Our days tend to be fairly reactive in terms of what comes through with customers. We can start with what is outstanding on our day-book, where sales orders haven’t been shipped the night before, so we deal with emails from our couriers for any deliveries that didn’t go out. We like to be proactive and inform the customer, whatever the reason, and tell them how we’re working to rectify it.
Resolving issues for our customers is at the top of the list. Most of the issues that do come through tend to sit within my team, so we deal with that. One of the other great things is the way my team works together - just fantastic. And although we have various people taking on different roles, such as purchase invoices or processing orders, it’s a team that is multi-skilled, so pretty much everybody can do those jobs. If one person is busy, somebody else can step in and help, which I think is quite unique.
The most common complaint we receive is to do with deliveries that weren’t made on time, and the odd, occasional item damaged in transit. This can be whether it has come direct from our supplier or from our own warehouse. In resolving the issues, we not only liaise with our customers but also with the vendors. Sometimes it’s about being the central point between sometimes our suppliers and customers - helping to mitigate and manage process that process of fixing the problem when something goes wrong, and dealing with it in a way that has least impact on our customers.
At Perfect Colours, all expectations are made clear from the get go. I can perform my job with a clear understanding of what’s wanted of me by Perfect Colours and what’s needed by the customers.
Management here also have an open-door policy so, if you have an issue, you can go and speak to them. I’ve worked at places where the management team sits behind closed doors and you have to go though several people, but that’s not the case here. If you need to escalate something it’s fairly easy to get that done, which feels very supportive.
What would you want customers to know about Perfect Colours and what differentiates you from the other resellers out there?
Having worked for other resellers and speaking to my team and the sales team here, we genuinely do care about the customer experience. Generally, when things go wrong, my team takes it almost personally because they want to provide the highest level of service for the client and sometimes that’s out of our hands. But, we do go above and beyond what I see as normal in another organisation.
I think the people here is also what differentiates us. We’re a very close-knit company and people just muck in, even if it’s outside of their job remit. All you have to do is ask. And generally, people will muck in even if it has nothing to do with them. For example, with some of the sales guys, there may not be any financial benefit for them in terms of what they get paid against target but they’ll help, and I think that’s really key.
I’ve been in a lot places where sales people have said ‘it’s not my customer, I’m not going to help’, whereas here, the general ethos is that everyone cares about every customer, whether it is their account or not. And that ethos has definitely filtered throughout whole company.
We try and get together in big company night out two to three times a year organised by the management team. We have staff all over the country so it’s a great way to mix with people you only tend to speak to over the phone. Socially, we genuinely enjoy each other’s company: people go out to lunch together, have a laugh and it’s not all about work. So long as you get done what you need to get done, have a laugh and enjoy it. You spend more time with work colleagues than you do with people at home - so you have to enjoy it. Turnover of staff is testament to that as well because most people have been here longer than three years. Clearly people enjoy working here. It’s a testament to the working environment we have at Perfect Colours.
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