Retailer spotlight: How Freedom Mobility aims to deliver value to customers
Freedom Mobility is a rapidly growing mobility business with big growth ambitions in the Norfolk and Suffolk regions. Dominic Goldsmith, Managing Director at Freedom Mobility, talks to THIIS about his growing business…
Freedom Mobility markets a range of new and nearly-new mobility equipment, including a variety of branded scooters as well as stairlift solutions. Based in the seaside town of Lowestoft in Suffolk , the business is fast gaining a reputation for delivering a fresh approach for customers, promoting a business ethos that centres on supplying high-specification products, alongside exceptional customer service.
The east coast business operates two separate divisions consisting of showroom sales and a service operation.
Dom Goldsmith, Managing Director at Freedom Mobility, comments: “Freedom Mobility has grown fairly quickly over the last few years, and this is partly down to a very successful field sales operation which performs very well, alongside our showroom sales and servicing business.
“Customers really benefit from hands-on time with our products in a variety of retail settings. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that customers are keen to interact with suppliers in a variety of different ways, both online and face-to-face. Building trust is key and relationships can’t always be forged easily at arms-length. Our ultimate aim is to ensure every one of our customers is matched with the right product, but we are also focused on delivering exceptional value for our customers too.”
How it all began
So how did he get here? Dom had previously been working for a mobility company in Great Yarmouth with his former business partner at Style Mobility. When they went their separate ways two and a half years ago Dom set up his own business.
It was the same principles as before, says Dom, but his entrepreneurial mindset was set on doing things slightly differently and making his business stand out. “We’re a bit more proactive than your normal mobility company,” he says. “The quality of service we provide is higher, the quality of the product is higher and the price should be lower.”
It’s clear Dom has a real passion for working in the mobility industry, an opportunity which came purely by chance. A former restaurant manager and nightclub doorman for several years, Dom spotted a job in a local newspaper. He wasn’t sure exactly what the company was – he supposed it could have been a call centre – but it turned out to be a mobility company.
Dom has fond memories of his 18 months spent there. “It was a decent place to work and the people were alright, but as time went on I thought there were certain things I could perhaps do differently.” He explains that the business concerned was in the process of expanding and focused more around supply into the trade, and he thought that they had perhaps let their service slip a little bit.
Dom knew he was jumping in at the deep end by setting up his own business but he was set on learning and developing his knowledge of the mobility industry as much as possible.
Dom explains: “I went to all the trade shows, read all the magazines, spoke to as many people as I could, and learnt what I needed to learn. You’re always learning. Even today, when we find something that’s not going so well we swap it, change it around, put a system in place and move forward.”
Showroom facility
The team at Freedom Mobility is based at an industrial unit with an office/reception facility. As Dom explains, customers can come in and sit down in the comfortable reception, where they are given a brief assessment before being shown through to the showroom.
“We understand that it’s a big thing for a customer to get to the point of coming to the showroom in the first place,” Dom says, which is why he and the staff try and take the stressful element out as much as possible for customers and go out of their way to make the experience pleasant and easier.
He adds: “It’s a bit of a minefield if you’re new to mobility as to what to buy and what not to buy, especially with all the information available. We ask several leading questions that should result in us being able to recommend to the customer two or three contrasting products that can then make their life easier.”
Dom’s approach has seen the business experience a period of sustained growth. Targeting mainly customers in East Anglia, the dealer’s clientele is predominantly elderly, but it is also very diverse, he says.
One of the main reasons for this is due to its presence as a mobile mobility shop at open air markets in towns across the region, which provides a good stream of leads. “It gives us the chance to go out and actively speak to customers,” states Dom.
“They might be people who are on scooters already or we might have customers who stop by and state that they have perhaps been looking online and are not sure where to go.”
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic obviously hit the business hard, Dom recalls, as the open markets were closed for a period. Says Dom: “Covid for us was a lot different to more established retailers. Due to what wasn’t a particularly amicable separation from my business partner before, it didn’t leave me with a lot of capital. I had to carry on working and adapt to the situation.”
Dom explains: “During lockdown, stairlifts, wheelchairs and scooters were still a necessity in the community so our local MP helped us in being recognised as an ‘essential business’ so that we could still work and carry on. We obviously ensured that we were taking the necessary precautions when dealing with the public, such as masks, sanitisers, and so on.”
Another challenge, with a global shipping crisis going on in the background, was the delays in new stock coming over from China. This became more of an issue for the team than Covid itself, Dom says, but the business adapted. He continues: “If we can’t get new stock we sell re-conditioned mobility products, and use our engineers and valetors to get products up to standard.”
