HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, I know it’s been a while since my last blog post so let me start by wishing you a Happy New Year! I hope that you had a great Christmas. From a family point of view we had a lovely Christmas, plenty of family get togethers and plenty of food and chocolate. It certainly made the first full week back to work in January a struggle!

It was also a brilliant Christmas from a business point of view. Our special Christmas offer of 10% discount seemed to be happily received by customers with December sales up 40% compared to the previous year. The skeleton staff that worked across the Christmas period worked incredibly hard and despite several courier issues that were experienced the orders were still all dispatched to our customers quickly. Royal Mail let us down despite the best laid plans. Prior to the Christmas break we spoke to Royal Mail to ensure that we had collections scheduled however they didn’t arrive to collect the parcels at the pre-arranged time on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and several hours were wasted chasing them in order to get the situation rectified. FedEx also caused us a few headaches in the Christmas week. Our usual collection slot is late afternoon in order for us to get as many orders dispatched the same day as possible. Unfortunately throughout the Christmas week the driver collected at 11am every day which put Richard under pressure to get as many orders picked and packed as he could before 11. Luckily the snow fall that we experienced on Boxing Day didn’t seem to cause too many delays with customers receiving their parcels.

As if the first week back at work after the best part of two weeks off isn’t bad enough, I injured my ankle playing 5-a-side football on the Wednesday evening and after spending several hours in A&E (luckily it’s not broken) I had to come to work wearing only one shoe and hopping for the rest of the week! It was a little awkward when I had to meet a business associate for the first time and start the conversation by explaining that ‘I do normally wear two shoes to work…’. I’m pleased to say that this week is a massive improvement thus far, the swelling and bruising on my ankle has subsided and I can now wear two shoes to work (always a pleasure) and it was my Birthday yesterday. Everyone seems to have settled back into the swing of work now and things are returning to normal although the office does look bare without the Christmas decorations!

This year looks like it’s going to be another exciting one for 3D Group. We have several new products in the pipeline along with tradeshows and expanding the warehouse. Of course we will also be continuing to do what we do best, great products with great service. One service that we have offered for a while now but you may not be aware of is an EEPROM service. We can provide a programed chip, PIN code or programmed remote for a vehicle when keys have been lost.

The customer simply needs to send the unit from the vehicle to our support department via an insured shipping method. Include your company details, the full vehicle registration or chassis number and a request for the programmed items you require and we will do the work and aim to return the unit and programmed products to you within 48 hours. We will return items via an insured next day signed for delivery service so that it is fully secured. For examples of what we can do please see the EEPROM Work section of our trade website. Alternatively give our customer service agents a call and they will be able to answer any questions you may have on 0115 941 5333.

One of our first new releases for this year is the new 2015 3D Group catalogue. The printing process is almost complete and we are hoping the shipment will be on a boat and UK bound within the next two weeks. Our aim is to begin distributing them at the Lock Expo in March if all goes to plan. We are constantly adding new products to our range and this means that a catalogue can never be entirely up to date however we appreciate that people like to have a reference point that they can keep in the van or office and quickly flick through when needed. Our website is always the most up to date resource you have to hand and will always display the latest product information that we have.

We often post about our latest deliveries and new products on our social channels so if you don’t already, it’s certainly worth following us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ , Linked In or you can watch our videos on YouTube to keep informed of the latest news.

I wish you all a prosperous 2015 and look forward to continue working with you over the following year and beyond.

Dean