27 February 24 - The Betterbounce Feedback Survey 2024

At the end of 2023, Betterbounce conducted it's largest ever feedback survey to help gain a true insight into anything positive and negative that we could either improve on or further excel on. The survey consulted over 10,000 clients and the questions were designed to be exceptionally brutal in order to move forward.

The old clunky "Press 1" mobile divert system has been scrapped. The system has been replaced with a new full queue management system. If you are on hold for any longer than 7 minutes or no one is available, it automatically activates the "Ring back service" Simply leave a voicemail and the system will send us an email scribe and attachment of the message.

EVERY SINGLE message left during working hours is now called back the same day.

The overall consensus was that the new lightweight materials were a real upgrade, especially the lighter internals. The downside was the Underside bases, which will be increased back up to full weight in 2024. There were 1 or 2 out of the 300+ responses to go back to full 600gsm, however, sadly the benefits that once were are long gone as engineering moves forward, and as such it's not something we wish to move forward with.

Contrary to popular belief, 600gsm is more widely available globally, and with an annual spend of circa £450,000 last year on PV, It would be significantly cheaper to produce in full 600gsm and obtain a large purchasing discount as opposed to paying for 5 separate thickness of materials, through 5 companies £80,000 to £100,000 each. However, based on customer feedback, we believe the current formulations of PVC are perfect, with the exception of the bases.

*Full 600gsm builds are still available on request.

There was overwhelming support for this and we have already started to make the change to PVC instead of nylon. You will see this in many current builds as of Christmas 2023

There was an overwhelming number requesting me to become a PIPA inspector, PIPA inspection which came as quite a shock. We have listened and now have an in-house inspector onsite.

• All new stock products from February will be built and have PIPA tags attached and tested as standard.
• All existing products that have already been tested under the Betterbounce BISA scheme can be retested before sale at a reduced rate of just £47.50 to cover costs.

We stopped mobile testing back in 2018 to concentrate on manufacturing, however, there has been a significant request to support our clients nationwide. As such we will be offering mobile PIPA testing as of 1st March 2024 with favorable day rates for existing clients. We also welcome an old staff member Danny back to Betterbounce to carry out on-site repairs full-time and with fantastic turnaround times.

We have been asked to drop out 10 years plus loyalty with Gibbons and supply other manufacturers' devices for a broader choice to the end users.

We have taken this feedback on board and supply both Gibbons & Huawei blowers. We also now stock, Sealed blowers, Dancersfans, Moonwalk fans& Zorb/ Water walker blowers again as a result.

We've also gone for a split stock of pegs as requested, Giving both Posh peg and our ultra-strong ugly pegs

We had a few concerns over Inspectors/ testers not accepting certain documents, despite being compliant with EN14960. These documents have been re-drafted, along with feedback from PIPA, HSE & other manufacturers to be more up-to-date, and more helpful, with the theory being "provide more than is needed first" as opposed to waiting for questions from testers. Having an in-house PIPA tester and PLG member should also help push this forward too. The documents now contain tonnes more health and safety information and compliance certificates to meet the needs of PIPA, ADIPS, NAFLIC, ROSPA, RPII, TUV. We have also altered some existing designs to cut out any grey areas for 2024 which should all help our clients, along with providing more relevant training documents.

Ok so this one, we need to hold our hands up, we got it wrong. We now have factories all over the world including the UK, EU & China, and as such there are always issues way beyond our control that affect shipping worldwide. Anything from COVID-19, Ship Hijackings, Wrszons, Pirates, and everything in between. With this bourne in kind, we have split production between factories to spread the risk and increased production volumes to keep much more regular supplies. This new way of working should allow for a more speedy system.

We have also increased our current stock levels from 700 to 1,000 last year and building work was completed before Christmas to house up to 1450 reducing lead time to zero on many of our more popular product lines. Stock has been arriving regularly and was close to full.

