Ash Young

Stress! This is the big one! Running an agency then adding a rapidly growing ecommerce site definitely increases your stress levels. The decisions come at you thick & fast. Pro tip: stress levels decrease the more I outsource!

Sleep!?! What’s that? In the early months I was burning the candle at both ends, I couldn’t keep that up. But without processes in place there was no one else I could turn to for help. So I put processes in place and outsourced population & Google Ads.

I was doing all the customer service until the end of August when my amazing wife saw how much I was struggling with it and offered to take over. Not having 20+ queries a day to respond to has made the world of difference.

Phone calls! As an agency we encourage our clients to make their phone number prominent. But then people call it! This became a real issue as calls came at the worst time, are long and unproductive. We were receiving >30 phone calls between 9-5pm. A real issue...

When it was clear this was an issue we became one of those companies that discourages phone calls. GAME CHANGER. If you ring, you get a choice of new or existing order. If you choose existing, you are played a message explaining how to solve common issues & how to email us

This has meant that customer service can be carried out when it’s convenient to Caroline & myself. I thought customers would kick off but surprisingly no one has been that bothered!

Angry customers! Dealing with angry members of the public is very draining. For us these are caused by missed or late deliveries. We beefed up our T&Cs and website info up to make sure we are clear on what customers should expect. No longer will I be shouted at by a Nigel!