THE MAN FROM RENAULT, HE SAY ....

There never seems to be a quiet week in the 3D Group office at the moment! This last week we have taken delivery of quite a few new products in the wholesale department, we’ve had a busy week of sales and we’ve dealt with it all whilst the dreaded lurgy has spread around the office!  

Whenever we receive a new product we put it through its paces before we list the product for sale on the trade website. 3D Group pride ourselves on the quality of our products, as well as our service, and in order to maintain the excellent quality that we have become known for we insist that we test every product that comes into our stock room. The one advantage that 3D Group has over many other auto locksmith wholesalers is our sister company 3D Autokeys. 3D Autokeys is a mobile auto locksmith service that covers the local Nottinghamshire area. As the trade half of the business 3D Group uses the expertise and knowledge of our 4 trained and experience locksmiths at 3D Autokeys to test products and machinery in proper situations before they are released for sale. We test remote cases for build quality & durability; we test Key blades for the quality of metal, and how accurately they cut; we test programming machinery on the vehicles it claims to apply to so that we can vouch for its usability. This all takes time but ensures that we can be confident that the products we sell to you work.

I couldn’t possibly go through all of the new products that we have here in this blog or you would be sat here for hours! The easiest way for you to see them is to take a look at the new products section of our website. One product that we are pleased has finally come in is our own Blue Ford horseshoes. If you have read our previous blog posts you will be aware of the palaver we have had with these, but I am pleased to announce that the first correct batch of FOB3cb have arrived they have been deemed to be in full working order and they are now on sale and selling very well! Another new product that we are now stocking is the CityRover immobiliser box. 3D Autokeys has received several enquiries from customers requesting replacement of lost CityRover vehicle keys. The problem is how to get the vehicle running when the remote or keys have been lost. The newCityRover immobiliser box will make the car run without a remote making the auto locksmith’s job a lot easier!

It’s been a busy week in our sales department! 3D Group has seen a very healthy increase in sales consistently for the last few years and this week has been no exception! It’s a bit of murphys’ law that one of the busiest weeks should coincide with several key staff members falling ill or being on annual leave! 2 of our sales assistants, Cory and Alesha have been ill whilst our sales manager Kerry was busy sunning herself on the beach! However in true 3D Group team style the remaining staff members have all pulled together and coped incredibly well with the added workload.

To follow up on a topic raised in a previous blog post we met with the head honchos from Renault France this week. The meeting was incredibly productive as we demonstrated that their genuine key cardscan be programmed using a variety of machines and not just by Renault: This was something that they did not believe was possible. Security was Renault’s main concern, as they believe that one of the reasons that their cars are in lower insurance bracket is due to the fact that you must order a Renault key to a chassis number. We explained the benefit of having a wider network of auto locksmiths that are able to supply replacement keys to the Renault managers. Currently to order a replacement key through a Renault dealership the customer would have to tow the vehicle to their nearest Renault garage and wait at least 10 days for a replacement to arrive. It is a benefit to their customers if they removed the chassis number restriction on the supply of their keys and made it easier for their customers to get a replacement vehicle key the same day, at a convenient location through a mobile auto locksmith. We gave Renault a lot of information which they now need to take back to their head office and digest. We are waiting to hear their thoughts on the information we presented to them but we know that this could take a while.

3D Group is a family run business and when things in the office are as manic as they have been it’s easy to let family occasions slip by unnoticed. It was my father’s birthday last week and as a birthday present to him and an opportunity for some quality time with our dad, myself and Dean took Dave to the golf course for the day. Anyone in the office will tell you how competitive our family are when it comes to sports! However we are all complete novices when it comes to golf so there were a few frustrated expletives uttered as we worked our way around the course but it was good fun and I think Dave enjoyed it.

I’m looking forward to this week. Myself and Dean have been invited to a corporate day at Silverstone for a track day which should be a great experience and a good chance to network with other company directors. I’m sure our competitive nature will shine through … It can’t be all work and no play can it?....

Dan