RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

It’s been a while! I apologise for the lack of directors’ blog posts over the last couple of months! I’ve got lots of news to tell you so I’ll not waffle on and jump straight in!



Welcome back Martyn!

If you cast your minds back to my last blog post a few months ago you’ll remember that our technical support guru Martyn had to undergo surgery at short notice. All of us here at 3D Group are now delighted to say that he is back at work and has recovered well. Martyn is now taking on a more office based role managing our technical support department as well as helping us research and develop new products. Martyn’s years of auto locksmith experience means he’s the ideal person to assist with any technical difficulties our customers might be experiencing and now that he is office based he will be able to respond to e-mail support enquiries much quicker.


Research & Development

Martyn and I have been working together testing a whole host of new parts and tools so that we can be sure of their quality before we release them for sale.

One product that flew through its testing phase was the new Ford PIN-Code retrieval tool for the SKP-900. This nifty gadget is now for sale on our website here, it connects to the OBD port of the vehicle as well as the SKP-900 machine and provides the PIN-Code in a matter of seconds. It’s so easy to use and such great value for money. Martyn’s full product review will be featured in the latest 3D Group e-mail newsletter and more information can be found on our website. Hopefully we will also be releasing a Nissan version of this tool in the near future. It’s currently being tested and much like the Ford version it will connect to the SKP and read the NATS code eliminating the need for code retrieval from another source. We’ll let you know as soon as this is available for purchase.


Another product that recently passed our rigorous testing procedures with flying colours is the 884 Mini Decryptor key cloner. Martyn was amazed at how easy this product was to use! In case you missed the email you can read Martyn’s full product review here . The good news is that we have held the introductory offer price so it really is great value for money and a great key cloner that will pay for itself within just a few jobs. Find out more about the Keyline 884 Mini Decryptor here.


We develop our own 3D Group range of after-market products and those that we have released already have been received very well. We aim for these products to be as good in terms of quality as the OEM version, however in the last few weeks we have received a complaint about one particular product and that is VGB1. The customer reported that he had a few cases of this particular blade snapping at the point where the groove can be found at the top of the blade. We have retested this product and found that there is a fault when excessive force is placed on the blade, therefore we are changing the design of this product and future batches of this blade will not have a groove at the top. This groove provides no particular function it is purely cosmetic, so removing it will simply remove the weak point in the blade and should improve the products quality.


We are also in the process of developing our own 3D version of NR9 - the Nissan remote. Unfortunately this has had to go back to the manufacturing factory due to it failing our test procedures on one particular vehicle. We realised that this problem vehicle is not available in the manufacturers’ country and so couldn't be tested which explains why we only realised we had a problem when it reached us. We have worked around this issue and final testing is now being done. Once this product has the green light and we are certain it will work on the full range of Nissan vehicles it will be available for sale.


New members of team 3D
I’m pleased to tell you that we have a couple of new members of staff that have joined us in the last few months. Matt is now well and truly settled in our sales department and you might have already spoken to him on the phone. We recruited Kristina as Matt’s replacement in the warehouse, her previous role was working in the Marks and Spencers distribution warehouse so she has plenty of experience and she has filled Matt’s boots well. She’s also over 6 feet tall so reaching the top shelves isn’t a problem for her and this quality has come in quite handy!

Developments within the company and the speed at which we are growing has meant that I am not able to dedicate as much time to the development of the new 3D Group website as it needs. I have waved the white flag and admitted that I need help so this week we have welcomed Istvan to the 3D Group team as our new web developer. Having Istvan on board should mean that we are able to release our new website sooner, as well as having the expertise in-house to potentially develop new projects too. The only problem is, with the new building still in development and the need for more office space for new staff, we have had to convert our stationary and filing room into a new office! This new office will also be the temporary home of a very exciting secret project that we are currently working on that will be coming to the UK next year! It’s all very hush hush at the moment and we are all sworn to secrecy but we are really excited about it and can’t wait to be able to tell you more in the New Year!

