How to have great customer service and use video production at the same time | feat. Richard from Garrison Locks

Jasper:
Hello, everyone. Today, we're here at Garrison Locks. I'm here with Richard Breslin, owner, who has kindly given me to wear a nice on-brand fleece. So you'd best step up your game, other clients who I'm coming to film with. I want a fleece next time. Anyway, Richard, can you tell me about Garrison Locks? What do you guys do for the people who don't know?

Richard:
Yeah. Yeah, sure. Well, hello viewers, if you like. Yeah, basically Garrison Locks, we specialize in vehicle locking systems. We deal with the hook locks, deadlocks, slam locks, armor plates through our e-commerce website, which is garrisonlocks.co.uk, and we also have a nationwide installation service.

Jasper:
Brilliant. So we did some video work for you recently, didn't we? We did a branding video and a Q&A video, which I just need to do a disclaimer about now because in previous videos I've said that they have five stars on TripAdvisor, but it is indeed Trustpilot, isn't it?

Richard:
It is actually Trustpilot, yeah.

Jasper:
Yeah. So you can't stay here.

Richard:
No. No, there's no beds.

Jasper:
No beds, no breakfast.

Richard:
There's certainly no breakfast.

Jasper:
Obviously, you guys are highly rated and we wanted to get that out there, sort of your brand, your personality, and really sort of differentiate from the competition essentially, so we did a branding video and the Q&A video as well for content. So how did you think that went on the day? Do you think we captured Garrison?

Richard:
It was really good actually, yeah. Obviously, because you never quite know ... It's the first sort of promo video that we've done for the company, and obviously I wasn't really too sure what to do, how to do things, this sort of stuff, but Jasper made it really easy for us; he's really good at making you feel comfortable. Yeah, I think it went really, really well. It was a pleasure.

Jasper:
Aw, lovely. Yeah, I mean, we had lots of fun on the day and obviously it was finding those little bits, sort of emphasizing customer service was one big thing. So do you feel like all the planning leading up to that, we sort of captured the vision for that? So emphasizing things like customer service and personality?

Richard:
Yeah. Yeah. And obviously, we as a company, we pride ourselves on our customer service levels to be fair. And that shows through our Trustpilot reviews. Yeah, we really sort of push our customer service. Not to sort of put down any other companies out there, but a lot of the companies, once they sell a product online, that's it, you don't really get anything else from it. There's no customer service, no back up, anything like that. We specialize in, not only the products that we do, but also the customer service, and I think that's really, really important. And I think you sort of captured quite a lot of that in our video. So that, for us as a company, is really important to us, yeah.

Jasper:
Yeah. There was a point where everyone wants everything at convenience, but now also they want the same level that you get with medium to larger sized businesses and things like that. So they want the systems, but also the personality.

Richard:
I'm quite happy that you brought that up. We had a customer the other week. He sort of said to us, "Well, Amazon can get it out to us the following day," and he was in an offshore country, and we said, "Well, we're not Amazon. We are a company that, we either get the goods in or we dispatch them here or our other depots, and we get those out to the customer." Unfortunately, because of this Brexit situation and everything else, it has been really challenging and it's been challenging for most companies. It's probably even been challenging for Amazon. And it was one of these things where, well, "We're not Amazon, but we're doing our absolute best, and we will find a courier or we'll find a way to get that parcel to you." Sometimes it's cost effective, sometimes it's not. And again, it's again often that level of customer service and you try your best. But on that occasion, it wasn't quick enough for him, which is a shame, but these are things that we learn by.

Jasper:
Yeah. But I think also, in the future, it helps that customer service part because he'll probably remember that and maybe in the future, again, come back to you guys. In terms of relating it to video then, do you feel not only of course the branding video emphasizes customer service, but doing the Q&A videos, do you feel that sort of puts you more in the position of like a thought leader within the locksmith space in helping to sort of establish you guys as the go-to people?

Richard:
We're really good on our level of customer service when it comes to the Q&A sort of side of things; the sales girls do know their stuff. And a lot of companies out there, when you ring them up, they don't really know what they're talking about. They just sell one lock. They don't know why they're sending that lock or why that particular lock is going to be suitable for that particular vehicle.

Richard:
Maybe sometimes you might get a vehicle that you know that particular lock is going to be the best option. It's going to be the most expensive, but that going to be the best option. Sometimes you might get a vehicle where that really expensive lock system, that will fit it, isn't necessarily the best for that vehicle. And that's again, down to questions and answers and that sort of stuff from the telephone calls that people ringing up, asking the questions, our guys and girls upstairs, they know what they're talking about. And if there's anything really, really technical, then they can go to the technical team.

Jasper:
In terms of customer service, what would you say is the best thing to start with?

Richard:
I think important is attitude on the telephone because generally the first point of contact is going to be telephone. Arguably, maybe even email. So make sure that they're polite, they explain everything. Sometimes it might take 10, 15 minutes to make an email, type up an email, think about it, and then send it back to the customer. The customer then goes, "Wow, this is quite a lot to read." But they'll sit there at some point during that day, they'll read that, and they'll look at that and go, "That's really nice. That's put together nicely. It's a good email. Gives me all the information that I want." So I think the initial point of contact, whether it be by telephone or email, is to be polite, courteous, and informative.

Jasper:
So to wrap things up, yeah-

Richard:
Is that it? I spent all day getting ready just for this?

Jasper:
I think so, yeah.

Richard:
I've got a clean shirt on. I've even lent you one of these.

Jasper:
I look very nice. Think I'll have to do this.

Richard:
But you need to get your logo in there. That's-

Jasper:
No, I'm working for these guys now.

Richard:
Oh right.

Jasper:
Garrison Videos. So to wrap up, thanks for being on the video, Richard. I really appreciate that-

Richard:
Thank you. Thanks for popping in.

Jasper:
... and sharing your knowledge as well. Hopefully we can do some more work in the future and obviously see how the branding video and the Q&A works for you as well.

Richard:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, look forward to that. You guys took my carpet out?

Jasper:
Yeah. I'm guessing I should give this back now.

Richard:
Yeah.

Jasper:
It's only a rental.

Richard:
It's a rental!

Jasper:
Right. Yeah, thank you for that.

Richard:
Thank you.

Jasper:
And, yeah, thank you for watching.

Richard:
Yeah, cheers guys; you take care.

Jasper:
Bye.

Richard:
We're out.