The Flipflopi sales journey

  How the Flipflopi did it...

Our team members are clear about their roles and responsibilities, and we have transparency and good communication between the operations and marketing/sales departments.

Initially, we found it difficult to keep track of inquiries and orders, and to ensure a reasonable response time to each request. To address this we developed a flowchart:

This system helps us capture key information about the customer, their order, fulfillment and delivery.

Once we have secured an order, we communicate it through Slack to the production team. We have staff responsible for coordinating and communicating with the customer, and for capturing customer feedback to help inform our product guarantees and warranties.

As we began to handle orders with early customers, we developed our customer support and aftercare. For example, we shipped a large order where the customer complained that the plastic had warped under direct exposure to the sun. We addressed the issue with the operations team to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, and then decided to dispatch additional plastic lumber at no cost to ensure customer satisfaction.

As we prepared to launch we realised we required marketing and branding materials. In order to align with our brand positioning, we decided it was best to work with a graphic designer to provide a premium feel to our brand. 

We had identified from customer feedback the unique selling points of our furniture, namely the authentic artisanal heritage design, eco-friendliness, and the durability of our products being scratch resistant, termite-proof and water resistant – requiring minimal maintenance and being ideally suited for outdoor furniture. 

We also found working with independent artisans as contractors posed a challenge due to unreliability which affected our ability to fulfil orders. This resulted in us employing a carpenter full-time and maintaining close relationships with reliable artisans in the area to ensure we can meet operational deadlines.

Once we had decided on standardised colour options for our products, we could begin stockpiling inventory to reduce lead time, with finished products readily available for the sales team to sell. We then needed to develop an inventory management system to keep track of where products were and to allow us to analyse our most popular products by color to optimise our inventory. We decided to develop a cost-effective management system on google sheets that was easily accessible and transparent for all team members, with clear responsibilities for updating the inventory sheet to increase accountability.

At our first exhibition event, customers were not clear that our products were made from recycled plastics and not painted wood. To address this we created marketing posters to display at events that easily communicate the eco-friendliness of our catalogue as shown below. This resulted in an increase in sales at the next exhibition event we attended.

As part of improving the customer experience we have been working on our packaging and improving the customer onboarding experience with personalised messages that highlight the environmental impact of each product, in alignment with our brand positioning as a premium brand. As seen below each product shipped has a certificate highlighting the number of kilograms recycled in each product.