Blogging off

This is the last Somerwood blog, at least for a while.

 

Thanks to all of you who have followed the blog week by week for the past eighteen months or so.

 

Goodbye from Leah, Graham and Lara.

Illuminating the way

We’re really thrilled this week because we’ve at last made our Somerwood VizCane available to customers via our website.  It seems to have taken so long from when we first devised the idea of the VizCane through to actually getting the product to market.  But now it’s happened and we’re over the moon!

 

The VizCane is an illuminated blind cane or white stick.  The idea is that it looks white during the daylight, like a standard blind cane, but shines with a bright, white light during the darkness, or whenever the lighting is poor.  It’s a fairly simple idea, but deciding on the appropriate technology and getting the product manufactured have taken time and effort.  And there’s still more to do: for instance we want to produce the stick in different heights.

 

But it’s all been worth while.  And if you want to see what all the fuss is about, well of course it’s now on the website!

The only way to test a walking stick

I may have mentioned Lara in a previous blog.  She is our additional helper at Somerwood, though since she’s a dog you won’t see her name mentioned on the website. 

She has a variety of duties, like making sure any new type of walking stick we sell on the website is properly tested before we market it.  This necessitates Lara escorting us round the village.  The best way to test a walking stick, after all, is to take it for a walk.  

At this time of year, especially when the weather is dry and sunny, we don’t need much persuading.  In fact, Lara seems to think she should take us for a walk even if there are no new walking sticks to try out.

 

 

 

LARA

Walking aids and good customer service

One of the best things about selling walking aids is the interaction with our customers.  Keeping our customers happy is one of the most enjoyable parts of the job.  I suppose we might achieve it by giving everything away free, but unfortunately we wouldn’t survive for long on that basis.  There is one thing however that we do try to give for free – and that’s good customer service.

 

Generally customer service seems to be pretty bad these days.  It almost seems as if the customer isn’t important enough to care about..  And all too often any service we do get is faceless.  Nobody answers your questions. If something foes wrong, nobody ever says they’re sorry.

 

At Somerwood.co.uk, even though we are selling through the relatively impersonal medium of a website, we try to treat each customer as though they were our only customer. If someone has a query, we attempt to answer it promptly and honestly.  Because we supply walking aids (such as walking sticks, hiking sticks, trekking poles, rollators, etc.) it’s very important we provide each customer with exactly what it is they need.  If for any reason we can’t, we quickly let them know so they can make other arrangements. 

  

There’s no reason, we believe, why every business should not take this approach to customer service.

Somerwood Garden Party went with a swing

In the Somerwood team we’ve just held our annual Garden Party.  It’s something we do each summer, and in effect it’s instead of a Christmas Party.  Luckily the weather was good and I think everyone had a really great time.

 

The business we’re in is selling walking aids such as walking sticks, hiking sticks, trekking poles and rollators, mainly through our website.  In a strange way it makes us very aware of the great outside, and often as we pack the walking canes we think of the open spaces where they’re going to be used.  So it’s nice once in a while for all of us to leave the website behind and get together in the open air and have a good time.

 

What’s more, midsummer seems to us like something worth celebrating!

Internet customers can stay loyal

In addition to our British website selling walking aids (walking sticks, hiking sticks, rollators, etc.), we used to also run an equivalent German website.  Unfortunately, for operational reasons we close down the German site a year or so ago.

 

It is nice, however, that we still get the occasional order (via the British website) from customers in Germany.  I think many remember the German site and want to stay faithful to Somerwood.

 

There is a stereotype of the internet customer: someone interested only in finding the best possible bargain in the fastest possible time.  It is gratifying therefore when online customers remain loyal and seek out a website they remember has provided good customer service in the past.

Another wet Bank Holiday!

We have all just enjoyed the late May bank holiday.  If you live in the southern part of the country, it was very clearly a bank holiday – it poured with rain all day!  In fact, apart from a few days early in May, it feels as though the weather has been miserable all Spring.  Not exactly ideal weather for walking!

 

Strangely, though, we’ve found that the sales of walking sticks via our website have been good all this year.  At Somerwood we specialise in walking sticks – these include hiking sticks and trekking poles designed for more serious walkers, and also walking sticks for people who need some support.

 

Maybe in all the wind and rain people who are not very safe on their feet look for additional support – it’s certainly the case that many of the roads and pavements near us can get very slippery when it’s been raining.   

Graham springs back to life

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you may recall that Graham hasn’t been well, and we weren’t sure what the problem was. He was suffering acute pains in his arms and also in his back – so much so that at one point we wondered if he might need to buy some walking aids from our own website.

 

It turned out that a nerve leading from his spine to his arm had become trapped, and was causing a lot of pain.  Fortunately Graham has received some treatment and is now feeling fine again.

 

Thanks to everyone working at the website and in the Somerwood warehouse where we keep the stock for being so supportive, and making sure it was always business as usual.

Back to reality

We have just returned from a short break in Italy.  We stayed in Amalfi, which as you may know is a small town perched on steep cliffs tumbling down to the sea.  It is a beautiful, idyllic spot.

 

The roads in and out of town are another matter, however.  Narrow and twisting, they wind round the cliffs hugging the coastline.  Only a low wall separates the traffic from a sharp plunge down into the sea.  And needless to say, the locals, who obviously know the road well, are not the most patient of drivers.

 

The reason why the road hugs the coast is that the interior is very mountainous.  From what we could see, it would be an interesting place to do some serious walking.  We have some interest in this because at the Somerwood website we specialise in walking sticks, including hiking sticks and trekking poles designed for more serious walkers.  We wondered for a moment how our business might fare in Amalfi.

 

Sadly, there was little evidence of any serious walking.  We think we’ll carry on limiting the website to the UK!

How to look like a serious walker

The better weather we’ve at last been enjoying over the past few days has meant that I’ve finally been able to do my first serious walking of the Spring.  A group of us stayed in Herefordshire over the weekend and made the most of the delightful countryside as we trekked through it.

 

Although I’m a keen walker I often don’t use a hiking stick and didn’t take one this weekend.  Some in the group did, however, and it was interesting to see how much more seriously they were taken as walkers.

 

In the company of someone with a hiking stick or trekking pole, it’s immediately assumed you’re undertaking a long walk or you’re going over some difficult terrain – even if you’re just popping out for the newspaper!

 

I have to confess to a special interest in this because we sell hiking sticks from our website.  I therefore know from what I’ve learned at Somerwood that they are not exclusively for serious walkers, and anyone can benefit from the stability they provide.

 

But it’s all a matter of perception.