richarddavies

Really interesting to see the different views on here The proposal for a unilateral approach was Inspired by the new way that traditional rival supermarkets are operating in the UK i.e. sharing resources, making joint decisions and ensuring they can function in a way that best protects their teams and customers needs. I believed there was an opportunity for our industry to do likewise. I knew there would be three types of response from our competitors to my proposal - Yes, No & "This is a good idea, but..." so I am not surprised at the wide range of responses on here and I welcome them all, because this is a huge learning period for retail as a whole I felt it was better to do something, rather than sit and wait, and the calls I've instigated with others from the industry have been groundbreaking and actually quite enjoyable. I'm glad I tried, We suggested suspending shipping because: Government is covering the vast majority of wage & self-employed costs It keeps our teams safer We felt customers would understand our motivations were honest Stopping using couriers reduces the possibility of them transmitting the virus I wanted us to be an example to other industries - doing what we can for the situation This is a testing time for all of us Best wishes Richard Managing Director, Hatton's

Hi We hope to encourage the industry to "rise above" short term opportunities to capitalise on the situation The Government will support PAYE workers and self-employed too. We will help any model railway retailer who has short-term cash flow challenges, whilst the government rebate is pending Giving couriers parcels, means you are expecting them to employ people across their network, and therefore spreading it unnecessarily I understand that there are lots of viewpoints on this. I agree it's a risk to raise our head above the parapet - we have always been that kind of company to be honest Richard Hatton's MD

Hi I'm Managing Director of Hatton's We are very much operational. Todays communications have been the start of sending a signal that we are bracing ourselves to temporarily close the doors - if it comes to that point. Tonight's speech by the PM does still leave the door open to a "total" lockdown i.e. being told we have to totally shutdown operations at Montague Road I am aware that some have got the impression we are definitely temporarily closing the doors - will try and remedy this tomorrow. Apologies to those who got that impression Regards Richard Davies Hatton's

Hi I'm Managing Director and owner of Hatton's I apologise for the wording of the email When we closed the store, I instructed the manager responsible to leave the "Collect in hub" option open, and then offer postage to whichever ones arrived. I'm sorry that the "or cancelled for a refund" element has appeared - we can easily leave the order unpicked for the time being. We will be rewording that email accordingly. Sorry for the questions that arose because of this, and thank you for your custom Rich Hatton's

Thanks again for all the help. We have made a number of changes, based on your feedback and suggestions For anyone interested, the latest version is at https://staging.hattons.co.uk/collections/all/search/sources/New%2CPreowned Best Richard MD, Hatton's

Thanks for all the ideas and feedback. We are working on the search - definitely an improvement on the previous version, but always room for improvement! Rich

Thanks a lot for the feedback, which has led to some further improvements to help produce our latest version https://staging.hattons.co.uk/collections/all/search/sources/New%2CPreowned if that link doesn't work Many thanks Richard

Hi Thanks a lot for the feedback. We have spotted a few other areas we can improve too Will be in touch soon :-) Rich

Yes @Hattons Dave has a notepad next to his desk, with frequent notes being made to it, relative to this thread. Had a busy week, so maybe an update from him next week, is more likely. Richard MD, Hatton's

Thanks for the feedback Ian We will check it out on IE11. It was working during our last set of tests - but maybe one of our late tweaks has caused something to go awry I have deliberately made the filter font large - but maybe I've overdone it Thanks again

Hi Tomorrow at 11am we intend to email some of our most frequent customers, to officially launch a new product navigation system I thought I'd give RMweb a preview - really interested to see what you think It's at https://staging.hattons.co.uk/ and it's ready to accept orders, and do whatever you may currently do on our regular site A direct route into the new functionality is from https://staging.hattons.co.uk/landing.aspx or https://staging.hattons.co.uk/collections/all/search/sources/New%2CPreowned I'm really keen to hear any feedback you may have Hope this is of interest Richard Davies MD, Hatton's

Hi Disclaimer: I'm MD of Hatton's I am really enjoying this thread. I think the reaction has been incredibly positive. I had expected it to cause a bit of shock - we realise this project is not to everyone's usual taste Some absolutely brilliant feedback on the designs arriving - very proud of the way our team are responding to it too We are huge fans of the "Prototypically literate" term coined by (I think) @Edwardian Looking forward to talking about this with some of you at GETS this weekend - I will be on the stand Saturday & Sunday Thanks to everyone for all their views. I think it's been received rather well Richard

Some nice comments about us - thanks a lot for your feedback - was great to meet many of your at Great Electric Train Show this weekend gone 4 weeks ago we soft-launched a new version of our site - and having listened to your views, I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me if the modifications we've made are helping take it in the right direction? https://hattonshobbies.com/ Looking forward to hearing any views - good or bad! Best Richard MD, Hatton's

