Admin & Systems

I saw this ad last night and absolutely loved it - it really struck a cord as to where we are in our process of setting up systems to handle the stuff that’s between “Here” and “Germany”. FedEx is currently setting up shop to take on the domestic market in SA, this after recently buying out local courier service, Supaswift. We are going to give them a try soon…especially because they have nice boxes.

[gv data="MrMURochE6Y"][/gv]

At Live Alchemy we are trying to keep our systems and staff as flexible and scalable as possible. Part of that strategy involves having orders processed (checking for payment, ordering stock, packaging, giving to courier company) by people working from home. Our first “home processor” is Shane’s dad, who starts in February. We are setting him with a new computer, ADSL line, phone and lots of bubble wrap, while at the same time trying to develop an online system that will keep track of everything so that we can see what’s going on from here. I will post soon about my ideas for system we are developing.

I came across a company in America called LiveOps that specialises in setting up this type of “virtual call centres” for companies. It’s a bit easier over there because of the level of broadband that they have which enables things like routing of phonecalls over the internet, but we can still imitate some of the ideas. Read a bit more about the concept here.

Today I received a call from a client who was wondering why the invoice that he received with his flags was less than what we had originally quoted and what he paid (His accounts department alerted him to the discrepancy). Our conversation went something like this:

"Uum, sir, could you please tell me what name is on the top of the invoice?", I asked

"Oh, it says XXXXXXXX", the client responded.

"Oh dear!…..that's our suppliers invoice", I ashamedly responded. 

Very embarrassing I know, but there is a reason why this happened. The courier company would pick us the order from the supplier and then send it to the client without anyone from Flag Kit being involved. Great in principle, but not very realistic. We learned the hard way and have since had all flags from the supplier sent to us, allowing us to do a quick quality check and package each order the Flag Kit way.