SMG

The business support benefits provided by SMG to members include reduced insurance cover, savings on credit card transactions, trade vehicle offers and access to Croner’s free Business Support Helpline.

The Business Support Helpline gives members unlimited access to Croner’s experts on a wide variety of issues including employment law, HR, health & safety, commercial legal, tax and VAT.

“A lot of our members’ businesses have grown from a single carpet fitter taking on retail premises and then employing staff. As they grow they often don’t have the expertise or knowledge to know where to start with some of the workplace issues that present themselves, let alone navigating through the complexities of employment legislation.

“We have been a client of Croner for the past 18 years”, says Business and Marketing Manager, Linda Thomas. “Our relationship with Croner began with them helping with our health & safety and membership handbooks and it grew from there. We have around 316 members and represent 385 retail outlets of all sizes, throughout the UK – all of which need expert advice on a whole range of issues from time to time.

We see our relationship with Croner as a way of working together to offer members expert advice when they need it - on the other end of the phone.”

Most SMG members call the Croner helpline for Commercial Legal disputes or for assistance with HR and employment law related issues.

“The helpline is invaluable and many retailers don’t appreciate it until they have a problem. A lot of the calls from members tend to be where a customer has not made payment and they need guidance about what to do next to recover their costs”, says Linda.

“They also call up where there is a staffing issue and they need guidance about perhaps letting underperforming staff go. The helpline enables them to mange highly sensitive situations like this in the right way, as a big legal battle could wipe them out.

“I had a call with a member the other day who has been working with Croner to update his employment documentation. He didn’t know where to start and had been putting it off, so Croner has really helped him complete a daunting task that needed to be done.”

For SMG the Business Support Helpline is an important part of the market leading service they provide to members. “The law is very exact and every business must make sure they completely comply with it – ignorance is not an excuse,” adds Linda.

“For us, our relationship with our members is very important and we want them to be successful and their businesses to grow. To help them do this we see it as our responsibility to put the back-up systems in place, so they have everything they need to concentrate on running their businesses.”