Enq  :  Could you set your website up so that customers can order and pay
for waterbed products on line.

Comments

Dear – Customer Details Removed –

We have added your email address to our data base, so when we are ready to
email reminders for waterbed conditioner, you’ll be the first to know. And,
yes you will soon be able to buy waterbed and adjustable bed products and
accessories online

Thanks John

Subject: New customer!

 Dear Paul,

 Just a note to say how much I am appreciating the waterbed. It’s done wonders for my stiff neck / back ache.

I received a reminder to buy waterbed conditioner – but don’t believe that I need it for another few months yet. Have you filed it in the wrong month?! And how often is one supposed to use the vinyl cleaner?

 I feel as though the waterbed has “settled” now, should I top it up with water? Could I put a strain on the foam sides on getting in and out!!

 Please send a brochure to : – Customer Details Removed –

 who is also genuinely interested in buying a new  waterbed…..

 Comments

From: High and Dry

To: – Customer Details Removed –

Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 4:54 PM

Subject: Re: New customer!

 Hello – Customer Details Removed –

 Glad to hear you’re loving your new waterbed 🙂 Always nice to get feed back from our customers.

 Please ignore the reminder letter for conditioner, sometimes the month reminder letters get printed during the end of a month rather than at the start so if a new customer has received a new bed during the start of the month it can show needing a reminder letter the same month and year it was fitted (if that makes sense). You should receive your first waterbed conditioner reminder letter approx 6 months from the time of fitting.

 It’s a good idea to purchase vinyl cleaner when you buy your first batch of waterbed conditioner. A few squirts of this over the mattress, then wipe off with a cloth, help to keep the vinyl mattress fresh, clean and supple during its lifespan. A bottle should last you a year or so. Obviously you can use it more if you want. It’s normally best to use it when you are washing the top cover or adding conditioner as this is when you have the top cover un-zipped.

 Yes your waterbedmattress will have settled by now, normally seven to ten days. There is no need to add water if you are feeling comfortable and are happy with the bed. We only top up mattress if customers feel they require more support / firmer mattress.. But if you are already feeling the benefit of the waterbed, then we’ve probable got the water levels spot on 🙂

 The waterbed you have  is the Sophie, and is the best softside waterbed available. The foam sides are designed to hinge when you get on and off and are robust, so you aren’t putting them under any strain. The foam sides of lower quality waterbeds will inevitably bow out as they are not deigned for people to sit on them.

Thanks for the recommendation, I will send – Customer Details Removed – a brochure today. 

Kind regards Paul

Draining your waterbed Mattress

Although the following sounds like a major task, it can be easier to move a waterbed than an adjustable bed or ordinary divan bed.

Should the need arise to move your waterbed, you will need to empty the mattress enough that it can be lifted by an individual. First unplug the heater. Because all modern waterbed mattresses contain layers of fibre to reduce the motion of the water, a pump is recommended. Warning!!! The layers of fibre can slide if you lift the mattress while it still contains water. Always leave the mattress flat whilst emptying. If you must lift the head end, then grab the waterbed mattress and ensure you also have a strong grip of the fibre to ensure it will not slide. If the fibre does slide the waterbed mattress will be ruined. Using a pump will vacuum the waterbed mattress enough that the fibre can not slide even when lifted. There are several types of pump that will do the job. Your local waterbed retailer should be able to rent a pump or offer a drain down service. I have never personally used one, but several customers have told me about a pump that attaches to an electric drill with a hose into the waterbed mattress and a hose into the bath or out the window. Some have told me it is ok but slow, others that it would not suck the water from the fibre leaving it too heavy to lift. And other said the drill burnt out before the waterbed mattress was empty. You can always siphon the waterbed but heed the previous warning or you will need to buy a new waterbed mattress. The following has been written from personal experience. Siphoning the waterbed mattress is a last resort if you can not get a pump. If siphoning does not work, don’t blame us! Siphoning is only possible if you have a garden hose and the waterbed is high enough to drain downstairs, so flats and bungalows would be a problem.  First, with the plug still in the waterbed mattress, put your fists either side of the valve and push down and up the bed. Do this several times to create a well around the valve of water and no fibre. Lift the valve and remove the cap and plug. Slip the hose under the fibre so that gravity will pull the water down to it. Wrap tape around the connection between the valve and hose to make an airtight seal. Connect the other end of the hose to a tap and start filling the waterbed mattress, this will remove the air from the hose just the same as sucking on it. Just like when you used to steal the neighbours petrol! When the waterbed is filling, disconnect the tap and drop it to allow the water to run back and keep going. So long as air can not enter the waterbed mattress it will empty really well. Replace the plug quickly to prevent the fibre opening up.

