Steven Hale Watch Restoration and Servicing was established in 2005 to provide repairs for luxury Swiss timepieces such as Rolex and other top brands.
The business provides services to both private individuals and third-party retailers and has grown to a team of 15 people. Its highly skilled watchmakers are regarded as experts in their field, and it is one of the few independent workshops in the UK whose watchmakers are accredited for the service of Rolex watches.
In addition to their purpose-built workshop near Watford, it has a retail premises in Mayfair, London which has received steady footfall for over a decade.
Despite a stellar reputation and well-established client base, the pandemic highlighted a real need for the business to evolve. This was brought sharply into focus when non-essential retailers couldn’t open physical locations for over 7 months between 2020 and 2021. Sales fell 40% as the company faced similar challenges to many others when trying to top up their pipelines.
Working remotely was challenging as there was no central, co-ordinated way of managing enquiries. Contacting customers and prospects was difficult as there was no proactive outreach via outbound marketing campaigns to keep the pipeline ticking over.
Embracing change
Owner of the business, Steven Hale quickly realised that they needed to work on their digital presence, so they started by improving the website SEO to get more organic leads flowing in. This has helped prospective clients find them much more easily online.
They then invested in digital marketing to generate more on-line enquiries.
One critical development was not just focusing on transforming their approach to acquisition, but also how they manage their processes, customers and communicating with them too. It was an opportunity to drive broader change and set the business up for the long-term.
This is where using Transpond and Capsule together has made a big difference.
Capsule is now used as their main prospect database. Customer contacts, whether B2B or B2C are kept in there. The business can now tag them easily by the type of brands they’re interested in or the work that has been carried out.
It’s also very quick and easy to sync the data from Capsule with Transpond and use tagged data as segments to send email campaigns to. One day they could be sending a brand focused campaign reinforcing the expertise of their team of watchmakers, the next they could be promoting specific brand repairs to known collectors.
Another significant improvement has been automating emails. By completing tasks in Capsule, emails can be triggered to customers to keep work flowing. If a customer has enquired about a restoration or repair, a reminder email can automatically be sent to them if they haven’t replied within a few days, and particularly if the work involved is potentially of high value.
Has evolving their approach to be more digitally focused benefited Steven Hale Watch Restoration and Servicing? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’.
Revenue has surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 20%, and that’s not just down to being more visible online. It’s also due to the pipeline being managed more closely across different locations, and actively driving business via a more proactive approach to communications.
In reviewing the last couple of years, Steven Hale says:
“There’s no doubt that had we not embraced on-line technologies our business would be in a very different position. We are actively recruiting additional skilled watchmakers, instead of having to lay them off. As a business owner I can also forecast future workloads far more easily. It’s been a definite asset to the business.”
It’s a real success story, and a great example of fusing experience and precision engineering with constantly evolving online applications like Transpond and Capsule to find the right blend for success.
The business has also been shortlisted for the Next Level Award at the Barclays Entrepreneur Awards 2022, so it’s clear the changes implemented are producing significant results.