When it comes to buying timber supplies, you’ll not only want to ensure that you are investing in quality products, but that you’re purchasing said products from a reliable supplier. Of course, this isn’t always easy to determine, especially when you’re ordering your products online.
Thankfully, there are some considerations you can make to determine whether or not a timber merchant is likely to be a reliable one. Read our helpful guide below to learn all the things you should be looking out for when deciding on a timber merchant.
From Easy Edge Timber to Bespoke Gates: Is There a Wide Range of Products?
When researching a company to determine their reliability, one of the first things you should look at is the range of products that they have on offer. If they only supply a handful of products, then chances are there’s something dodgy going on and/or they don’t have the expertise you would expect from a professional company.
Instead, if they have a large range of products that have been clearly categorised, then this indicates that they are much more organised, professional and understand their customers’ needs.
For example, here at Hales Sawmills we not only sell a range of timber products, but we also sell additional landscaping supplies, tolls, clothing and PPE, accessories and decorating products, because we understand that these are all products that customers are likely to need when working with the timber products they purchase from us.
What’s Their Affordability Like?
In the current cost of living crisis, you want to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your money with all the purchases you make. As such, it’s always good to compare prices when shopping for specific items – especially timber products, since these are often bought with a very specific use or purpose in mind and are expected to have longevity.
Remember, it’s not just price alone that you need to be thinking about, but price often goes hand in hand with quality.
If a company is offering their products for an extortionate price, then the chances are you can get the same products for cheaper elsewhere. However, this isn’t always the case; sometimes, cheaper isn’t actually better, since a cheap price could be reflective of poor quality and/or untrustworthiness.
The best thing to do is to have a quick search around to see what realistic prices for timber products are. By comparing prices from different merchants, you are able to gauge the average prices you can expect to see, so that you can identify whether the timber merchants you are looking at shopping with are pricing their products unrealistically high or low.
The key takeaway here? Prices should be competitive but realistic.
Have They Got Good Reviews?
Of course, when talking about themselves, timber merchants (and any retailer, for that matter) are going to paint themselves in a positive light in the hopes of attracting customers – it’s an understandable bias. However, if you’re looking for more trustworthy opinions and testimonials on their reliability, then you need to be looking at reviews.
By looking at reviews from real customers, then you can see the proportion of people who trust and would recommend a specific timber merchant or not – they’ve already had a positive or negative experience so you don’t have to take that risk. The best reviews to look at are those on a trustworthy site, such as Google reviews or Yell reviews, since you know that these will be real people and will show all reviews, regardless of whether or not they are positive or negative.
If there are reviews for specific products on their site, then it may be worth reading these, also, since these can reflect the quality of the products being sold – although remember that there is a possibility these reviews may be fake or filtered.
How Much Working Knowledge Do They Have Regarding Timber?
When choosing a reliable timber merchant, you want the peace of mind that they have the necessary knowledge and expertise regarding the timber products that they’re selling. A reliable timber merchant won’t expect every one of their customers to have sufficient knowledge on timber products, and will be able and willing to provide advice to those who need it.
More often than not, you will be able to tell whether or not a merchant possesses this expertise by looking at various pages on their website. The first place to look is on their ‘About Us’ section, which often describes what they specialise in, their working processes, the history of the company and more – many use this page as an opportunity to highlight themselves as experts in their area.
With timber merchants specifically, many also prefer to include an FAQ page with information and advice on proper timber care and treatments, since they understand that this is useful information for their customers, and is another way to showcase their expertise.
Alternatively, if there is no such example of these on their website, then you could simply contact them directly with any queries you may have – even if it is just to test their knowledge. Chances are, if they come up with an answer that is lacking detail or has been copy and pasted from a search result, that they don’t actually possess the expertise you’d want them to. This is also a great way to test the quality of their customer service, which is our next point.
Are You Satisfied with Their Customer Service?
When making any purchase, you hope to receive at the very minimum polite and responsive, ideally good quality customer service. Not only does this give you peace of mind that should you run into any issues or have any queries regarding your purchase then the company will be happy to help you, but in the event where you do need to reach out with them they’ll be able to help you accordingly and with efficiency.
When it comes to timber especially, unless you work in construction, woodwork or are an avid DIY-er, you likely won’t know everything that you need to regarding what type of timber should be used where and how to upkeep it. As such, you may well need and wish to ask your timber merchant questions or for their advice on which products you should get to suit your needs.
Reaching out before making a purchase rather than after is always good to ascertain the quality of a company’s customer service. If they take excessively long to reply, don’t reply at all, aren’t able to answer your questions or are rude, then chances are any assistance you’d require from them post-purchase would also be lacking.
A reliable timber merchant will understand that customer satisfaction is key to their success as a company and will understand that their expertise is valued by their customers. As such, they will ensure that their customer service is much more friendly, responsive and helpful.
Reliable Timber Merchants in Shrewsbury
If you’re in need of reliable timber merchants in Shropshire, then look no further than Hales Sawmills. Established over 40 years ago and operating from a purpose-built site in Market Drayton from 2015 onwards, we have since established our second branch in Shrewsbury. During this time, we have grown a strong reputation as one of Shropshire’s largest DIY, garden and timber specialists.
With our years of experience, you can rest assured that we possess the knowledge and expertise you’d expect from a reliable timber merchant. In fact, our humble roots saw us begin our journey as solely a sawmill who milled full round timber logs for wholesale. Utilising the skills and knowledge this gave us, we now specialise in the manufacturing of fence panels and timber gates both for wholesale and custom orders.
Though we specialise in timber fence panels and gates (including supplying one of the widest ranges of acoustic panels in the UK), we have a range of products available to order, supplying everything you need from timber treatments and landscaping supplies to decorating supplies and even dog food and accessories.
If you have any questions regarding our products or services, then pop into one of our stores and speak to a member of staff, or get in touch with us today and a member of our friendly team will be more than happy to help.