The name Benchmark has quickly become synonymous with professionalism. Benchmark adds value to any installation but we all know the large majority of consumers will not be impressed with anything less than a tangible bonus. Nothing anyone can say will ever dent consumer apathy on a wide enough scale. If anyone believes it can they are deluding themselves.

Without a readily quantifiable incentive for consumers, Benchmark will never progress significantly. I mean immediate gratification. Many consumers are naturally sceptical and suspicious of claims about long term benefit. Be honest, how many of you have been told by customers “we are thinking of moving in a few years“, in order to side-step the small extra cost of quality or energy efficiency ? I hear this all the time.

Manufacturers have a powerful incentive to promote Benchmark. One of the calls I attended last weekend was an address where the manufacturer’s engineer has been out six times in fifteen weeks since the householder moved in. What that has cost them I do not know. The problem had nothing to do with the boiler.

I do know consumers would be highly motivated by an extra year of guarantee. That could be offered where the Installer is Benchmark registered and certified (i.e. has simply undertaken routine Benchmark training alongside any product training) and the consumer has the appliance serviced annually by a (any) Benchmark registered Installer. It would also offer the Installer confidence in new products. I know good Installers who have told me they wait two or three years until ‘teething’ troubles have been ironed out on new techo.

Why Benchmark registered Installers ? - We have to accept that not all Installers hold the same affection for the spirit of Benchmark. I would suggest these are the people magazine editors complain about, though such complaints probably never reach the right ears and editors should recognise that instead of blindly lashing out. I am not being judgemental about those Installers, it is entirely possible that some of them have simply lost faith in the inequitable system.

The question is, what else could we do to foster relations with manufacturers, aside from product training ? Any ideas would be welcome either on an email or on the Discussion Board. With Benchmark co-ordinating via the pages of TGI, ideas could be floated for comment directly to Benchmark and thus we have the framework for communication, without the delicately poised Corgi feeling threatened.