The day starts by touching base with the team at Universal Aluminium and welcoming everybody back after the Christmas break. It’s also a good opportunity to see who went to bed the latest on New Year’s Eve!
First task for the morning is inevitably paperwork today, after the Christmas and New Year holiday, and working through emails and letters received is an essential daily task to ensure all communications are responded to rapidly and effectively.
Exciting times are in the pipeline for us here, too, as we are working through final SBD Approval on our Unitherm 55+ and Unitherm 75 Product ranges.
We’re currently preparing products for testing by BRE our chosen accreditation partners, and expecting SBD Approval by the end of January.
As well as gaining additional industry accreditation for some of our Products, we’re currently introducing new products into the marketplace, too: we have a new thermal door, the MU2075 Elite, and are also developing a new Bi-fold patio door, the MU2700, representing exciting and innovative technological breakthroughs.
Our Designer Door, the popular MU2600, is also in final stages of obtaining official Fire Rating, and I am working with the development team to generate the corresponding Technical Manuals and documentation, ahead of the new launches.
Another element of today is the less intensive but highly enjoyable task of welcoming a new employee into the Universal Family at our Bristol HQ. This year, we have a committed policy of growing our team, and we’re taking on high quality individuals in key positions to help us drive the company forwards.
Michael Hawkins starts with us today, as Sales Engineer – he’ll be supporting David Goggin in the sales department, helping to resolve any customer technical issues, queries, and general questions regarding the extensive range of Universal Products and Systems. Michael will also be responsible for helping to procure new business.
As a new team member, Michael will have a week of induction – meeting the full Universal team, understanding the Products we offer – no easy task, given that Universal are Europe’s largest suppliers of aluminium sign systems!
The afternoon is spent reviewing our new website – part of our business growth for 2012 has to be re-visiting our online presence, and introducing new communication channels for customers via blogging, Twitter, and an upgrade on our company website, to ensure new customers can see what they want quickly and easily.
The new website will also focus on being more user-friendly, as well as highlighting the full Universal Product range and showcasing our strong technical ability. Final proofing nearly finished, and we’ll be ready for an imminent online launch.
As part of the Muskita Group, I regularly review issues and opportunities with the team in Cyprus. We have a huge amount of autonomy as to how the UK operation is run, although communication between the two businesses is important.
We regularly have visitors from our Parent company where we can discuss, face-to-face, ways we can improve both businesses. This global support structure also helps our customers get better service, better products and better response times in general.
Final task of the day is to plan out timings on visits to key customers during January, to see how we can improve our support, and assist them in driving their business forwards in 2012. A hectic, but rewarding day at Universal!
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