Just over a year ago I bought my wife some Superdry tracksuit bottoms. She chose them because they appeared to be of good quality and looked comfy to wear around the house. Just over 12 months on Katie was about to throw the same Tracksuit bottoms into the bin. The reason being that they had literally worn away to a point where she could no longer wear them (even around the house).

The tracksuit bottoms cost us £45 from House of Frazer.  So they were not cheap, especially for a pair of tracksuit bottoms where Primark sell a copy version for £4. Do the profit maths!

Thinking that Superdry were a quality brand that would surely be backed up by a quality customer service team I told Katie not to throw away the tracksuit bottoms as I was going to photograph them to complain to Superdry. I did just that.

I pointed out that I had bought several items of the Superdry brand and that these tracksuit bottoms had literally fallen apart.

I did not expect the response I got:

Hi Andy,

 

Thank you for your email. We are very sorry to hear that your tracksuit bottoms are in very poor condition, however unfortunately, as this item was not purchased from Superdry.com or Cult.co.uk, we won’t be able to help you with your enquiry on this occasion. Your contract of purchase is with the retailer you have purchased from and I would hope their customer service team will be able to assist you further.

Kind regards,

Mira

Customer Service

Way to go to pass the buck. I know there are no laws to put the responsibility with Superdry directly. However, I thought the very shame of the state of the deterioration of the tracksuit bottoms would have shamed Superdry into compensating me somehow.

Anyhow, this isn’t meant to be a rant. It is a review of Superdry which I have to say they are terrible both in the quality of their products and the state of their customer service.

Superdry Price: 1 out of 10

Superdry Quality: 1 out of 10

Superdry Customer service 1 out of 10

Don’t waste your money. Go to another brand like Hollister, or Jack Wills.

UPDATE 31/03/2012 After this blog post Superdry customer care got in touch on Twitter and asked me to email them details..

I did and they responded saying exactly the same thing as the useless so called customer care team did previously. So they not only wasted more of my time, but they didn’t bother reading anything about my situation before wasting my time.

Congratulations you half wits – you managed to make a customer service situation that I thought couldn’t get any worse – WORSE.

Finding someone that has a good word to say about Microsoft these days is almost as hard as finding an innovative product from the giant, once leading software provider.

For that reason this blog post isn’t aimed at taking pot shots at Microsoft; doing so would be far too easy.

Instead I want to highlight some thoughts of mine which to me seem glaringly obvious, however, I’ve never heard anyone else speak out with similar thoughts so here goes:

Microsoft for me are living proof of the phrase ‘too big to fail’. They have made consistent errors in product development and worse still missed opportunities that were in the absolute palm of their hand to seize.

Lets wind the clock back a little and have a look through time at all of the opportunities that Microsoft have wasted.

1) Being the #1 provider of internet browsers:- Microsoft enjoy a massive market share in operating systems on people systems. They also enjoy the benefit of having their browser pre-installed on Windows. So how have they only got a slim lead on the market share of web browsers? I know the answer to this one, it’s because Microsoft’s Internet explorer is utterly rubbish compared to Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox. The fact they only have a slim advantage on market share is nulled because many of their users aren’t users through choice and are limited to Internet Explorer either through lack of knowledge or because their system won’t allow another browser.

Reason: Poor Product

2) Being the leading search engine provider:- As we know from the above Microsoft have the market share of web browsers. They were perfectly placed to become the #1 search engine provider but lost ground to Google which they never recovered. They have tried with Bing but only hold a measly 4% market share compared to Googles 84%!

Reason: Poor Product & Awful Execution

3) Being Facebook:- Did you know that before Facebook there were over 80 other social network sites. What made Facebook different was that it picked up massive traction and users rapidly. It was users that led to Facebook’s success. But what is Facebook? It’s a collection of people being connected by pictures, statuses and chat. MSN Chat had all of these things. You could post status updates on MSN, you could post pictures and of course chat. Microsoft had millions of users. Didn’t you used to you MSN? I think everyone did.

Reason: Lack of vision

4) Being pretty much EVERY single tech success in the last 10 years:- From LinkedIn to Salesforce.com to YouTube to Flickr; Microsoft could have been them all. But what have they done? Nothing! Microsoft are losing market share to Apple and Linux annually and have no new products. They’re still pushing out the same old boring nonsense: Windows, Office, Server, Dynamics etc.

Reason: Lack of vision

5) Awful marketing:- Have you seen the Gmail Man video or perhaps the Googlighting video? Check them out on YouTube. They’re videos by Microsoft slating Googles Gmail and Docs platforms. There are 2 problems 1st the oldest rule in the book “don’t knock your competition” 2nd they’re utterly cringe worthy and don’t succeed in doing anything except for making Microsoft look stupid.