Thank you Nick We will definitely be going through your points tomorrow - I really appreciate you taking the time to give us such clear feedback Best Rich

Thanks for reporting that - we will get onto that in the morning In the meantime DJ Models Class 58xx 5802 in GWR unlined green is still on www.hattons.co.uk Best Rich

Hello, Richard Davies, MD (& now an owner of) of Hatton's here I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has given feedback on the new site. We agree with practically everything that has been suggested and are working on lots of different modifications, in view of what's been said. We may see these features added to the site from early next week We would like to eventually run the new site from www.hattons.co.uk but we won't do that until we have consensus that the new site provides a considerably better experience (toall) than the existing one I'm a "If it's not broken, don't fix it..." kind of person - but we need a site that usable by those who are new to the hobby and don't necessarily have the same level of understanding, as many of the more experienced customers and users of the previous sites "nuances"/failings I'll be on our stand at Great Electric Train Show and Warley, if anyone would like to chat in person (about anything whatsover model-railways related!) Thanks again R

Hi Neil Would you mind posting some more information (screenshots, error messages etc) onto the thread, to help us take a look at this please? More data about your setup would help us. Thanks for taking the time to post this Best wishes Richard MD, Hatton's

Hi Guido Thanks for your orders and feedback. To be honest, we have only just recently changed our "stance" on expedited delivery to be focused on "Same day despatch", rather than "Next day delivery". We made the switch when we realised that "Next day delivery" relied on trusting couriers, and, when, on occasions where the courier didn't get the order to the customer that day, we were in an awkward position of not being "in control" of the circumstances that led to the dissatisfaction. I intend to reshape the terminology we use to be "Guaranteed same day despatch" - but another constraint is that DHL pickup from us at 4pm in order to get the consignments onto planes in East Midlands airport that night Our overall objective is to be so well-organised, that an even higher (than current) number of orders are despatched same-day. This will mean a rise in customer satisfaction, without the operational complications of having to fast-track some orders through Hope this helps Best R

Hello all It’s Richard here, MD of Hatton’s. Sorry it’s been a while since I posted - looks like HattonsDave has been doing a great job, in my absence Thank you to everyone who’s been posting with reports of swift receipt of parcels. Apologies to anyone who has had problems of any nature - our exceptional Helpdesk team are always on hand to assist anyone who has any queries of any nature - and respond to the many emails of praise we receive each day, from customers who recognise the superb team @ Hatton’s and the high standards we’ve set in nearly 20 years of selling online As previously mentioned, we weren’t running at top speed during late September and early October. This was as a result of getting into our stride after a stock-take, upgrading our PickPack and Replen processes & software, and changing shift patterns to move onto a 6-day working week. We are now despatching orders quicker than ever before I want to address our decision to suspend offering Next Day delivery, as, despite it being available again, there seems to be ongoing frustration about it not being available for a period: Amongst the many choices we’ve made, that have made us one of, if not the leading retailer in the sector, the one which,I believe, stands far above any other, in terms of importance, is to never make promises we aren't 99.5% sure we can keep. We genuinely love to “over deliver” and a very, very high percentage of orders are despatched on the day they are received. When we moved into stock-take and then switched our new fulfillment systems on, we were under great pressure to get the whole operation moving again. My analogy of this to our staff, was that it was akin to bump-starting a jumbo jet... We’ve taken on many extra people to help with the transition, worked late nights & long weeks, to get to a level where we felt it “safe” to make the “Guaranteed same-day despatch” promise again. The level of scrutinisation we’re under, from customers and industry spectators, is a privilege and something that I’m sure, many covet. I’m proud to say that we’ve just had our best October ever (order quantity and revenue) and November is looking very good so far. The store is quiet, after the introduction of the Mersey Gateway & toll - but at Hatton’s we’ve learnt to deal with what comes our way - we are hardy and very, very experienced in dealing with thousands of orders each week. An example of our terrific despatch “horsepower” was in the last week, where a supplier delivery with many new items and 700+ preorders, went through our 4 semi-automated packing stations in less than 3 hours. The original order processing system, designed in 2003 when we were despatching “just” 700 orders a week, served us very well - helping us despatch over 2 million orders during it’s 14 year life. The great sign to me, of how we are now fulfilling orders so smoothly, is that in the last few weeks, I’ve had more time than in many years, to get back to why I never need motivating to get out of bed in the morning - going into “work” and talking with like-minded colleagues & suppliers about model railways. Many of you have preorders for the exciting products our terrific suppliers have on the way from us - and I look forward to the opportunity to impress you all with what’s to come. A team from Warners are in Hatton’s next week, to plan a video to show “Behind the scenes at Hatton’s”. Over the years, I’ve taken many customers around the site in person - but this will help those of you who haven’t had “the tour”, an opportunity to learn more about our scale, site, operations & people. This will be viewable from our site around December 12th. The only thing I miss about being paperless, is I can’t look through the “orders for despatch” shelves at home time, and see if I can drop any off to customers on my way home any more! Hope this is of interest to you. Very interested to read & hear what you think. Thank you again for your support and custom. Best Richard Davies

