Annah's Blog

Feedback please!

12/08/10
I gave a presentation the other night to a group of small businesswomen in the Central Plateau and, at the end, a woman came up to me to talk about our Chameleon frock collection. She had learnt about the dress that can be worn 10 different ways in Her Magazine and decided to go into one of our stores to try it on. I asked her about the level of service she’d had in-store but she was reluctant to give feedback. When I asked her why, she said she didn’t want to get the girl concerned into trouble. It was the verbal equivalent of a slap in the face. I am continually affronted by women who, for whatever reason, fail to supply information to their business peers that could enable them to make changes that impact the bottom line.
Business is damn hard. Don’t I deserve to know where I am being thwarted? I pay my retail team to sell clothes. If they don’t deliver a basic level of service to our customers, don’t I have the right to correct the behavior? I don’t understand why another businesswoman wouldn’t see this. To me, it’s blatantly obvious. I will never understand the logic behind her decision to withhold the information – it’s not like she was a friend of the girl behind my counter!
All of us who operate businesses deserve to know if our teams are not up to scratch. People are the lifeblood of my business. If I get in wrong when hiring, it can cripple a retail store. I had a case where a store manager took a store down by $10,000 a week simply because she was unable to provide the level of service and connection we need. It was the same store with the same product - the only change had been the girl running it.
As business owners, let’s unite to stamp out ambivalent and – worse still – poor service. Whenever you experience it, feed it back to the relevant people. You’re not ratting on anyone, you’re simply providing a business with important feedback that may mean the difference between it winning or losing in these very difficult trading times.



Do you have feedback about an experience in one of our stores? Email Annah

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Annah's Blog 23/07/10

Cooks tour

The family that partakes in holiday activities together ... can get very sore feet.

What an amazing week I have just had. I can’t think of anything better than spending time with my kids and partner on holiday. This time it was in wonderful Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Yes, I’ve been here a lot and watched the ongoing development of this burgeoning tourist paradise. They have been the recipient of much of the tourist dollar since the coup in Fiji, and what a difference it is making to their economy.

We were fortunate enough to stay in the Pacific Resort’s relatively new property Te Manava, a beautiful unit of two pods, supported with a pool and located right on the beach. It can’t get much better than this.

In deciding among the four of us as to what the holiday expectations were, I have learnt that with a full-grown family, it is wise to do this before choosing the destination. Sam’s was all about getting a tan, Edward’s was warmth (remember they are both studying in Dunedin), a tan and activities, the dreaded word for non-activists like Sam and myself. Tony was easy either way, but wanted to be able to meet the needs of the boy, given on previous holidays we were well aware of the consequences of too little to do. This holiday, it was not to be the case.

We arrived late Saturday night, to a wonderful 28 degrees. Yes, it was midnight as we ambled towards our home for the next seven days. As we unlocked our impressive gate, we all knew instantly that we had made the right choice. First day, we were on the pool loungers – thankfully it was sunny! Two days of rain followed with the second night turning on a violent electrical storm. The rain stopped and we were into the real holiday, given it’s never quite the same when it’s wet.

Three days into it and it was time for our first activity. Edward had been eyeing the island walks in a quest to reach the highest peak. We decided on a gentler traverse across the island. Four hours later, we emerged from possibly one of the most difficult walks I have ever done, reaching 430m at its peak. I was determined, no matter how many stops we had, to complete the walk. Not that I had a lot of choice; the terrain was made a lot more challenging with the recent downpour, copious tree roots, steep inclines and numerous river crossings. Thank God I had decent shoes.

It was a wonderful sense of achievement to complete this walk, along with a mental note to increase my cardio exercise when home, with the added memory of a stiffness that I have not experienced for a while. This is only really abating now as I sit in the Rarotonga Koru Club.

A drawn-out bus ride back to the car, courtesy of the roundtrip buses that run around the island, we were then starving so went in search of the best fish and chips on the island. Yes, we had done our homework.

We arrived at the Flying Boat, an extension of the local game-fishing club. It delivered all, and more, with its great location and quirky concept; the product is served from an old fishing vessel that has been beached. Excellent fish and chips!

The next activity we booked was an authentic island night. Not normally keen on this sort of thing, I agreed, wanting to keep a great momentum going. Once again, we did our homework and concurred that the Local Highlanders night seemed to be the preference.

Rather than take the company bus, we arrived in our rental, enabling a stop at the highly recommended Jim’s bar, which has the best Pina Coladas on the island, and served in a jam jar to boot. Edward fell in love with the ambience. Right on the beach, it was an eclectic mixture of 70s paraphernalia run by a very personable Englishman. Exactly the sort of place he would choose if organising a holiday for himself and his friends!

Drink over, we shot up the next road to the main event. A few cliché introductions, the mandatory tourist stuff, and we were invited to enter the boarding-school-like dining room. Food is always a challenge for me, with my principles, and unfortunately it doesn’t get any better on the island. Regardless of the broods of roaming chickens and the huge number of tethered pigs we saw, this meat is still flown in from New Zealand, and yes it is from factory-farmed environments. Even the eggs are still a product of our inhumane practices. I did, however, find plenty to experience on the extensive buffet. The pork, they assured me, was local; killed for the umu. That was doubtful but I did try it.

After the meal, the show began. Our host was relentless with his inclusive format; he was in search of an occasion to celebrate. Sam proffered herself with a birthday seven days away. She became a focus of the host’s attention, the piece de resistance being her selection of the loudest whaka for which she got to dance with the recipient, and Edward just happened to video a hapless Sam doing her very best to emulate the Cook Islands’ dance, much to the amusement of us all. I hate to think where footage like this ends up – YouTube, Facebook – I doubt it, if Sam ever gets hold of the camera! Night over, we carefully transcended the climb in our rental and arrived at our bure, rapt that we had made the effort.

The break has been a potpourri of wonderful firsts. I have reconnected with the kids, managed to stay on top of my work, helped by wireless internet and the fact that I get up two hours earlier than the kids. I have even approached the local chamber of commerce and the local women’s BPW, as I would love to get involved with some of the businesses here and be part of their growth. I just see so much opportunity. Thankfully they agreed to meet at our favourite island café, so the kids hardly noticed my departure for a well-invested hour as they devoured their beers and wood-fired pizzas. I have had another business idea, much to the frustration of Tony, who I am sure is getting ready to retire. Let’s just see how this one plays out.

Most of all I have had an exceptional break with the people that I love the most. I love this island so I will be back and if I can add to the fabric in any way, I will be here with a purpose. Best of all, I still fit my jeans after seven days of great food and way too much alcohol.

Enjoy the mag, with the knowledge that we are steaming towards summer, which presents itself loudly in our space as we fill up with fabulous summer frocks loaded and waiting to be released into our stores. And, like me, I hope that all of you have had a break with your nearest and dearest.

Cook Islands 13 July 2010