Joint supplier/dealer events to tackle scooter safety as retailer refinement continues
Mobility scooter safety continues to be a topic grabbing headlines in the industry, with scooter incidents continuing to cause concern inside and outside the industry. Aiming to help improve user safety, TGA Mobility is offering to run joint safe driving awareness days with retailers as part of a new dealer outreach initiative.
The supplier of mobility scooters, wheelchairs and powerchairs is offering to run the safe scooter driving days for free with retailers, who are able to host the tailored educational events at their showrooms and premises.
According to TGA, the initiative offers what it calls a ‘triple-win,’ providing dealers with a unique educational proposition to offer to end-users, as well as marketing advantages to drive new and return business.
“For retailers, online pressures and box shifters makes for a very difficult market to operate ethically in, providing assessments and offering that level of care and service that is really needed,” commented Jon Nock, TGA’s public relations consultant.
“TGA recognises that so these joint events really are to help retailers that are focused on doing the right thing. From what I am seeing in the market, the high-pressure, direct-selling approach is working less in the market and being called out more.
“This initiative really is a great way for retailers to bring customers through the doors and showcase their knowledge by proving great advice, demonstrate the importance of assessments and raise important awareness of a showroom in a local area with some positive PR.”
Alongside this new initiative, TGA also recently launched a social media campaign to help mobility scooter users safe during the cold winter months.
The events will see TGA bring the equipment needed to set up test tracks at mobility dealerships, including cones, ramps, rocky surfaces and road signs, to stimulate everyday situations on the highway, whilst retailers’ product advisors can be on hand to offer advice around safe steering, manoeuvring and reversing.
Alongside the test track, TGA is offering free event publicity before and after the event, marketing advice, safe drive certificates and the attendance on a dealer’s area sales representative on the day to provide further support.
In addition, TGA highlights that the day provides dealers with the chance to have end-users test drive multiple scooters so product advisors can assess and recommend the ideal product for a user’s needs.
The events form part of the mobility equipment supplier’s dealer outreach program, forming closer ties and providing more support to the dealers it works with.
Last year, Tim Ross, National Sales Manager for TGA, told THIIS that the company was undertaking a retailer refinement process, reviewing its dealer network.
Speaking with THIIS at a recent TGA Dealer Day in Bristol, Tim said: “We are going through a process of looking at who we deal with. We feel assessments are really important and whilst selling on the internet is a valid way of selling, there are potential risks there that, as a supplier, we have concerns about, such as a customer getting products that are not right for their needs.
“Manufacturers have a huge responsibility in choosing the retailers and partners that they deal with and making sure staff are trained up and that they have the right infrastructure to offer the correct level of after-sales support.”
The topic of scooter assessments and qualifications have attracted considerable attention in the media recently, as the number of mobility scooter accidents and fatalities continue to rise.
In January 2019, a man emphasised the need for a change in mobility scooter regulation after his wife was hospitalised as a result of being knocked down by a mobility scooter.
As well as free scooter safety driving days, the company is also running localised Dealer Days across the UK, with the next one taking place in Runcorn on the 19th February 2019.
To find out more about the new Dealer Days and TGA’s dealer outreach strategy, read the upcoming March issue of the magazine. Trade professionals can subscribe for a copy to land on their desk for free.