The Big Build

Speaking of the new building extension, things were going well. We had finally received approval and planning permission and we were excited to begin transforming the old building next door into our new office and warehouse extension. The plan was to remove the top floor of the old building but keep the external walls and remodel the internal structure so that we could align doorways etc with our current building and knock through. But the buildings inspector paid us a visit to see how the demolition was going and threw a spanner in the works! You can see the progress in this video.




The MLA


This year was the first year that 3D Group exhibited at the MLA Expo. Thank you to those of you who took the time to pay our stand a visit. Our stand was a lot smaller that we usually have at the likes of ALEX and LOCKEXPO but the introduction of a new touch-screen ordering system meant that not as much space was needed and it made it easier for customers to take advantage of our huge trade show offers. Our small stand proved effective and the show was a successful one for us. I hope if you visited, you enjoyed the MLA Expo too. This coming year we are increasing our presence at industry trade shows and will be adding a couple of new exhibitions to our repertoire so we look forward to meeting more of our customers face to face.

Customer Service

We are keen to provide the best customer service that we can and we try our best to monitor how well each department works. In our warehouse department our main target is to dispatch all orders as efficiently as possible with zero mistakes. Mistakes do occasionally happen, although very rarely and there has been a couple of instances where customers have received the wrong product. In order to try and iron out these errors our warehouse department has altered the way it picks products and we hope that this will increase our accuracy. Add to this the new systems updates that will be occurring with the launch of the new website and I hope we will be able to get the number of mistakes down to the bare minimum.

Reward Scheme Success



It’s just over three months since we launched our Reward scheme and it seems to have proven a hit! In the last three months we have given away thousands of points and you have treated yourselves to thousands of pounds worth of free products! We are delighted with the schemes success and hope that you are enjoying reaping the benefits of the orders that you place with us. If you have been saving those points to treat yourself to something extra special why not take a look at the new products we have recently added and see if anything takes your fancy? Keep your eyes peeled for some special rewards and offers appearing in the run up to Christmas too!

So, there’s the highlights from the last couple of months here at 3D Group. As always, keep in touch and up to date by following us on social media and registering for our newsletter if you don’t already receive it. Have a great week!


Dean

3D GROUP REWARDS - NOT JUST A TOKEN GESTURE...

For some time now we, as a company have been thinking of ways to reward our customers for ordering from us. Some companies give away free gifts, discounted gym memberships or vouchers in exchange for new account referrals, but we felt that these were all token gestures that didn't really hold any useful value to customers and even if they did, it was short lived. 

We wanted to devise a reward scheme that was simple for customers to get involved in and offered beneficial rewards that customers could truly see the value of. 3D Group Rewards was born, read on to find out more!

3D Group Rewards

3D Group has been exclusively providing auto locksmith parts and tools to trade for over 8 years. As a company we are eternally grateful to our customers for making us their choice of wholesaler and wanted to reward every one of our customers for their loyalty.

July 18^th 2015 saw the launch of 3D Group Rewards. This reward scheme has been designed to offer our customers a valuable reward that is worth receiving and not just a token gesture. Customers will earn points automatically on every order over £100* that they place with 3D Group. The number of points earned is depicted by the value of each order and can be as much as 3 points for every £1 spent. Customers will bank their points in their online rewards account, with no limit to how many points they can bank and no expiry on when these points have to be redeemed. 

Points hold a value of £0.01p discount off a future order with 3D Group and can be redeemed as and when the customer chooses. Points can be redeemed against almost every product on the 3D group website which means that customers can use them to treat themselves to that luxury tool they’ve always wanted, or save them up throughout the year and purchase that top of the range machine they’ve coveted. Alternatively they can redeem their discounts on their usual order every month to simply reduce their costs.

In addition, 3D Group will hold special reward events at various times throughout the year when the number of points earned on purchases is increased or even the discount value of the customers’ banked points is doubled! Keep your eyes peeled on 3dgroupuk.com for these special events!

To celebrate the launch of 3D Group Rewards, 3D Group has secretly been crediting all existing customers’ reward accounts with points since Monday 13^th July. If you’ve placed an order on or after the 13^th July simply log in to your 3D Group account now to see how many points you've already got banked and to discover how much discount is already available to you.

