Like any trade association we will try to bring member benefits as time goes on but, to be totally truthful, this is not the easiest of things to do when an association is as young as the WTA is presently. However, with that said, there are several things in the pipeline that we hope to bring to members over the coming months.
In the meantime we have been more concerned with bringing our members problems to the attention of those that can do something about them. This, fighting for and representing the members, is more what a true trade association is about in our opinion and not coming up with fancy schemes. We are here to represent our industry and we would like to make it absolutely clear that, that is what the WTA is about and not money off vouchers. Of course we will deliver money saving benefits wherever we can and we do but it is not our primary role.
We are also aware that some corporate clients will often much rather subcontract work to WTA members if it is not a mandatory requirement and that our list of UK appliance repairers is often the first place the companies look when seeking service partners.
With that said, there are several benefits to be had including:
- Access to technical forums offering technical help and support from other trade members
- Access to the WTA Member Forum
- Highlighted search results on the WTA website and UK Whitegoods
- The ability to appear on the WTA 'Find a Member' web page
- Access to Amica Warranty work and the associated resources including seller service
- Business advice and help from UK Whitegoods
- Marketing advice and help
- Referrals for corporate work including advice in that area
- Access to the fault code manual
- Ability to use logo and livery
- The latest industry news and gossip
- Notification of contract changes in corporate work and agencies
As you can see there are a few benefits to be had and if not all, many will likely be of use to many repairers with quite a few offering the ability to actually gain revenue through their use. We think that the low cost of membership is more than offset not only by the representation but also by the direct benefits of being a WTA member.
The Point Is...
Are you in control of the industry, do you have a say, a voice? Most of us don't and that is what we aim to give to the repairers, a voice.
It is our intention to represent the trade not because we think that we can make money from the repairers but because we are repairers ourselves and we care deeply about the industry and the issues surrounding us, the repairers, in the modern environment.Individually we are of little or no consequence to anyone really, but collectively there are a great many repairers out there doing fantastic work, saving many machines from simply being carted off to landfill and even in many cases actively recycling and re-using appliances.
We just think it's about time we told people what we do and how good a job that we do.
We are also looking to advance the views of the repairers, especially on the aspects of freedom of technical information and to make our lives a little bit more comfortable in terms of legislation as much of it would appear not to favour us, such as the current Gas Safety Legislation from the Health & Safety Executive.
Membership Cost
The cost is currently a very reasonable £70 per year for independent repairers!
You may well wonder why this is so low and the truth is that there are a great many that will help in the organisation for free, giving their own time totally free of charge, to try to accomplish the things that we require. They do this as it helps their own businesses as well as others.
We also gain a lot from the relationship with UK Whitegoods whereby a lot of the administration work is done for us, in effect, for free.
All this means that the cost of membership is extremely low as we have reduced the overheads to an absolute minimum and the organisation is therefore extremely flexible and efficient.