Examples of completed projects: Construction and Construction Materials

Castle Cement, Birmingham

Castle Cement began to employ me in 1999 on the recommendation of Tarmac Topmix. After a trial project, I have now completed more than 25 projects for the company. I have worked in two key areas for the company:

• Performance in the readymix industry. By telephone interviewing people at all levels within the readymix industry from batching plant to board members in all disciplines including operations, accounts and technical support, I am able to provide a good overview as to how well Castle is performing and where improvements can be made. This work has been repeated 3 times.
• The quality of Castle Cement’s representation into the merchant sector. Castle Cement needed to know how effectively it was selling itself into, not only the major builders' merchants, but also the independents. The objective was to determine how Castle Cement can make every single sales visit count. Other factors are also considered including the frequency of visit and the requirement for telephone contact between visits. This work is being repeated for the fourth time in 2007.

Lafarge Aggregates, Leicester

In 1999 Lafarge Aggregates employed me to make mystery calls to determine the quality of the company’s handling of incoming telephone calls and its ability to sell products effectively over the telephone, both in terms of helpfulness and the offer of follow up action. In 2002 my services were used to find out how well Lafarge Aggregates was handling enquiries on the implementation of the Aggregates Levy. A range of detailed questions were developed and posed by a number of callers. Very definite conclusions were reached and Lafarge Aggregates was able to quickly act to ensure that its customers received the quality and type of information required.

More recently I have undertaken a range of customer satisfaction surveys. For over 2 years I completed a 100-customer monthly survey looking at 2 very specific aspects of the company’s service. I am now completing a very detailed half yearly survey, which will be extended into 2008

Kohler Mira

Mira Showers, the world and UK leader in showers, needed to gauge plumbers’ and installers’ reaction to new shower technology. A response was needed in a hurry. Within 2 weeks my team of callers was able to complete 350 29-question interviews with named individuals and I was able to supply Mira with the detailed analysis required within 3 working weeks.

Mira Showers needed information on the requirements for a new shower aimed at the disabled. Immense detail was required from specifiers and installers with telephone interviews lasting up to 30 minutes each. The key objective of this work was to obtain qualitative information and effectively collate this into usable guidelines for the product development team. I have also completed other research projects for Mira Showers.

Tarmac, Wolverhampton

I have been working for Tarmac since 1997 and have now completed over 20 projects for the company. I have worked in all of Tarmac’s product sectors; concrete products (architectural concrete, blocks, bridge beams, drainage, floors, paving, railway sleepers), readymix concrete (including mortar and screeds) and aggregates and coated stone.

The work completed to date includes mystery telephone caller projects linked to training for those handling calls at the front line and extensive customer satisfaction research. I have carried out a series of regular customer surveys for all 4 companies within Tarmac Concrete Products. This work has demonstrated trends in performance, differences in performance between different sales offices and the impact of seasonality. Importantly it has also enabled benchmarking against the competition.

I have also carried out a range of market research projects including work on the decorative aggregates market in garden centres, the demand for part and split loads and new methods of construction.

I have made presentations to up to 150 people at all levels within Tarmac from Anglo American Board level downwards.

Vencel Resil, Howden

Vencel Resil is the market leader in coving and other ceiling products. It was developing a new product range specifically targeted at the DIY market and needed more information to finalise a radical design change.

I was employed to interview key DIY sheds and other DIY product stockists to gain their views on the existing coving and ceiling rose market and to determine what changes they were expecting in the market place. These interviews were completed on both a face-to-face basis and via the telephone.

I then ran a series of 3 focus groups with domestic end-users to find out more about their requirements and to test their reaction to a wide range of potential new products. The results provided a vital input into the redesign of the range.

3 years after the product development project, I ran another series of 3 focus groups, this time with both tradesmen and domestic end-users. The objective was to determine trends in the use of coving. This was supported by in depth interviews with 3 of the major retailers.