How Senior Stairlifts is taking customer service to the next level in Leeds
Leeds-based firm Senior Stairlifts may be fairly young as a company but it has quickly built a reputation for its customer service and as a company that cares in the way it contributes to the local community. THIIS speaks to Kieran Harris, Managing Director of Senior Stairlifts to find out more…
Senior Stairlifts may only have been established in October 2020 but the firm has quickly built a reputation for offering an excellent service selling new and reconditioned stairlifts to its customers, even picking up an award at this year’s Handicare Partner Day Awards.
Kieran decided to set up the company in 2018 after working in the construction industry for many years and becoming fed up with it. His good friend Joe Stevenson, a stairlift engineer, was also fed up with how he had seen the industry treat its customers and employees.
With Joe’s help, Kieran started to get the wheels rolling on setting up his own firm 2018, registering the company in March 2019 and after undergoing extensive training in stairlift engineering himself the firm commenced business in October 2020. Joe works as Operations Manager, organising engineers and dealing with customers, while Kieran is the Managing Director.
Kieran comments: “We don’t have sales people, just engineers, and they go out and assess the user. We are partnered with Handicare, but if there is something Handicare can’t offer there are other brands we work with.”
Earlier this year Senior Stairlifts won Handicare’s Silver Dealer of the Year award. The company, which is now a Gold Handicare Dealer, was thrilled with the recognition of its work.
Senior Stairlifts has been working with Handicare since day one of the busness being established. Kieran says: “With Handicare they are always quick to sort a problem out and deal with it. We look after them and they look after us.”
The firm also works with Access BDD, offering lifts that are reconditioned and new, as well as repairing any makes and models.
Discussing what makes Senior Stairlifts stand out from its competition Kieran puts it down to there being “less red tape”. As he puts it: “We’re all about the keeping the process of getting a stairlift simple for the customer. There’s no sales pitch or jargon.
“We offer longer warranties on our reconditioned lifts than the manufacturers offer on new. It also comes down to the rapport we have with the customers.
“We may not be the cheapest but we’re the best. If someone says that they can get it cheaper we remind them that, in some cases, that company is probably not going to be around in a few years time, which is important to consider when you have a high value item under warranty.”
Recently, Kieran experienced this first hand when he was contacted by a customer of another local stairlift firm which had ended up going bust. The business in question had been growing sharply as it been selling a lot of stairlifts cheaply, Kieran states, but then when the business failed, its disgruntled customers ended up turned to Senior Stairlifts for help instead.
Says Kieran: “We must get two calls a week from unhappy customers who explain that this particular firm has gone bust and they were charged for a stairlift under warranty.”
One of these customers was the Snoose Charity in Luton, which was set up to help disabled children and give respite to their parents. Kieran continues: “They called me and explained that they had been sold a product with a seven-year warranty, so we went and fixed the stairlift for free for them and serviced and cleaned it.”
The charity were over the moon with the result, he says. “We received a letter of from the charity coordinator, Kirsty Hunt. She wrote: “Snoosc was unfortunately left without a working stairlift due to our previous company disappearing with paid five year warranty and a broken stairlift. We are extremely grateful for your generosity in helping us.”
Helping customers
The firm is based in Leeds and cover most of the UK. The parts that it is not touching it is working on covering, says Kieran: “We have five engineers and we’re currently recruiting some more engineers to cover the south of England – including Devon, Cornwall, Hampshire and Kent.”
The firm does not have a showroom but does not feel the need as it aims to cover the whole of the UK, explains Kieran.
“Once we have assessed customers we advise them and share brochures with them, but it goes on trust in us to deliver what’s best for them.
“One of the biggest things in my business experience is to keep overheads to a minimum and why build a national business and have a showroom in Leeds? It makes no sense!” Kieran points out that the firm’s Facebook page boasts plenty of examples of Senior Stairlifts’ work that it has done, as well as reviews.
What makes the firm stand out from its competition is simply that it cares, explains Kieran. “We care about our reputation and we have that at the front of everything we do. If a customer is unhappy about something we’ll go the extra mile to make sure it’s dealt with.“
A company that care
Kieran observes that nearly all of his customers request reconditioned stairlifts and he thinks a lot of the reasoning behind this is the long warranty, the reviews and the service. “They trust us. Also, we don’t fit lifts that are really old. Our bestsellers are reconditioned straight stairlifts.”
As far as the stairlift industry goes he feels that it is probably only going to get bigger as the ageing population continues to grow. “For me it’s important that those working in a market which is directly targeting the elderly and vulnerable have a straight and true moral compass. It is so easy to get caught in business and think about how to make more money when actually you need to consider the needs of your customers.”
Kieran says that when he is employing staff the first thing he looks at is personality. “They get a bit of a grilling quiz from me over video and they get sent a personality questionnaire,” says Kieran. “We are employing based on who they are as a person first before we know what they can do. We want them to be trustworthy, caring, honest and hard-working.”
Kieran’s plan in the future is to set up a foundation or trust to help lonely people. Comments Kieran: “One thing which became apparent to me when I was out on the road installing stairlifts and I noticed was there were a lot of lonely people. One older lady gripped my arm and said I was the first human being she had spoken to for three weeks.”
The idea would be to work on local centres where elderly people can come and be collected by a bus and be taken once or twice a week for coffee and a natter, and offer them financial support.
As far as 2023 goes, Kieran says that his plan is just to continue to grow the company. “We are recruiting in the office, in the field and we just want to continue to build the name,” he says.
www.seniorstairlifts.co.uk
