Page 15 - Buyers Guide - Tiled Conservatory roofs November 2018.cdr

8 Reviews:- Fact or Fiction

At the time of writing this Buyers Guide, reviews and views have become one of the most powerful tools
in the decision making process for customers deciding which company to chose to carry out their
home improvement. However, it is vitally important not to fall into the trap of taking reviews on face value.

Often, ‘If it looks too good to be true’ it probably is not. The key to reviews, is to ignore the extremes.
If there are only a small number of 5 star glowing reviews and nothing else that offers a balanced view,
then this should arouse a modicum of suspicion. Also, if there are only a small number of extremely bad
reviews, these should also be viewed with suspicion, as they could have been posted by disgruntled
ex employees, or even competitors There are so many review sites competing for companies business
at the moment, that it would be almost impossible for a genuine company to maintain a balanced view
across all of these platforms. A lot of review sites do not allow a company to monitor or manage reviews
if they do not pay for a premium service. The worst culprit of this is in fact Google Reviews. Anybody
can go onto Google Reviews and post whatever they like, with no monitoring or form of redress from
the company involved.

The trick is to ask for the company’s main review site. This should have a large number of reviews,
from genuine customers, and also be relatively up to date. Any reviews posted on the company’s
chosen review site should be from genuine customers and offer a balanced view of the service and
quality of products supplied over a decent period of time. And most importantly, these reviews will be a
reflection of what that particular company delivers in terms of customer care, installation, guarantees
and overall level of service.

Always make your decisions based on facts, not fiction.

9 Local, Regional or National Company?

With the rise in popularity of Solid and Tiled Conservatory Roofs, companies of all sizes are springing
up to supply and install this excellent home improvement and investment. The whole industry is still
relatively new, having started as recently as 2013 in the UK. One of the deciding factors in choosing
the company to supply and install your new Solid or Tiled Conservatory Roof, is are they a local
company, a regional company or a national company. Each of these three options have features and
benefits of their own. Here we give a couple of pointers to consider:

Local Company:
PROS: Helps to support the local economy, may have local recommendations, should always be on time,
will be able to demonstrate local work, should have lower over heads so be keenly priced, should be
able to carry out prompt after sales service.

CONS: May be susceptible to economic fluctuations and not be a stable business, may only dabble in
Tiled or Solid Conservatory Roofs and not offer best level of expertise, may be difficult to contact, may
only offer limited guarantees.

Regional Company:
PROS: A more secure level of company economically, able to demonstrate a larger number of successful
installations, may be more competitively priced as have to maintain position in marketplace and can
benefit from the economy of scale in material buying, should have a good level of aftercare service with
dedicated staff and departments. Guarantees will be more secure.

CONS: May be less approachable than a smaller local company, May not be as flexible in terms of
price negotiation as will generally employ sales staff and have larger overheads.

National Company:
PROS:The most secure level of company economically, able to demonstrate a huge number of successful
installations, should have a good level of aftercare service with dedicated staff and departments.
Guarantees will always be honoured and generally answerable to independent governing bodies.

CONS: May be less approachable than a smaller local or regional company, Will not be as flexible in
terms of price negotiation as will have large overheads, may not offer a personal level of service.