Working with Tesla

Recently we attended the SW Home & Garden show at Exeter westpoint arena. Tim, the chap training the exhibitors was from Tesla Motors and was extremely impressed with the Gilboy’s story and the attention that was given to even the smallest details when creating our product.

Back at Tesla, the Gilboy's story continued to play on Tim's mind. There were so many elements in the story that paralleled those of Tesla Motors, he really felt that his own sales teams needed to hear it first hand from Simon. Tim got straight on the phone and asked Simon if he could come up to the UK headquarters and meet the UK sales team on their training day to talk about the Gilboy’s ethos and illustrate the parallels with the Tesla motors offering.

Parallels: all the small details

There's a certain level of attention to detail and quality that is required to sell a high-end product. We've understood this for over 25 years. As did generations of woodworking craftsmen before us. We are in awe of their craftsmanship and attention to detail everyday in our restoration workshop.

For us the small details are important.

A Gilboy’s Furniture Polishing Kit contains:

• Handcrafted pure beeswax filler blocks, each with a hand-gilded gold bee,
• The best ‘0000’ oil-free wire wool for perfect wax application
• Two lengths of polishing cloth selected and trusted for years by our antique restorers for brilliant buffing
• A high quality hessian storage bag to keep the kit together
• A helpful glossy colour instructional booklet so you can get the best results
• A ‘bee’ stamped key-fob made from the left over leather when the ‘o’ ring seal is pressed out of the leather hide - as a little gift.
• A handwritten personal note to each customer thanking them for choosing the best beeswax polish in the world

That's all before you even get to the jar of beeswax polish itself upon opening the box. Every jar is signed by hand by the restorer who made the beeswax polish it holds.

Did I mention the sweetpea seeds? Every kit comes with a box a sweet pea seeds for the customer to plant as a ‘thank you’ to the bees for their incredible wax. The sweet pea was selected after we researched which plants grow readily in temperate climates and provide the most nectar. It was this attention to detail that Tim wanted to impress upon the Tesla motors sales team and help them understand that it's 'all the small details' that high-end customers really appreciate and expect.

The box-opening 'delight'

Simon ensured he took up polishing kits packaged as they would be for any customer and sequestered them under the seats of the sales reps before they took their seats. To help them understand the points he was making, during his presentation Simon would stop and ask them to look under their seat and open their 'present'.

A 2014 study, “Impact of Product Packaging in Consumers’ Buying Behavior”, published in the European Journal of Scientific Research describes this response: “…the packaging is perceived to be part of the product and it can be difficult for consumers to separate the two (the concept of gestalt).”

Apple is an acknowledged master at creating an iconic sensory experience that distinguishes and communicates its brand from the very moment you first touch the box your new product is delivered in. Being an Apple fanboy, when developing the Gilboy’s product offering Simon was very keen to replicate the ‘box-opening experience’ that accentuates the Apple brand.

"The quality of our wax is such that it deserves the highest quality packaging and our customers deserve to receive their wax in perfect condition." ~ Simon Gilboy, MD

Today all our waxes are packaged in specialised suspension packaging and a great deal of thought and care has been taken to ensure our customer's delight when opening their delivery of Gilboy’s Gold.

Package Testing

We took a novel and very hands-on approach to testing and selecting the very best packaging for our waxes. We decided the best test would be to fill one of our jars with water and throw each sample package about 15 feet in the air and let it hit the concrete to test transit durability (some couriers can be shocking!). We tried about five or six different packaging solutions before selecting the best. It turned out that the most durable packaging also had the added advantage of being very reusable which fitted perfectly with our return & refill discount scheme.

Return & Refill

Simon recalls his first experience of 'customer delight' as a young boy. Whenever the lemonade lorry would pull up outside his childhood home, the kids would all line up clutching their empty bottles to return and claim their 10p for each. He remembers distinctly the bottle lids having '10p Return' printed on them.

It's in this spirit that Gilboy's Gold is supplied in a clip-top jar and reusable packaging so you can return your empties and claim a 'Refill Discount' on your next jar.

Conclusion

Simon's presentation was very well received and we're fairly certain the importance of 'all the small details' was taken on-board by all. In fact they were so impressed that they gave Simon the loan of a Tesla S90D for the weekend!

Why not sample the Gilboy's box-opening delight yourself? 

Order a Gilboy's Polishing Kit from our shop now.

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