Hi and sorry it's been a while since I posted Yes there has been some disruption to normal service whilst we refine the despatch operation and train new staff, ready for autumn and winter seasons (it's not just about the Christmas rush nowadays) and I apologise if some have had to wait a little longer for deliveries than normal - we do set very high "Busy as usual" standards so when we deviate from them, we understand regular customers may notice. We intend to maintain and improve upon the high standards we set in the industry. September 2016 has been been another record setting month - we are receiving 15-20% more orders than this time last year, so we are making improvements to handle this. Keen to help keep things in context on this thread and my offer to anyone who wants to come and have a look at the hub in-person, remains open - always good to meet RMweb users in the flesh Rich Richard Davies MD, Hatton's

Yes the rise in quality and value of models of UK-based prototypes (and probably other factors) seems to have had an impact on demand for stuff from Continental manufacturers. I think Arcadia in Shaw have some good brand new RTR Continental stuff, and Gaugemaster stock and distribute quite a lot too Please excuse excessive use of the term "stuff"! Richard MD, Hatton's

Interested in your views on how easy you found it to get back into the hobby Railsquid - I think there are a number of hurdles to get over when contemplating getting into the hobby, and the job of the collective group I'd like to be part of, is helping eliminate or simplify (lower?) the hurdles. Ref the Browser issues, it's likely to be some sort of cookie-related matter. I will have the IT people create a "Cookie diagnosis" page on the website, where we direct people who are having problems to, in order to try and identify the problem. At the moment we send people to a "How to clear your cookies" page but something a bit more intuitive may help. I will speak to the IT team on Tuesday, once they have recovered from moving all the IT systems around the warehouse as part of Project MacGyver R MD, Hattons

Yes, we plan to take a good look at the courier options once we have optimised our internal Despatch/Logistics processes. We have a fair few couriers vying for our traffic but we need to have a firm grasp of our own capacity before talking volumes and agreements. The Yodel "Collect from Hattons Sunday, deliver Monday" deal stemmed from us needing to work Sundays to keep up with the orders we came into on a Monday. Now we've made the pick/pack system slicker, we aren't too sure how many days Mon-Sun we will run. I think Yodel get a harder time than they deserve, but that was their own fault after rebranding too early when HDNL and DHL UK were merged. Yes Gwiwer you are right - I have been a long time lurker on here (and have discussed your browser issues on several occasions with several eminently knowledgeable IT people). Am coming out of the woodwork now as we are getting to the stage at Hattons where we think we are on top of all the projects that were required to get the business under control after moving from a high street shop to being an omni-channel ecommerce store (as the marketing people say). I'm interested in where the market is going, with particular focus in the segment of customers who we call "Entrants", which is typically a 45+ year old guy who is either returning to the hobby or just getting into it. Personally I don't think that segment is getting enough attention. I'm intending to talk to the manufacturers and magazines about this, to see what their strategy for acquiring new customers is. Just to pre-empt the question, we can see growth in both segments (we call the other one "Established"), but would like to be part of a more considered, progressive and collaborative strategy. You can find out more about me at https://uk.linkedin.com/in/richard-davies-065a7b1b Steve thanks for your order - it will be with you soon. Project MacGyver is just being completed so the team will probably be despatching 1600+ orders a day for the next few days. BTW - the Roco loco you bought came to us from an interesting chap based in Munich who I think has more stuff coming in soon - if I see it in the "Goods in" or "For photoing" area I will let you know R Richard Davies MD, Hattons

Hi it's Richard Davies, MD of Hatton's here The team are still working hard spinning the warehouse, in what we have called Project MacGyver (all our projects have the names of characters from films & TV and are chosen by the person in charge of the project). Latest pic below, where you can just about see John Beswick (normally in the Store but helping out in Logistics today) and Operations Manager Lesley Bryan in the bottom right - sorry, having problems with the image upload, will try again later (RD) The packing machine "Little David" shown in Dave Martins post #1025 is gaining a companion (Victoria) on Tuesday and she will help us massively with getting orders out of the door, hopefully faster than ever before On the topic of "Behind the scenes" our Store staff often give impromptu tours of the site to customers, particularly if they've come a long way or specifically ask for a look around. We've been careful with these recently as the warehouse has been under so much pressure but when MacGyver is over we will probably resume. Thanks for all the feedback - it's much appreciated Richard