I posted a quick off the cuff comment a few weeks ago about one of my pet hates - essentially when companies see their web presence and their web store as two different things. Breaking news - your website is your store, is your brand, is where your customers go for information about you, where they go to buy, where they go to complain. Oh dear - someone doesn't realise this:
Dear Ms 2AQ,
Thank you for contacting us at X Cosmetics.
unfortunately, we cannot assist you, as we provide customer service for our website only.
One of our aims at X Cosmetics is to provide a convenient and efficient service. and we sincerely apologise that on this occasion, we were not able to fulfil this expectation.
I will certainly pass this feedback on alternatively you are welcome to write to the X Cosmetics Head Office with your complaint:
X Cosmetics, Ltd
Greenwood House,
New London Road
Chelmsford, Essex CM2 OPP
United Kingdom.
We hope that you will give us another opportunity to prove the quality of our service to you.
Thank you for shopping at yada yada website.com
Wake up peeps - your concessions, your store, your website, your staff, your facebook pages- they're all the representations of your brand and customers will access your brand how they wish to do so and in the way that is most convenient for them and in this environment you can bet that that just happens to be online. And if that fails to get through it's worth remembering that I had a complaint to begin with- now I have two.....
Retail, eCommerce, usability, customer experience, service, technology...
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Zen and the art of recruitment.
(Somewhat off piste from the usual I know but it is the new year. Be grateful you weren't subjected to a rundown of my 100 favourite blogs/shoes/gin and tonics of 2011)
Ah recruiters. my post holiday inbox is full of your invites on LinkedIn, your emails and your phone messages (nice trick the one who phoned reception and pretended they KNEW me). *sigh*
Some tips.
I need to know the name of the retailer/company
blahblahnoise company doesn't want to reveal itself, blahblahnoise I can't tell you unless I discuss in person, blahblahnoise I need to know if you want to apply before I tell you, blahblahnoise I'm going to refer to 'a large multi channel grocery retailer whose online operations are based in Welwyn Garden City' secret code. If I don't know who it is I won't know if I want to apply. Coming from a top tier consultancy I have some great names on my CV and I don't need to especially stick to the big players but admiration for a company is a big factor. I'm someone for whom strategic vision is everything so I need to know what the company is, what their plan is and where they're going. So quit your mind games and just tell me.
Never ask if I know someone for the role:
a) I'm not doing your job for you and nor is my LinkedIn network
b) Surely you thought of me for the role because I'm uniquely awesome? No? Just spamming then.
READ!
My background is really varied yet people insist on offering the same roles which don't really fit who I am or what I do. It's so obvious they've just searched for a keyword which has popped up in my profile.
Similarly after I joined my current company last December I got about ten emails in the first month- clearly I've just moved jobs, likelihood is I'm not looking for a change quite so fast!
Be genuine
Ok so partly this is a rant about my inbox and partly it's because I'm doing a whole load of recruitment at the moment. I'm learning a lot about it and what it's taken me about two months and about 200 failed CV's to realise is that I'm a lot better at it than recruiters we pay to do it. For a start I don't charge my company a gazzion pound fee (or any fee...hang on.....that needs to change....) but no, the key to good recruitment (in ecommerce, in retail.... in anything) is sincerity. Genuinely building a relationship with a candidate who you know will be honest with you and who you can be honest with is the way forward. For those who make this their career this means playing the long game I'm sure, for me it's stalking (ahem) developers where they like to hang out rather than waiting for them to come to me.
Ah you see - you thought it was going to be a rant but no, there was a moral in the end.
Ah recruiters. my post holiday inbox is full of your invites on LinkedIn, your emails and your phone messages (nice trick the one who phoned reception and pretended they KNEW me). *sigh*
Some tips.
I need to know the name of the retailer/company
blahblahnoise company doesn't want to reveal itself, blahblahnoise I can't tell you unless I discuss in person, blahblahnoise I need to know if you want to apply before I tell you, blahblahnoise I'm going to refer to 'a large multi channel grocery retailer whose online operations are based in Welwyn Garden City' secret code. If I don't know who it is I won't know if I want to apply. Coming from a top tier consultancy I have some great names on my CV and I don't need to especially stick to the big players but admiration for a company is a big factor. I'm someone for whom strategic vision is everything so I need to know what the company is, what their plan is and where they're going. So quit your mind games and just tell me.
Never ask if I know someone for the role:
a) I'm not doing your job for you and nor is my LinkedIn network
b) Surely you thought of me for the role because I'm uniquely awesome? No? Just spamming then.
READ!
My background is really varied yet people insist on offering the same roles which don't really fit who I am or what I do. It's so obvious they've just searched for a keyword which has popped up in my profile.
Similarly after I joined my current company last December I got about ten emails in the first month- clearly I've just moved jobs, likelihood is I'm not looking for a change quite so fast!
Be genuine
Ok so partly this is a rant about my inbox and partly it's because I'm doing a whole load of recruitment at the moment. I'm learning a lot about it and what it's taken me about two months and about 200 failed CV's to realise is that I'm a lot better at it than recruiters we pay to do it. For a start I don't charge my company a gazzion pound fee (or any fee...hang on.....that needs to change....) but no, the key to good recruitment (in ecommerce, in retail.... in anything) is sincerity. Genuinely building a relationship with a candidate who you know will be honest with you and who you can be honest with is the way forward. For those who make this their career this means playing the long game I'm sure, for me it's stalking (ahem) developers where they like to hang out rather than waiting for them to come to me.
Ah you see - you thought it was going to be a rant but no, there was a moral in the end.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)