Meet the Clickers – Paul De-Ath

Meet the Clickers returns once again for Episode 74 and this week, we’re joined by Click Dealer stalwart and all-round DMS wizard, Paul De-Ath. Paul took his place in the hot seat to discuss everything from his trusty Morris Marina to his love for egg and chips. Here’s what he had to say…

Hi Paul, great to catch up with you! Could you please start off by telling us a bit about how you started out here at Click and what your day to day job role includes?

Hi Ben, I first met Gerry about 16 years ago when I was working for a second-hand car dealership selling 250 to 300 cars a month. He came out to us when we were looking for finance software. Eventually, after a number of years, we went to Click from another DMS provider which we were using at the time. Gerry came out and trained four of us around one desk. At that time there was only Gerry and occasionally Pippa. It took me years to find out that Click is based in Stoke, as we only had a mobile number!

I was a heavy user of Click with exporting to Sage and remember the accountant coming out and setting Sage up, as I think we were one of the first to do that. I made Gerry’s life fun by making loads of requests for changes to the system and you can still see a lot that was specifically for us. After about 12 years at the dealership I left, and one day Gerry rang and asked me to come for an interview. I got the job. Nowadays, I get the hard questions for any accounts-related problems dealing with ClickDMS, Sage and Xero. I want to pass as much knowledge as I can to everybody here, which will make my life easier. When I have time, I try to look at how Click can be improved by tightening up on procedures and updating systems.

Amazing. What’s your guilty pleasure?

My wife says it’s 80’s music, but it’s a pleasure and I don’t feel guilty at all about it.

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of 80’s music! What do you do to unwind after a hard day’s work?

I like just sitting outside in my garden, where I have built a waterfall with over a tonne of rocks and four drops and then created a river that completely cuts off the back garden.

What’s your favourite place to visit on holiday?

I’ll have to say Tenby. We used to go there when I was a child and where we stay, you can just walk to the beach past the golf course and then into Tenby itself. I have only ever been abroad to France once and I drove it down there, I have never been on a plane!

Sounds like a lovely place. What was your first car?

Morris Marina 1.8 but don’t hold it against me. It was all I could afford at the time. It really struggled to get up hills.

It could be worse, I guess, and it’s probably still safer than Phoebie’s driving! What’s the most pointless thing in the world?

I don’t know. I always look for positive things not negative, so I have never thought about it.

A great mindset to have. There are two types of people in the world, what are they?

People who ask questions like this and people who don’t.

If you had intro music every time that you walked into the office, what would it be?

Superman theme tune. I went with my Dad when it came out. The tag line was “You’ll believe a man can fly” and when I came out of the cinema I did.

Alex and Jamie still believe that Crewe Alex will one day be promoted from League 2, so flying isn’t all that unreasonable really! What’s your favourite meal?

Not a hard one this. It’s egg and chips, chips on their own, egg on toast or egg sandwiches. You have now covered my entire diet for the last 30 years.

Finally, as always, what’s the best thing about working here at Click?

Wherever I have worked previously, there was no appreciation for the work you put in. In 12 years at my previous company, I got one sample coat as an example. At Click, everybody appreciates what you can bring to the business and says so. This attitude for the business comes from the top and works downward so that it permeates the whole company. Seeing things change and grow at Click over the years has been good, even if it is hard to remember all the names now that it has grown so much!

Great answer, Paul. I think that everybody here at Click appreciates the different skills that we all bring to the table, it’s part of what makes the Clicker family second to none.

If you enjoyed this week’s Meet the Clickers, you can catch up on all previous episodes here. Be sure to join us again next week for Episode 75!

Until next time,

Woody