I am officially turning into a grumpy old gyt!!! Ranting about business things which annoy me with alarming frequency. Imagine what I’ll be like when I reach my 30’s….

Today’s subject. Currys. Grrr

Basically I wanted to buy a TV as the one in my bedroom had conked out! Obviously I looked online and found this cheeky little offer giving 5% off all orders over £249. RESULT - the TV I wanted was £249.99.

I logged on to their website and placed the order. As it was Friday night I opted to collect the product on Saturday morning from my local store as there is a Currys about 10 miles away from where I live.

On arriving at the store I had the following debate…

Sales chappie “That’s £249.99 please”.

Me “Not so fast sunshine, I’ve got my 5% discount” I replied

“Sorry sir, that’s only for online orders” he countered

“But I did order it online - here’s my online reference number”

“No Sir, you can’t get the 5% discount because the online store has less costs than us” he claimed

“How? They offer free delivery on all orders, so surely that is going to cost more as they now will no longer have to pay the delivery fee” I responded getting slightly more annoyed….

“Sorry sir, we don’t have the facility to give discount“.

You get the picture!

Now obviously they’ve got different costs attributed to keeping a product in a store, rather than at a warehouse, but surely these costs would have been offset by the fact that they wouldn’t have had to pay the £5 - £10 delivery fee to cover their promise of free delivery.

In the words of Dizzee…. BONKERS! I don’t think I’ll be going there to get my Fathers Day Gift.

Toodle pip.

TBW.

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Prezzybox put a massive amount of stock and emphasis into offering good Customer Services. Whether a customer is buying a £5 product or a £500 product we rightly treat them with the same amount of respect which they deserve. It is much harder to gain a Customer than to lose a customer and this is drilled into ALL of our staff.

I’m therefore very proud to say that we’ve won countless Customer Services Awards and were voted the IRMG Retail Website of the year for 2009. Customer Services is a serious business…

I was therefore horrified at the Customer Services I received yesterday when trying to purchase an item that was a LOT more than £500… Namely a Car. I’m normally a mild mannered fella, but I was so incensed…nay outraged,  that I thought I simply had to share my experiences with you guys!

Before I do so, there’s a number of points you need to know:

1) I’m in the market for a Sports car - preferably an Audi TT or a VW Scirocco. However importantly…

NONE OF THE SALES REP’S AT ANY OF THE GARAGES KNEW THIS.

2) I’m MD of an Internet company called Prezzybox.com. We have a multi million turnover and therefore it’s not out of the realms of possibility that I would be looking to buy a mid range car like a TT or a Scirocco. Please don’t think that I’m saying this to be glib and insinuate that I’m a squillionaire. I’m not and I’m most definitely not. However, I’ll say it again…

NONE OF THE SALES REP’S AT ANY OF THE GARAGES KNEW THIS.

3) Having worked in online marketing for over 11 years I’m pretty clued up as to the power of blogging, social networking, online PR etc and understand the positive and negative impact such articles can have. However, I’ll repeat…

NONE OF THE SALES REP’S AT ANY OF THE GARAGES KNEW THIS.

The Tale

Dressed in jeans and a jacket (hey, it was a Sunday!) A friend and I arrived in the ’Car Showroom Triangle’ (where all of the car dealerships are situated) at around 10.15. Volkswagen were not open so we decided to trundle across the road to Jag to check out their cars.

Stop 1 - Jaguar - FAIL

A sign on the door said that Jaguar didn’t open till 11, however I tried the door and it was open. Asking the receptionist if it was OK for us to come in and look around (she said yes - they were open early for an event) one of their sales reps shouted across the store…

“You can only come in if you’ve got a big enough cheque book to leave a deposit”.

Now, this may have been said in jest, BUT a) it alienated both of us straight away as it was shouted across the store and b) made me feel like I didn’t want to buy a Jag and spend time looking at their cars. Jaguar #FAIL

Stop 2 - Volkswagen - SUCCESS

After we’d hurriedly left Jag, we made our across the road to VW. Now, they were just opening up (the lights weren’t even on) but the young man who was opening the store was extremely helpful. He let us in early, offered us a drink, gave us the spec of the car together with the price, excused himself while he unlocked the barriers to the car park and on our way out informed us that we could arrange a test drive should we wish.