Reason: Stupid

6) Apple:- This needs no explanation. Everything Apple have done has been within Microsoft resourceful reach but they’ve not achieved a 0.01% of what Apple have.

Reason: Lack of vision

Summary: Too big to fail? I think so. Microsoft haven’t moved forward anywhere near what their potential should be. They’ve managed to get away with just coasting along making minor changes to their products whilst doing nothing really ground breaking for decades.

As you know I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to gadgets, actually.. I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to most things. I also like to give credit where it’s due. I think we’re all (me especially) guilty of moaning about when things aren’t as good as what they should be, so feel it is important to make an effort to give credit where it’s due as often as possible.

The Dodocase for the iPad2 definitely deserves credit. It’s not cheap, but that’s not why you buy a Dodocase. It retails at $59.95.
What I love about my Dodocase is that nobody who has seen it has suspected that inside my Dodocase is an iPad. This is one of the reasons why I invested in a Dodocase because I didn’t like the idea of people knowing I was carrying an iPad. This is for 2 reasons – the first is security, and the second is I don’t like the image of walking around with an iPad on show. Kind of like the same way I didn’t like Bluetooth headsets I feel as though people would think you’re a bit of a show off. Not that the iPad is something people should show off, but I’m sure you get what I mean.

The build quality of the Dodocase is supreme, it’s built to look like a classic high quality notebook. The iPad sits beautifully snug inside the wooden frame inside the Dodocase and the whole thing has a real feel of quality about it.

Kevin Rose is a tech scene god and his video review of the Dodocase below is pretty much spot on in my opinion. Give it a watch!

I bought my Dodocase directly from Dodocase in San Fransisco and it arrived in real quick time. Like scary quick! Once the Dodocase was made (I had a custom one made with my initials on it) it was in the UK within 24 hours of being shipped!

All in all I can’t recommend a Dodocase enough! Although I secretly hope not too many people buy them as I like the exclusivity where nobody knows what it is!

Much love,

Andy

I recently was asked by Dealer Support to write an article for their ‘Final Word’ section of their magazine. Below is the article I wrote about the merits of having a comfortable work place. What do you think?

Are you sitting comfortably?

Probably the most widely used strap lines in our industry associated to office furniture. However, I don’t want to talk about furniture. I want to talk about the potential of being comfortable at work.
Recently at the OFDA dealer conference I spoke to dealers about technology in business. One of the questions I was interested to ask was “where do you go if you have some really important work to do?” Most people’s response was somewhere quiet. I dug a little deeper and it turns out that often somewhere quiet is generally somewhere that is not the office.
So where do you go? The OFDA dealers mostly went home, some went to coffee shops and some got their work done on their commute to and from the office on public transport.
What struck me as interesting is that these places aren’t necessarily ‘quiet’. I pondered to myself what it was about these places that allowed people to get their best work done. My belief is that people get their best work done in these places not because they are quiet, (trust me, I work from home and with a 4 week old baby, a German Shepherd and Jeremy Kyle on tv it is not quiet) but because people are at their most comfortable in these places.
If being comfortable is the key ingredient in being extra productive then it is no wonder that cutting edge companies like Google & Facebook have created astonishingly relaxed work environments.
What Google and Facebook have in common is that their work places are very informal. The dress code within their offices are very relaxed which isn’t always appropriate in our industry, but, where possible I think there is real merit in making staff feel relaxed and comfortable as ultimately your staff will find the office a more pleasant place to be. Your staff will be off sick less, you’ll retain staff for longer and be able to attract the best quality of staff.

Another question I was keen to pose to the OFDA members was whether they block their staff from viewing certain web sites. Specifically Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. I was surprised to learn that some dealers do still block these web sites in their offices. Youtube will feature hundreds of beneficial product and sales technique videos, Facebook and Twitter offer a great opportunity for new business and with most people having access to these sites on their mobile phones by blocking them you are encouraging staff to be underhand with their access to them. Instead why not open up access on the condition that these sites can only be used in lunch and break times and that to use them each staff member has to invite all of their friends on these sites to like and follow your Facebook and Twitter pages. In this process see if you have a social media expert within your team. Dealers are always telling me they don’t have time for social media or they can’t afford to recruit someone to manage it. The key to being good with social media is being good at being social. Have you got anyone who is social? It could anyone from a van driver to someone in the sales admin team.
If you make sure your staff are comfortable in work then I guarantee you’ll have a happier more productive team and who knows in a few years’ time we could all be working in our pyjamas with sofa beds for office cubicles!

