Steve Moore’s SMC global consultancy business has a highly desirable client list peppered with music and film stars and business leaders all of whom demand value for money despite the often high costs associated with a quality custom install.
But Moore explained at a CEDIA Talk at ISE yesterday that companies like Amazon, with its family of Echo and Alexa products, were making home automation very inexpensive. There were also services like ‘Enjoy’, which was a wholly new delivery experience and where an install specialist would visit and take care of audio products from Sonos – and certain other brands – completely free of charge to the buyer. The benefit to the supplier was customer loyalty, which Moore said was the goal of every install.
The downside was that while consumers might well be buying Amazon-type audio and automation products, far too many items were never installed, or failed to be correctly hooked up.
“The world is changing, and fast. In my own home we have three TVs, one of which is used by my teenage kids. I deliberately disconnected the TV aerial cable to the set to see how long it took for them to notice. It took seven months! They simply no longer watch live TV.”
Moore said that his mantra was always to ‘Keep it simple’ and to absolutely ensure that the install was completely reliable. “That way, one install leads to another and the sort of customer (a British household business name) who has been with me through four separate homes – and a yacht. And where the client is happy to say ‘I wouldn’t use anyone else’.”