Waterbed mattresses are made from PVC which is supplied to waterbed manufacturers in a choice of qualities mainly based on price. However, to say you get what you pay for is not always the case but a good indication of quality.

High PriceThere are many European waterbed manufacturers that have tried to reinvent the waterbed, give it all the bells and whistles and triple the price. The problem is that a waterbed works in such a natural way that over complicating it actually detracts from its benefits and life expectancy. This was proven over the last ten years with disastrous consequences of the companies that could not cope with the number of warranty returns.  

Low PriceThe internet has definitely driven down prices. Good for the consumer, or is it? When customers search on line for a lower priced waterbed mattress the cheapest retailer will get the order. How does a retailer manage to sell waterbed mattresses cheaply? Simply sell a quality that is not going to last. Give it a long warranty that you know it will never fulfill in the knowledge that you would have taken the money and run. Simply read the stories of complaints about any product sold on line. The problem is if someone has no intention of parting with your money you wont get it back.

Who do you trust?A waterbed retailer with a retail outlet as opposed to his front room. A Waterbed retailer that has been in busines longer than the warranty period offered on his waterbed mattresses. High & Dry Waterbeds, trading twenty one years. Offering a Genuine five year warranty and a mattress expected to easily outlast that. Not the cheapest, but the best waterbed mattresses available.

Reparability all comes down to the location of the leak and the condition of the waterbed mattress.

First, switch off the waterbed heater.

second, put a towel in each of the four corners to soak up the water. Depending on the severity of the leak, you may have to repeat this.
Third, ensure the safety liner is up over either the frame or side foams to prevent water from coming out of the waterbed frame.

Locating the leak.

Whilst drying in the corners of the waterbed frame try to see any water coming from the edges of the corner seams. These are the most vulnerable points of the mattress. Often the leak is very small and is like a tear drop of water that only leaks when pressure is applied. If you have no luck finding the leak widen your search.

Note. To dry the water you may pull the corner of the mattress back to reveal a layer of water. It is extremely unlikely that the waterbed mattress is leaking from underneath. This water is from around the sides, running to the lowest point. If you still have no luck locating the leak. Take a cardboard box and cut it into strips. Pull the waterbed mattress corner away from the frame and place the cardboard strips in between the mattress and the safety liner. Do this in all four corners then leave it whilst drinking coffee and looking for your waterbed repair kit. Upon your return, inspect the cardboard in the four corners. One will show an obvious wet spot. This will narrow your search. If the leak is on the seam around the neck of the filler valve, unfortunately this will not repair successfully due to being two different types of plastic.

Repairing the leak It is not normally necessary to empty the waterbed mattress, although a leak on the side is easier to repair if about one quarter of the waterbed mattress is emptied by simple siphoning. (See draining your waterbed) A waterbed vinyl repair kit is essential. Having found the leak. Pull the effected area back from the waterbed frame. Wedge something down between the waterbed mattress and the waterbed frame, to hold the leak area above the water line. Remove the waterbed mattress cap and plug. Lift the valve up allowing air to be drawn into the waterbed mattress. Replace the cap and plug, work the pocket of air towards the leak area, this will mean the leak is not in contact with the water. Take a hair dryer and gently warm the local area of the leak. This will soften the vinyl and dry any moisture. Assuming the leak is a small split of 3mm or 1/8^th inch, smear glue from the waterbed repair kit generously on the mattress only in a circle of approximately 2.5cm or 1 inch. This will begin to dry quickly being warm from the hairdryer. Cut a small circular patch from the waterbed repair kit, approximately 1.5cm or 5/8ths inch diameter. Obviously bigger than the leak and smaller than the glue area. Place the patch over the leak and with your thumb nail squeeze out any air trapped under the patch. This is easy to see because the patch is generally clear. If the patch is textured place the textured side down. Once the glue is dry, smear some more glue around the edge of the patch to seal it down. Allow at least an hour for this to dry, try not to disturb the area whilst it is drying. Once dry, remove all towels, objects and cardboard from the safety liner. Spend time to pull back the mattress and dry as far underneath as you can reach in all four corners and around the sides. See (Identify the cause of a leak)

