10 changes that saved my business during the pandemic

Joe Mühl is the Managing Director of Contracts & Commercial Projects for Ocean Bathrooms. In this article, he shares how he dealt with the changes brought on by COVID19.

The first two weeks in lockdown were the hardest, trying to forecast what the future held for Ocean Bathrooms. I spent most of the time putting together 10 changes and implementations which I could see would immediately benefit Ocean Bathrooms. Later on, when looking at them more closely, I realised they could advantageous for other industries as well.

To ensure that the business continued to work effectively, I created a “from home design service”.  Now the client measures the room, takes pictures of it (including boiler, sloping ceilings, etc.), and sends it to one of our designers, who designs the bathroom.

The client either participates in a virtual screen share of the bathroom with rendered images or have an AR link sent to them, enabling them to stand in their own virtual reality bathroom and to see it as it could be. This has worked surprisingly well, and we will now continue to use this in all showrooms as first point of contact before site visits.

Tailored brochures have proven to be indispensable. Ocean Bathrooms have both retail and commercial businesses as clients, and I’ve found that the Commercial clients do not want to browse through hundreds of options when looking for a product. I thought it would be a good idea to launch a set of brochures specially designed to give the client four clear budgets with the possibility of upgrading.

The Gold, Silver & Bronze brochures feature quality brands and commercial prices with 3-4 choice options and upgrades, making things easier to choose and saving time. The PDF works in a way that once the client has ticked the chosen items, they fill in a registration form and simply click “Submit” - the PDF then compresses and sends the choices to Ocean Bathrooms directly, enabling the client to register their choice quickly and efficiently.

Opening a new showroom was essential. After speaking to a friend and colleague, an opportunity arose to open a new showroom in Poole, Dorset, located close to the illustrious Sandbanks area. This is a great opportunity for all our clients who currently work in this area and allows us to network with other potential clients. 

I asked our key suppliers to sign NDA’s and explained what I was hoping to achieve. All suppliers thought the new showroom idea was brilliant and were happy to see some positivity coming through these very unsettling times we currently find ourselves in.

All we now needed was the right installation service to offer to our clients. Previously, I had mooted the idea to the owner of a fitting team working in the high-end property market. He agreed to come on board with Ocean and run our in-house installation service. We are now able to offer this bespoke service throughout our three showrooms.

The showroom opens October 2020 and should have a fantastic new look and feel. It has been deliberately designed to a very trendy “London Clerkenwell style”, with wine cooler, fresh coffee, working water features and a comfortable seating area.

The showroom will be a sensory experience as you walk around: the air will be scented by essential oil humidifiers; modern metal finishes will attract the eye and a designer cedar clad wall will showcase all pottery and sanitary ware. The client restroom features Washer Toilets for both male and female use, and together with the special finish brassware, it’s designed to wow the user.

Collaboration is something I have always believed in. I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with an interior designer who focuses on wellbeing, sustainably and eco design. We have got together and have now launched a new service, making it easier for potential bathroom customers to source where all the products originate, how they are made and what they are made from.

This complements Ocean bathrooms very well, as we have always sourced brands with eco sustainability together with well-made products we can trust. I have also managed to interest a soft furnishings specialist to advise on the Poole and also Bridport showroom renovation.

The Bridport showroom is extremely large and because of the layout, the area and the size, it is no longer possible, due to this pandemic, to enjoy large volumes of people looking at and touching the displays. After re-designing the front space of the showroom as a presentation area, the client can now book a private appointment and enjoy quality time on their own in the showroom, sit comfortably in the presentation area and enjoy their new bathroom in 3D on a large screen TV. New signage for customers now states that we are only giving private appointments and full COVID procedures are in place for the comfort and health of all.

Test any idea, no matter how brilliant, with your customer. We trialled the new showroom with our customers and they have appreciated the new way of shopping for a bathroom. The new wellness restroom, complete with washer toilet and essential oil scented humidifiers, and the kitchen facilities, together with fresh coffee, is the new sensory experience the client will be receiving.

We are trying to be cautious too: all of our out goings so far are to attract a new clientele. We are unsure what the future will have in store for us, but I feel we must grab every opportunity we can whilst we can, while trying to make as many savings as we can and, to this end, we have consolidated our warehouse and storage area. This will service Bridport, London & now Poole with ease but at a significant lower cost.

Apply for competitions! Earlier in the year I entered a competition promoting Sky Ads and, after filling in the form to explain the advantages of advertising for Ocean Bathrooms, I forgot about it. After a month, I had a lovely surprise in an email, saying that Ocean had been selected to win. Luckily, I had another contact who was able to create a very good advert which went live on the 11th August and is a completely different but a very interesting avenue of advertising for Ocean Bathrooms.

Try new tangents. Finance for clients was a service I thought about offering and I have managed to source a great company. It took around a month to sort, but we are now FCA approved, able to offer clients up to £50,000 and up to 7 years to repay.

I have spoken to a few selected interior designers around the area and offered Ocean as a “pop-up showroom” – I was just testing the waters to see if the area would work for anyone and now we will have our first opening in November and December, something which is very exciting and innovative.

My final advice? Don’t stop and wait to see what happens: speak to your contacts and find new offerings for people. If you can think of 10 ideas and half don’t work, there’s half that will and if some ideas don’t come to fruition, at least you will have explored the opportunity. If it does work, you will be extremely gratified. My endeavour took from March to August to plan and put in practice... It took lots of late nights and hundreds of zoom calls. But I can already see that there are many opportunities arising from it.

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