purchase around 30% of bathroom products.

I do normally give the customer a couple of brochures for suppliers I have a particularly good relationship with and who I know will genuinely help the customer make a decision. I would normally give a quote for labour, pipe, fittings etc only unless I am purchasing the bathroom products with a trade discount.

I hope this helps.

 

[Bathrooms.com]

Thanks for your time Paulus - all feedback much appreciated.

 

[REDSAW]

i go with that too

 

[dontknowitall]

It depends on the customer but I try to offload all the product decisions on to them as it is so time consuming trying to collect the measurement information, then finding a suite that will fit, then the choice of bath, basin, WC, taps. Then there's the tiles, the grout colour, extras like a shelf or two, mirror, lighting, etc, etc.

I found early on that I spent around 6 hours looking for stuff for a customer then would have to have another hunt because they didn't like the taps or something.

Now I typically spend around 2 hours chatting and trying to get the job if I feel I'll make a reasonable amount of money. This latter part is important to me as I make much more profit on heating jobs than trying to undercut other plumbers on getting a bathroom.

I'll tell customers where they can buy stuff and leave the choice to them. I do tell them about my local merchant and if they choose from them I will buy the stuff for them as the merchant gives me enough discount for me to pass some on to them as well.

In my experience the elderly tend not to like the internet or not have computers so will be more likely to ask me to find something for them (and I buy just about everything from my local merchant) and the young like to hunt around the internet so I let them get on with it.

I've not answered your questions directly but hopefully this nugget might help.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

i tend to do the same as well

 

[cr0ft]

Around 70% of our income comes from bathroom installations. We offer a fully fitted bathroom service and as others have said it can be quite time consuming buying sanitaryware etc. I tend to book a 2nd appointment with the customer if they accept my labour quote and we then firm up material selection. I make suggestions on what will and won't work but leave design choices up to them (or specifically the woman of the household usually!).

We tend to supply all the bathroom products (except tiles) for about 80% of the bathrooms we fit.

We take a bag of brochures to customers to look at. We get a very good discount from our current suppliers and we normally offer some of this to customers as an incentive to buy their materials from us.

Our main gripe as a company is there are too many middle men in the bathroom materials business. I have yet to find a supplier who can repeatedly supply quality suites with all fittings and fixing present. Every single delivery we receive from every single supplier we have used has had issues with it in one way or another, from broken WCs to bits missing to 4 damaged baths in a row on one job. If a company out there can actually deliver quality goods on time, every time, then they would be on to a winner!

 

[Bathrooms.com]

Great feedback - thanks for your time, exactly the feedback I need.

Much appreciated.