In addition to the above, Our offshore factories now have between 100 & 200 inflatables each to again help with faster shipping lead times.

So this one was a hard read and again, we held our hands up, The online sales model we have adopted in recent years created extra pressure, and we weren't able to keep up with it. We have taken professional advice and implemented a large number of internal changes, System updates, CRM systems, Call logs, Automated phone systems, Call back systems, Scheduling software, added auto stock order systems, and employed a remote member of staff to cover emails and ringback during peak periods.

This has already had a massive effect on customer service and we are excelling with our online services already with very quick response rates both in and out of hours. We also have a new member of full-time office staff joining our team in the next couple of weeks in the office to cope with future expansions in 2024 ahead of schedule. Hopefully, this time we can kill any issues early and learn from our previous mistakes.

The new manufacturing and CRM systems send us back to daily shipping and collections, instead of bi-weely. We now receive 2 collections per day to deal with an extra capacity as we expand. This system has been live since January and has already allowed us to smash our next-day delivery target of 95% to 98.7% and rising. We have employed an extra staff member Ricky, who always goes the extra mile on collections.

The warehouse is now strictly by appointment only and has an automated Click-and-collect system in place for all orders, tests & repairs paid for in full. Simply respond to the office informing them of a collection day/time and we will work our magic. Simply press the ground floor intercom with your invoice number and someone will be along to help load you up within a few minutes.

It's clear that we severely underestimated this one and if anything UK orders have increased along with our increasing client base. We have tackled this by employing an old member of staff back from paternity and another new member of staff who's been in the industry for around 10 years. These guys have been with us for a few weeks now and coming up to speed very quickly with several beautiful inflatables. This change has got velcro artwork, mats, printed mats, bungee harnesses, and ball pool orders back to a 2-week lead time already which is hopefully good news and sustainable all year round.

Yet again, we have to hold our hands up on this one and admit failure. We always took the stance not to give updates unless there was something to update, however, it has become apparent that some clients do wish to be kept in the loop regardless of good or bad news. We have taken your feedback on board and our new system goes live to the public on the 1st of March.

The new system will track your order from any factory, anywhere in the world on a central system and our new staff members will send you regular updates as your order progresses through the factory. We have been using this system internally since December issue free and with a few select clients LIVE for the past 30 days with a 100% success rate so now we can't wait to launch it.

You will receive regular updates with statuses running through each stage of the order. For manufacture, you will be updated when your order is being designed, printed, laminated, Cut, sewn, tested, and ready to collect. We will also have a similar system for Testing, Accessories & Repairs.

Hopefully, this will be a benefit and not a hindrance and you can opt out if you wish to stay old school.

So this won't suit everyone but there will be no change on this one I'm afraid. A extremely small number of clients surveyed suggested that it was an inconvenience not been open on a Friday, however looking through our own data, we can only see a small handful of cases where this may have been the case. So this won't suit everyone but there will be no change on this one I'm afraid, although we have updated all our paperwork, including Invoices and quotations, website email signatures and building signing to ensure the message is clear that we do not open Fridays.

After working with our hire company 7 days a week for 20 years since we were 18, Missing out on our friends, family, the kids, and everything in between. We've certainly earned the right to a 3-day weekend for the next 20 years, especially now the hiring company has sold and so have our loyal staff who have been with us through our journey.

On the plus side, no one leaves on Thursday until all updates, tracking numbers, and inquiries are responded to. All shipping and updates are done electronically and you can contact the couriers directly if there is an issue. As most of you know, we are still pretty sad and online out of hours on social media if there's a complete disaster we are on hand to help & there's always the Online or Telephone ring back service.

In summary, We were really happy with the feedback and extremely proud of the company we have grown into. The small changes above should help polish off any small issues we may have had. Its never nice to hear any bad feedback but whats important is we listen, learn and evolve accordingly. I cant wait for all customers new and old to experience the new ways of working and were excited to see what 2024 brings us.