Needless to say, the business went straight back to the markets as soon as it was able. Since then, the footfall into the showroom has been good. Says Dom: “We don’t get a lot of passing trade anyway but footfall in terms of markets has been excellent, going from zero to flat-out. We tend to get a good quality of customer as they tend to come find us and they will often leave with something.”
Working with suppliers
During periods where there was a lack of stock coming in from overseas Dom recalls some frustrating times with certain suppliers. He explains: “A lot of the time the retailers are given empty promises but in fact the supplier doesn’t really know itself. A bit of honesty from suppliers would have kept some of the deals we had with customers in place.
“We lost a lot of money when suppliers promised us products which didn’t turn up. We kept putting one customer off until they changed their mind and went somewhere else. If the supplier had been honest and said it was going to be three months, we could have lent the customer a scooter for three months or sold them something else.”
Dom says that they don’t expect anything to come in on time now, so if they order products in, they give the customer a longer lead time. “We don’t want to tell them something that’s not going to happen,” he says.
As a business prepared to go the extra mile, if ordered parts don’t turn up, Dom says that he and the team will set out to make the product work anyway. “We will re-build the gearboxes or the post bearings. We will weld things and we will manufacture stuff ourselves whenever we can,” he states.
One supplier which Freedom Mobility is delighted to be working with is eFOLDi, a supplier of the Lite mobility scooter and folding Power Chair with attendant controls.
The team at Freedom Mobility came upon the supplier after an elderly customer asked them to collect and sell her eFOLDi Lite as she was too frail to use it. Says Dom: “When we brought it back to the showroom we were impressed with how lightweight and portable it was.
We had a play about with it and thought we should try and sell them. Tim Ross [National Sales Manager at eFOLDi] came down and did a demo of the products and we were really impressed.”
Freedom Mobility has since spent some time working with its products closely to understand just how versatile and user friendly they really are, says Dom.
“It’s not just the product but the personal service is very good also. Tim and the rest of the staff tend to get things over quickly. They’re the most reliable company at the minute in terms of supply.”
There has always been a battle for the lightest folding scooter, says Dom, but whether a competing product is half a kilo or a kilo lighter it isn’t enough to make a difference considerably. “I think because eFOLDi was built from the ground up to be what it is rather than adapting its products from older models; it does its job really well.
“It supplies stable well-thought-out products and we don’t get a great deal of problems with them.”
Another product which is a bestseller for Freedom Mobility is The Dorchester rise and recline chair from Pride Mobility.
Says Dom: “We don’t do a massive range of rise and recline chairs because it confuses people, but the Dorchester five-motor chair is fantastic, so we sell a lot of those.”
It’s a well made chair, Dom explains. “It’s got more adjustment for the customer, and they don’t have to use cushions and pillows in addition to using it. There is a wide range of fabrics for it as well.”
By sticking to the one product means that Freedom Mobility becomes an expert in it in terms of selling and repairing it. “Reputation is important to us,” says Dom. “It’s important that we know the customer’s going to get a good product and be happy as well.”
Embracing E-commerce
Freedom Mobility in the process of embracing e-commerce. “Everyone’s online now and we have to follow in that respect,” says Dom.
Scott Smith, Sales and Marketing Director for Freedom Mobility, who has been with the business from the start, has been busy photographing around 100 mobility scooters for the website. Says Dom: “We will start putting them on eBay initially, and then they’ll go on the ecommerce website, which will be ready soon.”
There are challenges when dealing with customers this way, Dom acknowledges, but all products are given a strict pre-delivery inspection check, he says, before they go out. New batteries are put into all reconditioned products, with new chargers also supplied, so that there is a reduced risk of anything going wrong.
An engineer/driver is on hand all of the time. Says Dom: “If we encounter a problem we look to find a solution and put a system in place to prevent it happening again.”
There is no limit on where customers are based, explains Dom. “We use a pallet company to enable products to be sent safely anywhere in the country for a reasonable price.” Dom says that they rarely get any issues, but if a problem happens and they are too far away to fix it they will work with a mobility company local to the customer to get it sorted.
Freedom Mobility has a large unit but Dom admits that the business is outgrowing it quicker than they had anticipated. The unit has installed a pallet rack and a fork lift to store another level of stock, and Dom says that they also use an additional storage unit close by. Dom says that the plan is to buy a new, larger premises in a couple of years.
He is expecting to be kept busy during the winter with repair work. Tyre punctures from thorns and misused batteries left out in the cold become more of an issue in the colder months, but summertime is the biggest time for sales.
As for what he hopes 2023 will bring, Dom says: “More online sales hopefully! We just want to continue to improve on the level of service and quality we offer customers.”
www.freedommobilityproducts.com