My first son Charlie Christopher Whyte was born on Saturday the 22nd of October 2011 in Peterborough hospital. Throughout our experience with Peterborough Hospital from the early scans right through to my wife going into labour the way in which we were looked after was outstanding.
Every single member of the team at Peterborough Hospital were brilliant. The doctors and midwifes were both friendly and knowledgeable.
We were lucky enough to have our own room for the labour and then moved into theatre where Charlie was born. We had our own midwife throughout and the midwifes couldn’t do enough to help constantly checking we were ok.
I constantly hear the NHS being criticized in the press. My experience with the NHS has been nothing short of superb.
Well done Peterborough Hospital and all of your team. I really appreciate your hard work.

Peterborough is a brand new hospital that opened in November 2010 – if it is the future of the NHS then we are in GREAT hands!

As the world of business rapidly advances to keep in tune with technology there are constant changes to the way we live, the way we communicate, and with how we spend our money and thanks to much of this technology, how happy we are to spend our money.
10 years ago we had the iPod which changed the way we think about music. It reduced the physical sales of CDs but it also plugged the massive hole in record labels profits that was being lost due to pirated content. The genius of Steve Jobs saw and created the future of music.
10 years on a similar set of circumstances are occurring in the printed media industry with books, newspaper, and magazines. The invention of the iPads, Kindles, smart phones, other tablets and digital reading devices have meant that physical printed media is no longer as desirable as it once was. Why carry around a book or magazine with you when you could just take your modern device and it do that and so much more?!
The foundation for success with the iPod and iTunes was that it made sense! Why go to a shop to buy a big cd when you could download the songs you want in seconds and have them onto your iPod in minutes? On top of this the KEY bonus was that it was cheaper – of course it is, there is no cost to manufacture a CD, case and artwork, no cost in logistics to get it to iTunes for you to buy and iTunes skipped out the middle man (wholesaler). So it made sense that it was cheaper.
So why oh why oh why!!! Are the printed media not taking note?! I went to buy a book a couple of days ago and was met with the below pricing scenario:

To clarify: The Kindle version is an electronic version of the book which gets electronically sent directly to the Kindle device. The book itself is black and white and features no images or additional content. It is effectively a low quality version of a hard back.
The book in question is Steve Jobs Autobiography so it’s a top selling book and the pricing would have been carefully thought through.
The cost break down is as follows:
$21.14 – for the Kindle version
$17.88 – for the hardback printed version
The difference between the two is that the Hardback printed version includes delivery. It has also had to have artwork designed, be printed, delivered to the various different wholesalers and all of the logistics in between, stocked and accounted for. On top of this the hardback version is clearly a better read, it contains glossy pictures and a decorative design. Once I’ve read the book I have the option to lend it to a friend, or even sell it to redeem some of the cost.
With the Kindle you get a printed version without glossy pictures and you can’t lend it to someone, nor can you resell it.
The only way it could be excused to pay more for the Kindle version was if the Kindle was free in the first instance and then you’re purely paying for the content to read on it. However, I paid £149.99 for my Kindle.

On top of the above example Apples new ‘Newsstand’ feature where you can download your favourite magazines onto your electronic reading device for the same price as they appear in the newsagents is also flawed. For the same reasons as the Kindle books the saving that the publishers make should be passed onto the consumer not doing so is pure greed and will lead to the publishers putting themselves out of business.
As an example I’ve read Mens Health magazine for many years, often subscribing for periods of time. I don’t currently have a Mens Health Subscription but should the iPad version be cheaper then I would most definitely subscribe for it on my iPad. However, it’s the same price as in the shops for the actual printed version therefore I refuse to subscribe to it. I am sure I am not alone and the worst part of the scenario is that on my iPad where I would normally be happy to pay a lesser rate for the iPad version of Mens Health magazine I have access to the internet which is literally packed full of websites, blogs, and other informational sources where I can get my ‘mens health’ fix for free!

I am sure that if no concessions are made web sites that provide free sources of information will continue to thrive whilst the traditional magazines will die out.

Autosport now charges for it’s online content, so I no longer read it. I instead read Planet F1 and get the same quality of news for free.

And I thought the music industry was bad!

Charlie Christopher Whyte was born oat 19:46 on Saturday the 22nd of October 2011.
He is a beautiful boy.
Mum is doing well, she was brilliant throughout labour.

More to follow

I’ve now got an app on my iPhone that allows me to update my blog so expect some more regular updates along with pics especially as Baby W is only weeks away from arriving!

