When it Becomes More than Just Customer Service…

It’s been said that we’ve been a little harsh on local businesses via this blog.

It’s true that every now and then people get it wrong. Fair enough. That said, we stand by those posts and blogs as we aspire to give the very best and expect it in return.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Besides, the occasional moan is really good for blog traffic! (lol!)

So, to balance it out, I want to tell you about some astounding customer service we experienced this week.

I want to tell you about a company we’ve been using at Spaghetti Agency since before Spaghetti Agency was a thing.

I want to tell you about a company that we found via a Facebook ad and have used regularly ever since.

When it Becomes More than Just Customer Service…

I want to talk about the people who dress me.

Every time we go networking or to an event we aim to be ‘on-brand’ and since the very early days we’ve entrusted Clothes2Order to help us wear our brand. From the launch event to networking meetings, we’re on brand – all of the time. (Except when the iron broke and then we had our trusty checked shirts in reserve!) We even have branded coats in case the British weather takes a turn.

Our royal blue Spaghetti T-Shirts are pretty recognisable (to the point where Jo couldn’t find Todd when he wore a different colour in Sainsbury’s) and the original design with the logo on the left breast and stars on both arms is the one we use today.

But… why on earth should you care?

Here’s what you can learn from Clothes2Order and why your marketing and service needs to be as strong as theirs.

Let’s start with the experience of ordering from them.

To start with, their ads and brand are great. It attracted us and that’s great for them but a lesson for you. Your brand, your ads and then the service are all for your customer – not for you.

Get that shit right!

C2O do a fab job. I’ll never forget seeing a photo of one of our spanking new brand being stitched onto our brand new T-Shirts in the early days.

At first I doubted them.

I told Jo they were Photoshopped… but they weren’t. There were also real photos, added to their automation and order confirmation. Wow.

It’s about making it real and understanding how your customer feels when they order from you. When you order something like uniform and it’s a new logo it’s seriously exciting. C2O understood that and shared the birth of them on email. That’s an incredibly cool and relevant thing to do.

Ordering was a little tricky but we’re a little tricky too. We’re all different sizes, there are female and male fit tops, and of course there’s hoodies and other bits and pieces we wanted. The support was superb though. So, yeah, standard great service added with some pizazz! Good start.

Packaging is marketing and an experience

The first order arrived way back in April 2015 and it came in a branded bag. EXCITEMENT! We knew instantly that this was our new Tees and we excitedly opened them.

Oh… we shared this on Instagram a little later, too.

Inside were the perfectly folded T-Shirts but then a piece of marketing GOLD. Inside the order they’d included a small cardboard T-Shirt with the washing guidelines on but also their social media handles and a note to suggest that if we were happy with the order, we should tell people!

Brilliant. That’s the exact time you should ask for that. Really simple, on-brand (skillz) and also a very standout card that caught my attention with a perfect call to action.

Hats off to them!

And then it turned sour.

Yup… we asked for something they didn’t have and couldn’t do. I wanted a branded cowboy hat. After ordering around our T-Shirts we got all bolshy and asked for something not on their list and they said they didn’t have any.

Well… fair enough. They don’t do it, there’s not much call for them I imagine.

I then I forgot all about it.

It was a few weeks later that we got this tweet from them, which blew my mind…

Hey @SocialMediaTodd guess what we’ve managed to do? #speghettiagency #branding #wildwildwest #Cowboys pic.twitter.com/ECDSYHlplS

— Clothes2Order (@clothes2order) September 8, 2016

How cool is that?

I mean… they didn’t just send the hat – they made it theatrical. They also did some brilliant marketing. This is not the first time I’ve publicly shared that story and it was years ago!

That tweet is in my workshops and there’s another blog about it somewhere else too.

Go the extra mile. Go crazy. Be different. It really does last longer than the effort you put into it!

Baby Love

And then we got pregnant. Not us and them – Jo and I! We had Bob the baby and we got some cool presents in the post from some very good friends. It was ace to see the crazy things people sent us. Even Xero sent over some cool branded baby stuff, Orange Girl knitted her a cardy, and we got blankets in our colours and some awesome Wild West cards from others, too.

Clothes2Order waited though.

I tweeted them one day to ask them for a new hat. I couldn’t order it, they don’t do them, remember? They replied and said they’d sort it out but they needed to wait as they were working on something for me.

Intrigued!

A few weeks later a parcel arrived in the post with a brand new cowboy hat, three brand new T-Shirts with a MASSIVE Spaghetti logo on and this really cool pink stripy baby’s top with a Spaghetti Agency star on (that fitted as they’d done their research!). It said No 1 Cowgirl and Jo actually squeaked with delight when she saw it.

To be fair… they were just showing off at this point but it’s not hard to do this.

Go to my Twitter and tell me five things about me.

Easy, right?

All they did was research us (like Xero did) and then wow us. It’s simple, but devastatingly effective!

You can’t polish a turd…

When all said and done, all this is nothing without a great product. Without the product, the service is just masking tape over the cracks.

Clothes2Order don’t have this problem.

C2O provide quality products and they consistently ship them and add a tonne of value on top. Yes of course they look after us because we’re online and we’re rather vocal, but they do it to others too. Just look at their reviews and their Instagram. They’re consistently good.

You can’t polish a turd and they don’t need to roll it in glitter, either.

Clothes2Order – you rock

I’m so glad you run Facebook Ads. I’m so glad that Jo (the main buyer in the business) went with you. It’s been a great relationship and I’ve loved our banter online and off ever since.

I won’t be going anywhere else any time soon… And that’s the main takeaway here.

Not only have I dedicated a week’s marketing to C2O (via this blog and the ripple marketing from it) but I’ve constantly referred and told people about them.

There’s no affiliate link in this blog. Buy from them for yourself, not for my gain.

They’re genuinely great and I refer most people to them. Keep doing what you do, C2O and I challenge you to another Wild West shootout soon!

Yeehaa!

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