It has been an exciting couple of weeks in the 3D Group
offices with plenty of changes occurring and it feels like we are continuing to
move onward and upwards, which is a rewarding and pleasing feeling.
Dan and I have not long returned from our business meetings
in Europe. I know that I mentioned this trip in the previous blog and promised
to tell you the outcome. Just to recap, as a result of the feedback we gathered
from the ALEX show one thing that became apparent was that you wanted to see a
bigger range of locks available. So Dan and I set up a couple of meetings with
suppliers to discuss how we can improve this.
One of the major issues for us at
the moment is warehouse space! Things are getting a little tight in the
warehouse and every inch of space is very quickly filling up and we are even using
the space under our desks for emergency overflow storage! To combat this, we
have purchased the premises next door and in the New Year work will commence on
connecting the two buildings and expanding our warehouse and offices. The
outcome of these recent meetings is that we will soon be stocking a large
number of genuine lock wafers, springs and more … just as soon as we find the space
to store them!
Ask anyone in the office and they will tell you that I
dislike having time away from the office with a passion. I very rarely take
annual leave and will work through pretty much any illness. Even the times when
I have to be away I am always on the other end of the phone. It comes hand in
hand with being a director of a family business and I really wouldn’t change it
for the world. Obviously there are times when being away from the business is
necessary and these recent meetings were one of these situations. It is s*ds
law that within this week issues would arise in the office!
David kindly handled these issues in Dan and I’s absence however I always like
to look into any issues myself so that I can fully understand them and resolve
them where I can. One of the issues that arose concerned the new Lishi KeyCutting machine. As with most new to market products you can experience
teething problems and even Silca aren’t immune to this. It seems that there are
a few software issues that Lishi are currently working hard with their Chinese
counterparts to resolve and a number of issues have boiled down to calibration
of the machine. It’s a good feeling to know that all these issues are being
resolved so quickly by the manufacturer as they are out of our hands. I have
spoken to Lishi and have been told a new manual is being written to help all
users with the machine.
Another issue that arose this week was as a result of a customer complaint.
Here at 3D Group we do take the few complaints that we receive very
seriously and always do our best to resolve the issue for the customer in
question but also to put measures in place that ensure it will not happen
again. For the second time this year we have had a customer report that one of our
VXR9va Blades has broken their cutter. The first time that this issue occurred we
tested the blades that came with the remote and it did not cause an issue when
cut with our Silca Viper. We concluded that it might have been a rogue blade
and agreed to monitor the situation.
However as a 2nd customer has now reported this to us we have
opted to replace all of the blades in the VXR9va we have in stock to our own
branded blade that we can be confident is a good quality metal and will not
damage cutters. Any future stock will also have its blade changed and we are
pleased that we have found a permanent solution to the issue.
We manufacture a lot of our own parts and we have recently made the decision to
move the production of our 3D brand blades from the current source to a new
factory. We have parted company with the previous factory due to a number of
issues over the past year that have caused several headaches for myself and
Richard but we hope things will be plain sailing from now on.
Another change happening in the 3D office is a change of
staff in our sales department. This week we say a fond farewell to Alesha who
is leaving us to embark on a new career and we wish her the best of luck for
the future. Alesha has spent her last few weeks passing her knowledge on to her
replacement and we would like you to join us in welcoming Nathan to our sales
team.
One change that some of you may have already noticed is that
we have launched our new-look front page for the 3dgroupuk.com website. We are
currently in the process of developing a whole new trade website for you to
enjoy however we needed to launch the pre-login part of the site earlier. In
the past we have had to keep our sister company 3D Autokeys’ information on our
3D Group website until our SEO had improved on our 3dautokeys.co.uk domain.
It’s been a long year for Rebecca in our marketing team pushing our 3D Autokeys
SEO however thankfully our 3D Autokeys website is now self-sufficient and we
have been able to alter 3dgroupuk.com to be entirely dedicated to our wholesale
business. As I’ve previously mentioned, this is the first step of a number of
improvements over the next year or so to our trade website. Rest assured that we
will keep all of our product prices and descriptions exclusively for trade
customers’ eyes only as we feel that it is detrimental to locksmiths for the
trade prices to be available for public viewing.
The Super OBD SKP-900 Key programmer continues to be a
popular product. As promised, Super OBD are staying true to their word and
releasing regular free software updates. They have just released information
about the next update planned to be released very soon which I’m sure will be
very popular with customers.
SKP-900 V2.9 Update Plan:
1. LINCOLN MKZ Smart Key Program 2010-
2. LAND ROVER Range Rover sport Add system update 2 (434MHz)
3. Fiat 500 Remote Key Program 2011-
4. JAGUAR XF ADD Smart Key 2014-
5. Porsche Cayenne Read PIN Code & Remote Key Program
2004-
6. Add menu LINCOLN Key Program with HEC ID-4C (1999-2004)
7. Add menu LINCOLN Key Program with PCM ID-4D (2002-2004)
We are also waiting on the arrival of the new 46/4D/48
Adapter Plus tool that connects into the SKP, for Reading, Writing, Imaging,
Unlocking, Coping and more. After some testing from our Geekey advisors more
information about this product will be released.
Christmas is creeping up quick and we have now finalised our
special offers for the Christmas period. These offers were incredibly popular
last Christmas and more information will be included in the next 3D Group
newsletter. We are aware that unlike many other industries the auto locksmith
trade does not close for Christmas and therefore we limit the time that 3D Group
is closed as much as we can. Our office will only be closed on Christmas Day,
Boxing Day & New Years day, on all other days (Mon-Fri) we will be open to take
your order over the phone. Alternatively you will be able to place your order
via the website 24/7 and your order will be despatched as soon as possible.
Please bear in mind that Royal Mail delivery times tend to slow down throughout
December and orders may take a little longer to get to you should we experience
adverse weather.
I’m looking at the word count of this blog and thinking I
should probably leave it there for now! There’s plenty more I could write about
but I will have to save it for the next instalment! Please let us know what you
think of the new website via our Facebook page and Twitter account, and I hope
you have a great week!