For me this was great Customer Services. The young man didn’t make a judgement call as to the amount of money we had to spend, he listened to our requirements, gave us all of the options available to us, helped out without being too pushy and then offered further assistance should it be required. Perfect!

Stop 3 - Audi - FAIL

For me the Audi “lack of” Customer Services was the most annoying for me as…. read it and weep Audi….

I was actually looking to buy an AUDI TT! I wanted one soooooooo much

Upon looking round the showroom, I spotted that they didn’t have the model/spec I was looking for. I therefore enquired to the sales rep who at the time was busy chatting to the receptionist, whether they had any of the new Coupe’s (what was I thinking interrupting them!!) . His response…

“No, we only have some used ones out the back”

…and then he went back to chatting to his mate.

Why was this bad?  In my opinion this was terrible for the following reasons:

1) He was wrong. On checking out the back they had the EXACT SPEC and COLOUR Audi TT I was looking for. It took me around 30 seconds to find this out. OK, fair play he might not have known this, but I’m sure they MUST have some system which tells them exactly which cars they have at their branch OR which cars they have at branches close by. Would it not have been worth a look on the system?

2) He couldn’t be bothered to find out exactly what I was looking to buy or how much I was looking to spend. For all he knew I may have been looking to buy the car that very day. Now they’ll never know.

3) He didn’t offer any alternatives. My staff ALWAYS offer alternatives, upsell, cross sell, offer accessories and do their best for the customer without over imposing. I repeat, once you’ve got a customer it is imperative to keep them as it is really easy to lose them.

4) In my opinion because I’m a young (ish) chap and I wasn’t smartly dressed he made a judgement that I didn’t have the finance to purchase one of their precious cars so why should he waste his time with me. Incorrect once more sunshine!

To make matters worse, he actually then spent his time “lauding” some older chap who just so happened to have a suit on, shaking his hand, offering him a seat/drink etc. This is obviously good customer services and I applaud him for this, but it proves once more that he’d made the wrong judgement call, based on what this chap was wearing and his age. Why? Well, the gent inquestion currently owes my mate - who happened to be car shopping with me - £2000 for works carried out and can’t afford to pay him. Audi #FAIL

So, what can we deduce from yesterdays event?

1) I’m pretty sure I won’t  be buying a Jag or an Audi.

2) You should never judge a book by it’s cover.

3) Customer Services is like Marketing… You should always find out what the customer wants and then satisfy their needs profitably. If any of my staff treated a potential customer with such disregard I would be really annoyed - regardless of the amount the customer was looking to spend.

4) Sales Reps are the face of the Company. They are the gatekeepers. It doesn’t matter how many high feluted systems are in place or how clever an advertising campaign may be, if the front line staff aren’t adhering to the company ethos, all that goes before it is wasted.

5) If someone has annoyed you and offered you a poor service, you’ll tell a LOT more people than if you’ve received a good service. Hence this post! This can be detrimental to the brand equity.

So there we have it folks. I’ve asked for a quote of the Scirocco today and although had my heart set on an Audi TT, I’ll most likely be buying one of those. I’ll keep you posted!!!

Rant over.

Zak.

6 Comments »

Just a quickie today.

Prezzybox, with immediate effect, are no longer using ipoints as their on site incentive scheme.

There’s been no fall out, in fact we’ve always had a good relationship with Nav, Megan, Tom and the team, it’s just that both parties have different thoughts/ideologies on how best to go forwards so we felt it best to part company, rather than to continue in a relationship that neither was entirely happy with.

I know that some affiliates had issue with Prezzybox working what they essentially saw as a ‘competitor’ so hopefully this should be a positive move for those affiliates and mean that we can work closer together in the future.

Toodle pip.