I joined the British Waterbed Association over 21 years ago. The members were waterbed retailers and suppliers of associated waterbed products such as waterbed heaters, waterbeds fitted sheets, waterbed mattresses, waterbed safety liners and waterbed frames. Many were European waterbed companies. All members personally cared passionately about waterbeds because most members had got into the waterbed industry after having bought a waterbed, subsequently realising that every person would sleep much better if they had a waterbed but at that time there were very few waterbed retailers (Myself included, but that is another blog to come!) Waterbed manufacturers like High & Dry Waterbeds and others would exhibit every year or every two years generating revenue for the British Waterbed Association. Revenue was also generated through a waterbed heater levy. £2 was donated for every waterbed sold. This was a great idea because a waterbed heater will last several years and is a fairly good indication of how many waterbeds have been sold. The contributions were made anonymously through an independent accountant. The funds were used by the British Waterbed Association to promote waterbed benefits through a public relations company, adverts and features about waterbeds in health magazines and producing fact sheets, questions and answers and waterbed brochures. So where did it all go wrong? (To follow)

How the internet has effected our advertising of waterbeds and adjustable beds. For years we would spend several thousand pounds a year on yellow pages advertising. Adjustable beds would be listed under beds and bedding. Waterbeds was also listed under beds and bedding but then on the advice of the British Waterbed Association yellow pages introduced a Water Bed heading. This meant increasing the yearly budget. the problem was that the heading Water bed as two separate words as opposed to Waterbed on word, appeared after water treatment etc. So someone looking for waterbeds would give up after not finding it alphabetically. We complained but got no where. We were just a little waterbed business and they were all powerful Yellow Pages. At the time Yellow Pages were the equivalent of Google. With the increase of public access to the internet we have shifted (Way too slowly) towards having a waterbed and adjustable bed web site. Originally the intention was for our Waterbed trade customers to be able to access and use our waterbed information for there own waterbed websites. We got seriously left behind by our own trade customers. The reason as that we started to focus on production of adjustable beds and as this side of the business grew and began to make increasing profit we took our eye off the ball as far as the value of internet advertising of waterbeds. When you are making healthy profit from waterbed sales, it is easy to become complacent and assume nothing needs to change. The internet has revolutionised the waterbed industry, partly for good but in my opinion mainly for the bad, and I will explain in a later blog. So now we have reduced our Yellow Pages exposure and put that money to a web design company www.tidydesign.com that were highly recommended and did our www.bulgaripropertyagent.com. So how to show our waterbeds on our website? as we had previously had such success with our adjustable bed website mainly the build an adjustable bed feature. So lets have a go at making a build a waterbed online. It will have to show a choice of two softsided waterbeds, different sized waterbeds that we offer, choice of waterbed mattresses, waterbed headboards, and waterbed accessories. So lets see how it goes

Starting work to improve the waterbed website.

The wheels are back in motion… This was our first blog and was first started back in January 2010 to get the ball rolling and this is as far as it got. We are now in April 2012 and have published sixty nine blogs. We are getting the hang of it, trying to make them more informative and interesting so that customers can get information, tips and advice. For example our blog on how to empty a waterbed mattress has helped many customers over the years. When we started writing we were given conflicting advice as far as how and why to add blogs to our website.

Keyword density, apparently keywords are picked up by Google to help rank our site higher. Originally we were told that 7% was the ideal density, in other words every fifteenth word should be a keyword. In our case it is ‘waterbeds’ ‘adjustable beds‘ and several other associated words. Not only does that make terrible reading but it is also considered as spam which Google penalizes. Whether we were given bad advice at the time or maybe Google has since changed the way it ranks content and we should only mention waterbeds or adjustable beds about three times in the whole blog. Now we have had to go back through all our badly written blogs and make them readable.

I’ll come back to this blog in a few more years and find it’s all changed again.