Guest blog by Jillian Mordue – HLTA for Physiotherapy at Keelmans Way School
Congratulations to you all at Jenx on your 40 year anniversary. Not sure where to start when talking about you so I will start at the beginning and tell you about all our positive experiences with your fabulous company.
You are an excellent high-quality organisation with a long standing, very successful relationship with our school from a Jenx perspective but also Jiraffe in more recent years. You have a highly approachable and enthusiastic team of people who are very knowledgeable and experienced with each and every one of their products and they have provided us with some very useful advice and direction over the years and for that we are really grateful, you are such an easy company to work with.
Where do I start regarding your products!…….
About 95% of the equipment here at Keelmans is from Jiraffe/Jenx which speaks volumes really but I will only pick a couple to talk about. We find the supine standers absolutely invaluable as we can use them between a number of children on a daily basis due to the fact they are so easy to adjust and wipe down. Most of our chairs are the Jenx Junior, Multiseats or Activity chairs these are so child friendly and lovely to look at, so much so quite a few of our children also have these in their homes. We had the privilege of trialling the Ly On with the designers, they took on board some of our feedback and what they ended up with was the most versatile side lying board for children who have complex postural needs that we have ever had, the children are so well positioned safe and comfortable. It’s a piece of equipment that is used every day with a number of children. Every piece of equipment that you design is made with the child in mind, its colourful easy to use comfortable and it enables the child to interact within both the classroom setting and home environment.
The support our children receive from Jiraffe outside of school is nothing short of excellent, the reps will arrange to do a home visit after school and they support us with our 24 hour approach to positioning. I personally think it’s a great strength of a company if they will leave a product with a child for a few weeks so that we can see if it works effectively, Jiraffe have always allowed us to do exactly that and this has enabled us to avoid making costly mistakes.
In an educational setting like our school, you work with us to educate staff and parents which helps to develop a much more effective service.
The communication between our school and Jiraffe has always been outstanding nothing is ever any trouble no matter who you speak to or what our problem or query is regarding. Replacement parts are nearly always in house so can be sent out to us within a few days, that is invaluable to us as we hate to be without a piece of equipment for very long. The after sales care that we have received over the years from yourselves has been fantastic…….thank you so much to all of you in the office and behind the scenes you do an amazing job.
As a company I think your idea of introducing Maintenance visits was nothing short of genius. We book in advance a once a month visit from our new Product advisor Craig Ward and this ensures that whatever problem we have may it be big or small I know the date and time that Craig will be coming into school and it will get sorted, we also use this time for if parents have issues with the equipment at home This has saved us a lot of time and effort, we also double up this appointment with assessments. This once-a-month visit has been an absolute god send to us as a school.
THE TEAM………
We are extremely proud to have been the face of your brochure for the last 12 years. We are now the proud owners of some beautiful photos of your amazing products and our fantastic children which we have on display for all to see all around school, they are definitely a talking point and we have been complimented many many times on how lovely they are. It was a fabulous experience for both our school and the staff from Jiraffe, it took a lot of hard work on your side Simon to get it all organised but oh my word it was worth it. It was also a great opportunity for us to meet some of the other reps and staff within the company and I have to be honest you were a great bunch of people, and it was a pleasure to meet you all…. thank you all for that amazing experience.
We have also had the great pleasure and privilege to work with Mike Colley for 18 years, he was not only our product advisor and colleague but a great friend to the school and he became a very much valued member of the Keelmans Way team. He is now working in the Sheffield area and as much as we miss him we all wish him well and thank him for all of the advice and help (which has been massive over the years) that he has given us. This is just one example of the amazing reps you have at Jiraffe and I know there are many others as we have had the pleasure of meeting quite a few of you…….you all really do ‘ stick your neck out ’ for everyone
So to ALL of you at Jenx and Jiraffe, here is to the next 40 years, may you continue to design and deliver fabulous equipment to our amazing children and very BIG THANK YOU to each and every one of you for giving us at Keelmans Way School the opportunity to have been a big part of your journey.