Code Service

We also launched our new online code service a month or so ago and we are delighted with its success so far! Initial user figures are better than we had ever hoped for, proving that the convenience of an online service is useful to today’s auto locksmith. If you haven’t yet tried it, you can visit www.3dgroupuk.com/codes and test the service for yourself. We credited every account with 5 free tokens when we launched the service so if you haven’t used them already you can try it for free!

Website development

I appreciate that it’s been a while since I mentioned the new 3D Group website that’s in development so I thought I better give you an update. The new website will be a complete re-fresh of our existing website. 

As 3D Group’s web developer I have been working non-stop to develop the functionality of the new site. It will be easier to navigate, easier to manage your trade account online and feature a superb search function. We are also completely modernising the way that the website works and communicates with our warehouse and dispatch systems in order to further improve the level of customer service that we can offer you.  

Unfortunately this does take time, so in order to speed up the process so that you can benefit from the developments sooner we have contracted a graphic designer to assist in the project, ensuring that the new website has a brand new modern and fresh look as well as being functional.

New Building

Our rate of expansion never ceases to amaze me. In the last few years as a business we have grown at an exponential rate. As I mentioned at the start of the year, we are quickly running out of space in our warehouse for new products! The building next door was purchased just after Christmas and since then we have been liaising with the architect to develop and plan how we will combine the two buildings. It will be quite a project but we are so excited for the final result. 

The new building will allow for a huge expansion of the warehouse space, along with extra offices and a dedicated workshop for our retail auto locksmith brand. A purpose built training centre will also be included in the new plans so that Martyn can expand his training packages. The demolition of the current internal structure of the new building will begin in the next couple of weeks and fingers crossed the development will run smoothly and to plan, with minimal impact on the operation of our current premises.

Staff

There has been a few staff changes at head office in the last couple of months. Rachel our new warehouse assistant has settled in well and is holding her own with the lad’s banter! (An important personality trait I feel!) We have welcomed Louise to our sales office so you may have spoken to her on the phone already. 

Unfortunately we have had to say goodbye to Nathan from the sales office as he has moved on to his dream job in game design, however this has meant that Matt from our warehouse department has been able to continue his 3D Group career development and will be transferring to replace Nathan in the sales office very soon. Matt has worked in our warehouse for over 3 years and has a wealth of product knowledge that will stand him in good stead for dealing with customer enquiries and orders. This creates a vacancy in our warehouse department that we are currently advertising. If you know of anyone that may be interested there are further details online here. 

Martyn has performed many roles since he first started with 3D Group way back when he was a teenager! For many years he has worked as an auto locksmith for our retail brand as well as providing the technical support and training for the wholesale side of the business. If you have ever completed any training with 3D Group it is highly likely that Martyn was your trainer. Unfortunately several weeks ago Martyn had to undergo surgery on short notice and this has meant that he has been unable to return to work for several months whilst he recovers fully. We are pleased to tell you that the surgery was successful and Martyn is on the mend, we really do wish him a speedy and successful recovery. The office just isn’t the same without his huge personality and sense of humour! 

We look forward to seeing him back in the office once he is fully healed and ready. The exciting news is that when he does return Martyn will be taking on more of an office based role and will be able to provide faster technical support. He will also be heavily involved with product research and development alongside developing his own training courses and packages once the new facility is complete.

Blog Posts

Our last blog post ‘Free Ways To Promote Your Auto Locksmith Business & Increase Enquiries’, written by Rebecca to help auto locksmiths better promote their services with next to no expenditure has proven incredibly popular! I’m almost a little offended! Ha! 

Rebecca’s blog post broke our records for the highest number of views of all the posts we’ve published on this blog. I’m hoping that those who have read it have found it useful. Perhaps coincidentally we have noticed an increase in the number of auto locksmiths active on twitter which is great! Please get in touch and tell us what you thought of the post and tell us of any results you’ve seen by implementing any of Rebecca’s suggestions. 

Fans of Rebecca’s post will be pleased to hear that she will be putting pen to paper again very soon. Following on from telling you how to increase your enquiries, Rebecca will explain some of the best ways to then convert those enquiries into booked jobs in her next blog post. If there are any topics that you would like to see covered in future blogs, please get in touch!

Dean