Door Industry Journal - Spring 2019

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 67 THE door industry journal spring 2019 course in 1986, I decided to attend and I found it really helpful, learning how to install the doors and solving some of the more common on-site problems.” Chris has gone from attending the course, to now running the course with his colleagues Rob Ashworth and Justin McAulay. The team has a good skill set to help train budding garage door installers, as Rob has an engineering background and Justin delivers technical support, so all of them have a solid understanding of the doors, how to fit them and how to overcome common mistakes made by inexperienced fitters. On the installer course, fitters attending the course learn to fit both the canopy and retractable up & over doors, with advice and guidance from Garador’s experienced team. The course covers sectional and GaraRoll doors plus it also includes an operator session, including the new GaraMatic Canopy operator, with lot of hands on tuition available to add knowledge and confidence, and attendees actually fit doors as part of the course. In addition to the installation training, Garador also offer a product training course with expert advice and guidance to provide a full understanding of the huge range of doors available, plus information on surveying, specification and pricing. There are detailed explanations of the benefits of which doors are most appropriate, both in cost and physical aspects, for different builds and the attendees also spend time in the display section at Garador’s head office where they can see a variety of garage doors in situ. The product training course is presented and run by Garador’s Area Sales Managers Wayne Chafe and Aaron Clarke. Between them, the team have a wealth of product experience that spans over three decades. They use a relaxed classroom environment to teach about the company’s products, including all the different types of garage doors, operators and entrance doors as Roy Sargant, Garador’s National Sales Manager, comments: “Running our own courses has been a real positive for Garador customers; it has helped them to install garage doors and sell the product with more confidence.” The offices at our Yeovil site were reorganised at Garador to build custom training facilities. During the summer of 2012, the builders came in and renovated the downstairs offices transforming them into a new installation room, perfect for people to install garage doors, and a new training class room for people to learn more about garage doors and how to sell them. Since the first course using the new facilities ran in early 2013, the course has been refined and it is now a really informative and well-rehearsed training experience, as Roy comments: “We’ve now got our training nicely organised. The installation room has plenty of space to fit a range of garage doors, so our customers can learn about all types of garage doors.” Even experienced fitters that have attended the course have gone away with something new, a better way of doing something or a technique to use when installing the door. The aim is to provide attendees as much information as possible about our products and these courses are an excellent way to deliver this invaluable training, but there’s also a social element to the courses as Roy notes: “Our training courses are also good social occasions giving an opportunity to meet others in the same lines of business to swap ideas and experiences.” The team have also recognised the importance in not standing still; constantly looking for new ways to improve the course experience and what people learn on the course, as Roy mentions: “We’ve also put a drive for continuous improvement right at the heart of the training course programme. We ask for attendee’s feedback on how they found the course and what we could do to improve in the future, that way we are doing our very best for the people that attend.” Garador’s training courses are usually run over two days at Garador’s modern training facility, adjacent to the Garador garage door manufacturing plant in Yeovil, Somerset. Attendees have the opportunity to also visit the adjacent state of the art factory to see garage doors being constructed from start to finish, as Roy explains: “We’ve got this incredible factory, we actually manufacture garage doors from raw materials here. Showing that process to our customers seemed like the logical thing to do and I think it has helped to give people a deeper understanding of the product.” Garador’s training courses are heavily subscribed and need to be booked well in advance. Find out more by calling 01935 443701 or visiting www.garador.co.uk to view the product range. Domestic Garage Doors Hands on fitting in the installation training room.