In recent months I’ve noticed a big surge in the amount of office supplies dealers using Twitter. This is really encouraging for the independent industry. It shows dealers are getting in tune with modern technology to help drive their businesses.

Whilst I would never class myself as an expert, guru or any other nonsense that people today do class themselves as (I don’t know how someone can class themselves as an expert at something so young as social media) I have had a lot of success from using Twitter in particular. Evolution have generated leads from Twitter that have created a revenue of over £80k within the last 12 months.

The above said just being on Twitter isn’t enough to get you the full potential of Twitter. In fact when done wrong Twitter can be a complete waste of time.

What I’ve listed below are what I’d class as bad practices. You may disagree. After all with something as young and fresh as Social Media who can really say what is best.

1) Do Not purely tweet self promotional stuff. This has to be number 1 on anybodys list. If all you do is Tweet stuff for your own benefit then people won’t see any benefit for them in following you. The best Tweeters I know Tweet interesting content. Whether it be news, opinions, or anything interesting. They still will use Twitter to promote themselves, their product or service but aim to only account for 20% of your time doing so. The result of this is you will gain more followers AND most importantly the followers you gain will take much more interest in the promotional tweets you do send.

2) Don’t spam your timeline. Even if you think you have something REALLY interesting to say try and keep your Tweets spaced out through time. There is nothing more annoying then coming onto Twitter and seeing a wall of tweets from the same person. If you can’t fit a long message in 1 or 2 tweets then use a service like Tweetlonger to expand your message from the 140 characters limit. The only thing worse than a tweet spaced out over several tweets is when someone tweets several tweets of nonsense. Rubbish like ‘A big thanks to @TwitterName  for following me’

3) Be a real person. Even if your Twitter account is the name of your business still be personal. People will warm to you a lot more if they can relate to what you’re saying.

4) Never ignore any messages sent to you on Twitter. The only exception to this is if it is someone spamming you. These Tweeters are very easy to spot. Check their timeline you’ll usually be one of hundreds of other people they’ve tweeted the same link or product to and they’ll have hardly any followers. All other messages you get you should always reply to. Remember a real person is behind the Tweet and it could be one of your customers, or a potential customer.

5) Get rid of auto messages. Nothing is more infuriating and seedy than a auto message. If you’re not sure what these are they are the messages that people automatically send if you start following them. They usually say such cringeworthy nonsense as ‘Hey @Name thanks for following me. I hope you enjoy my Tweets’ *PASS ME THE SICK BAG*. Any dealer who has this service setup is totally alienating themselves from the customer. Trust me if you haven’t got time to personally message a new follower then you shouldn’t bother on Twitter.

6) NEVER refer to your followers as your fans! Unless you’re the office supplies version of Justin Bieber never ever ever everrrrr refer to your followers as your fans. They are your customers, colleauges, friends. Nothing is more arrogant!

7) If you’re posting an opinion on politics, or religion make sure it is not likely to offend anyone. You’ll either lose a follower and subsequently a customer, or you’ll force someone into a confrontation. It won’t look good.

8 ) Follow people that will benefit your business. For some REALLY strange reason lots and lots of office supplies dealers seem to follow every single other dealer they can find. Would you get your telesales teams to call other dealers? or your account managers to drop off catalogues to other dealers premises? I’m guessing no, so I don’t understand why dealers follow other dealers. The only 1 reason I can think of is that you’re using Twitter to spy on eachother. If that is the case then you’re missing the true benefits of Twitter!  – Your followers are likely to have a nose at who you follow and they’re sure to be totally confused if they see that you only follow other office supplies companies.

9) When tweeting offers make sure you Tweet the link so the follower can go and use the offer. Your followers on Twitter are from the digital age. The last thing they want to do is click on an offer and then have to ring up to order it from you. Today I saw a Tweeter tweet an offer and when I clicked on the offer it opened a PDF of a A5 flyer of that offer. Are you CRAZY!?

10) Get involved! This is a 3 parter and although it is last on my list it is probably one of the most important

a) Make sure you follow a good mix of people. Celebrities and people of interest to you are fine. But also follow some local people. There are local hashtags which will help you identify local people to you. For example #RDG is Readings hashtag. If you search for people tweeting with the #RDG hash tag you’ll find local people to Reading. Dominating your local area on Twitter is a great way to gain new customers. Especially if you can find local small and medium businesses to follow.

b) Similar to ‘a’ get involved with your local area. If people on the #RDG hashtag are talking about a local festival or something get involved in the chat. There will be hundreds of conversational points each day you can get involved with to raise awareness to your tweeterings.

c) The people you follow will tweet things about themselves, their circumstances and opinions. As long as it’s not likely to offend interact with them. This will open their minds to you to see you as more than just a company selling stationery. If they don’t already follow you they’ll be more likely to do so!