TBW

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Last week I saw a Tweet on Twitter looking for both Brummies and Geordies to help with a project on lastminute.com. Hailing from ‘God’s Country’ as I do and speaking the “Queens English” (Brummagen) I thought, “that’s a project I could get involved with” and duly replied.

After a bit of email chitter chatter I was shown Pronto - a ‘nifty’ new search facility from lastminute.

Not only is this an AMAZING search facility (the technology is brilliant - you really do need to have a play with it) but as it’s a search for local hotels and restaurants the ‘lingo’ can be localised (see below). In short you can change the regional dialect in which you search - just for fun. Instead of saying “hello” you utter the immortal Brummie greeting “Alroight me babbie!”. Hence the reason why they needed the wealth of my Brummie colloquialisms.

As I say, it’s a really impressive search facility and is worth a play with. It’s very intuitive, very quick and very clever. Also - because it’s something that’s a bit different, with all of the regional twangs, I think it’s something which will afford Lastminute a lot of PR too, which is obviously a win win from their perspective!

Well done Lastminute. Very clever indeed!

Toodle pip.

Zak.

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We like to do our bit for charity here at Prezzybox.com - as you can see from our recent Voucher Charity offer.

So, whilst chatting with Alicia from Skimlinks about a charity idea they had which involved the social networking sensation Twitter (I admit it, I’m addicted!!!) it became apparent that Prezzybox would be the perfect partner to run a trial with. The trial would combine a number of things I’m passionate about - namely Prezzybox, innovation and donating to charity (as well as social networking!). Perfectamundo!

Here’s the concept - which I have to say is simple, yet in my opinion genius at the same time - well done Skimlinks!

1. Customer comes to Prezzybox.com

2. Customer buys a goody and then goes through the checkout process as normal

3. Once they have checked out and are on the “Order Confirmed” page they see the following option to ‘chat for charity’ where they can tell their friends about their latest buy. If their friend then goes on to make a purchase Prezzybox will donate 10% of the sale amount to charity.

 4. The customer then clicks either ‘Tweet this’ or ‘Facebook this’. This then automatically populates either a ‘tweet’ or a ‘facebook status update’ which says “Look what I just bought from Prezzybox (link to product). If you buy one 10% of the price will go to charity”.  Here’s an example:

 5. Once they tweet it this will then be viewed by all their followers - which has the obvious benefit for Prezzybox of generating extra sales/brand exposure, but also the additional benefit for the charity of generating donations which they wouldn’t ordinarily get. Everyone’s a winner!

As I say, I think this is a brilliant idea - really innovative - so hats off to the Skimlinks team. You can see why they are getting so many plaudits so early into their inception.

Toodle pip.

TBW

x

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Oh yes, organised by our good buddies @10Yetis, Prezzybox have been featured in every one’s favourite newspaper - the Daily Sport!

The piece is based on some research we conducted on which region purchased the most ”fun gifts”, with the lovable Brummies coming out on top! For the sake of decency a mugshot of ‘yours truly’ has been positioned discretely to hide the woman’s privacy… hold on… personalised nipple tassels - I reckon they’d sell!!

Toodle pip.

TBW

2 Comments »

Next week Prezzybox.com are exhibiting all of the goodies which we feel are going to be the BIG sellers for Christmas 09.

Fancy a seaky peak??

We’re at:

• IPC Media (Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU) on Wednesday 8th July
• Nat Mags (72 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 9EP)  on Thursday 9th July

You don’t need to make an appointment, simply pop along and see the girls.

I really do think it will be worth while, because we’ve some AWESOME goodies on display which are sure to be big hits this Christmas, so it will really help you get ahead of the rest with regards to building sites and optimising them.

Toodle pip.

TBW

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Blimey - I’m getting good at this blogging lark - two in one day!! It’s a record.

Anyhoo, I’ve started to undertake a wee twitter experiment.

Why? I hear you ask…

Well, firstly, I’m fascinated by it. I think it’s both bizarre and brilliant that people will post the most random things that they are doing. It’s a complete social taboo from the very private times of yesteryear (when I was a lad, etc etc) and apart from it being a bit of a burglars delight (”hey, I’m on holiday - feel free to rob me” often reads the message), it’s also a really weird social phenomenon, not dissimilar to when Big Brother launched all those years ago. So, there we go - you can tell I’m hooked.

