NEW OFFERINGS

There’s one thing that can be said for working in the auto locksmith trade –‘there is never a dull moment’. You really can’t rest on your laurels in this industry, at the moment it is forging ahead and developing at a rate of knots. Largely led by the technological advancements in security it seems that if you blink, the next piece of programming equipment has been developed or the latest remote product has been released. This ever increasing range of products that is available to this market means that price is key, and one thing that we do here at 3D Group is continuously aim to get the best possible price from our suppliers so that we can pass those saving on to you, our customers.

We realise that we need to stay competitive as a wholesaler just as much as you need to when competing with other auto locksmiths within your service area. One area of 3D Group that we had recognised as needing improvement was our code retrieval service. It had been some time since we had researched the market and assessed how competitive we were on price and service. As I’ve mentioned in the past I am currently working on redeveloping the 3D Group trade website and when I arrived at the part of the process related to code retrieval, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to do the necessary market research. Having identified price as an area we could improve upon I asked Kerry, our sales supervisor, to negotiate the best possible prices for the codes that we offer. This led to us bringing a new code supplier on board, allowing us to lower prices on selected codes, speed up response times and add more brands and models to those that we already offered.

3dgroupuk.com/codes

Although the rest of the new website is still a way from being ready for release, I realised that the section I had re-developed for the codes service could in fact be launched early as a separate section of the current website. We knew that having this service online and making it mobile friendly would make requesting codes quicker and easier for many of our customers, so the decision was made to put it into testing early and get it released months before initially planned. As a result our new code service is now online and active for you to use. Simply visit www.3dgroupuk.com/codes and log in as usual. You can complete the online form within seconds (we know, we tested it with a stop watch! Our best time was 17 seconds) and submit your code request. You can even keep track of your previous requests online and see where they are in the process before receiving your code via your chosen response method, either e-mail or text. We launched this service on the 23rd April and we've already had great feedback about it which is encouraging as this is just a small part of the new website that is yet to come so please don’t just take our word for it, give it a try yourself!

If you can think of any improvements we can make to the service please let us know by commenting on our social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn or by emailing marketing@3dgroupuk.com

New 3D Group Catalogue

The new catalogues have arrived! As I mentioned earlier, this industry moves so fast that they are already out of date! We supply the printers with the artwork in a matter of days and when the artwork leaves us it is bang up to date with the latest products, however in the time it takes to be printed, bound and shipped from China to the UK we’ve already had another couple of hundred new products added to our stock range! Unfortunately until someone develops instant point to point travel this just has to be, but we think that the new catalogues look great. The little tweaks we have made to the design have paid off and they are now being distributed for free with all of our customers’ next orders. We’ve had some great feedback so far and we really do hope that you find them useful to have in your shop or van. Just remember that for our latest stock and prices you can always check our website too.

We have sourced a new supplier of Porsche parts and this is great news for our customers. It means that we will now be stocking a number of Porsche remotes and also improving the price of special order Porsche keys.

For a while now 3D Group have been developing our own range of aftermarket products in response to the often poor quality ones that are currently available on the market. We have strived to make these remotes and cases as good as the originals but with an aftermarket price tag. Products such as FOR3c, NRC1 and VXRC3 have proven very popular with our customers and people are pleased with the quality of them. As a knock on effect to this, a number of European distributors have started to take notice of our perfect quality cases and have requested distribution rights across Europe. This is great news and means that our cases will start to be sold across Europe through authorised dealers.

Ben

3D Group is still a growing and developing company, we are proud of our staff retention and many people who work for us have done so for years. Usually when someone leaves us it is with great sadness that we wave them goodbye and wish them well for the future, but in the case of Ben one of our warehouse operatives, it is a different story! Ben has worked for 3D Group in the warehouse for a little over 2 years and has proven to be a great asset to the team. He has decided on a different career path and that his time in the warehouse must come to an end… the good news for us is that his chosen career is as an auto locksmith and he has moved over to our retail brand 3D Autokeys in order to complete his training. So happily it means we aren’t waving him goodbye at all, but we still wish him all the best for the future.  Ben’s development has left an opening for someone in our warehouse and after a week or so of interviews we are delighted to welcome Rachel onto the team. Rachel has plenty of experience having previously worked at Screw Fix and we hope that she will be happy here at 3D Group.

So there it is, we have several new offerings for you; a newonline code service, a new catalogue, and new products! We hope that you give all of these a try in the coming weeks and as always we are grateful for any feedback you can give us as this only helps us to improve our service to you. Don’t forget to follow us on all of our social media channels Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn in order to keep up to date on any developments and to feedback your comments. Wishing you a great and prosperous week ahead.

Dean