Most of all don’t take Twitter too seriously. Have fun and always be positive!

Groupon is one of, if not the fastest growing online .com’s in recent years. It is certainly the fastest growing within the last year.

If you’ve not heard of Groupon it is basically a group buying deal website. The general process is that A Groupon rep will contact a business owner and pitch the idea of discounting your product or service heavily in return for a mass of customers. The end game is that the customers will use you for repeat business. A bit like the classic ‘loss leader’ model.
However, Groupon is different, and arguably better because in order to qualify for the ‘deal’ you have to buy it through Groupon and your business gets cycled through the Groupon marketing machine which will include an email out to thousands of people in your area advertising your deal, and subsequently your business.

In a nutshell a dealer would offer a product with a big discount off of RRP. It would have to be a REAL discount – remember Groupon customers are generally net savvy so they’re going to price check the product to check it is a real discount before buying it.
The Groupon buyers would then buy the discounted product through Groupon and would then get a code from Groupon to either redeem through your website or in your store.
Generally speaking it is understood that you will make a loss on the product. Groupon isn’t meant to be seen as a profitable exercise in the short term. It should be viewed as a marketing exercise. The concept being that if you sold 1000 of the product you discounted and made a £2 loss on each one then the gross cost would be £2000 to your business. However, for that cost everyone who is subscribed to the Groupon mailing list in your city/county would have seen your offer and your business. On top of that the people that bought from you would be likely to repeat their custom with you – especially if you had demanded that the Groupons are run through your webstore meaning you will capture their details to market directly to them in the future. Capturing the customers details also opens office supplies dealers up to another model that most business owners that run a Groupon don’t have the opportunity for and that is the massive opportunity to get your sales team onto the customers and turn them into account customers.

As yet I don’t know of any OP Dealers who have braved a Groupon deal. Surely it is only a matter of time. So why don’t you be the first? Don’t rush into it by any means. In fact it’s been proven that taking your time will definitely be the wiser decision. Groupon obviously take a cut of the money but are most definitely negotiable on the percentage they take. So stretch it out to get the best deal. Also take into account EVERY possible scenario. There are horror stories all over the internet of business owners moaning that Groupon didn’t work for them. So weigh it all up. Worst case scenarios – can you afford it?

As for ideas I think there are quite a few. First of all there are different models of a Groupon a dealer can run. You could just Groupon a individual product, or perhaps offer a voucher that gives them £20 for the cost of £10.
If it was me I’d explore the wholesaler branded items where I know the RRP is inflated. This would give me a great base to start with a discount. I reguarly see Evolution customers running 90%+ discounts off of retail and know they’re still making a good margin from it.
So how about something like 75% off of all Q Connect / 5 Star products.

Here are some guidelines I’d advise before running a Groupon.

Invite the Groupon rep in to see you. Extract all the statistics possible. Ask for references from other business owners in the area. Contact them, but also look back historically at older Groupons and contact the owners of those businesses to get a rounded opinion.

Work out ALL of the statistics possible. Prepare for the worst case scenario which could be you sell the maximum amount you allow of Groupons lets say 5000 and make a £2 loss on each one meaning you are £10k out of pocket. What if none of those customer repeat their business with you? Also work out how many of those customers you would require to repeat their business and in how long it would then take for you to get a ROI on the deal.

Plan and prepare! Make sure that the customer experience is BRILLIANT. Give customers a reason to come back, and be nice to them. I recently bought a Groupon for a picture canvas and the whole experience was horrible. The website was slow because it couldn’t cope with the traffic then there was no communication and when I chased up my very late order there was no apology. The whole experience was awful and afterwards I stood less chance to use them again than if I’d never found the Groupon.

Follow up: Make sure that you follow up on all the sales. Any dealer who does a Groupon not through their webstore is daft! You want to be able to capture their info so you can continue your relationship with them.

So here is my call for action – which office products dealer is going to be the first to take the step up and brave a Groupon deal?

I’d love to hear about it and if you’d like my opinion to be involved please just let me know

Below are a mix of resources showing the good, the bad and the ugly of Groupons. There is no doubt that a Groupon could be awesome for your business BUT! if you don’t plan and research it properly then I have no doubt it could be a catastrophe.

Good luck!

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/18/ribman-groupon-bashing/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/09/groupon-single-worst-decision/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/11/valentines-day-bait-switch-groupon-must-avoid-becoming-just-another-useless-coupon-site/

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/01/groupon/