So, my experiment is very simple and is two fold.

Initially I’m going to try and get as many followers as possible - I’m hoping for 1000 to begin with. Now, I’m doing this in a ‘two pronged’ attack type manner. Firstly I’m following a number of people whom I hope will then follow me back. Again, this is pretty interesting as you get to see what type of ‘friends’ other people have. For example - I went through Hugh Hefners friends last night. Man - he is one lucky dude!! I’m now following about 50 play boy bunnies - all in the name of research I have to add - it’s hilarious!!

Secondly I’m trying to reply to famous people with pretty random comments to see if I can evoke a response from them and thus get some of their followers to follow me. You follow? So, if you see me tweeting some famous dudes some pretty weird stuff - don’t worry, I’m not going bonkers - just trying to get some exposure.

The second part of my experiment is thus. I’m going to see how easy it is to monetise followers from twitter and convert them into users/purchasers on Prezzybox.com. I read recently that Dell had generated £1m turnover from users on twitter in 6 months. Not huge admittedly - especially for a company their size - but it does prove that the concept works. I don’t know how I’m gonna do this yet - hopefully something a little cleverer than merely linking to products etc. I’ll keep you posted.

So, I’ll be tweeting with renewed vigour from now on. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Toodle pip!

Zak.

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We’re spreading the lluurrrvvveee at Prezzybox.com and urge you to get involved.

As well as all the usual Valentines Day goodies we’ve launched our very own poetry competition. Are you romantic enough to jot down a sonnet? If so click here and send us an example of written creativity. You could be the winner of one of our great prizes.

If that’s not up your street then why not check out what type of couple you are in with our couples test. Alternatively if its fun you’re after check out our special Valentines Day Pairs game.

Finally, if you just fancy a bit of traditional romance (and fancy bagging yourself a nice goodie) then send your loved one an ecard or drop them a hint telling them exactly which gift you want.

Happy loving folks!

Zak.

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Prezzybox, like loads of other companies send all of our weekly/monthly newsletters via a 3rd party. We currently use an Email distribution company called Email Vision but are coming to the end of our contract with them. I’m therefore looking at all the options and thought I’d share my experiences. Basically - as far as I can see, we have 3 options…

1) Don’t send any newsletters. Bit daft this option, so we’ll move on…

2) Continue with Email Vision or one of their competitors.

This would be the easiest option as we’re already good to go. Email Software providers normally ’guarantee’ deliver-ability,  the have all manner of reporting/tracking tools and claim to “talk to the ISP’s on a daily basis” to ensure that their IP addresses are whitelisted. Hmmmm.

The obvious detriment of continuing with somebody like this is the cost. It’s not cheap.

3) Send Newsletters ourselves

When we first launched we used to send all of our newsletters ourselves and even sent them from the same server as our site was hosted. So what’s to stop buying/renting our own server with its own IP address and sending out our own newsletters? Especially when there are free tools which enable us to do this such as Openemm.org or you can buy a licence from people like Lyris.com.

Newsletter providers will say that this is a complete ‘no no’ as if you do this your IP address will instantly become black listed and you’ll never get an email into the inbox of any of the big ISP’s again. But is this really the case? Surely, as long as you are sensible and don’t spam the World and his wife to death then you’ll be fine. Admittedly you need to make sure the DNS and IP address are set up correctly, and you have to ‘warm up’ the IP address but I can’t believe it is that difficult to do. Are the email providers just scare mongering as it’s not in their interest for you to do it yourself or is there really an art to ‘getting in the inbox’?

The massive advantage of sending newsletters yourself is the cost saving. It’s potentially free. And, if the worst does happen and your IP address does get black listed, then surely you can sign up with one of the Email Providers futuristically and use one of their ‘white listed’ IP address’s.

So folks, I’m really unsure which way we’ll go. As soon as we make a decision we’ll keep you posted.

Cheerio.

TBW

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