From the everyday life of your beauty manufacturer – 7 questions for Marco
Have you always wanted to know what the daily routine of the boss of the beauty manufacturer looks like? I sat down with Marco and answered questions that I'm sure aren't the only ones who have been burning under my fingernails.
Have you ever wondered why your email was answered in the middle of the night or how we manage to pack each package with lots of love and special details? Here are a few questions that are not answered in the FAQs. What makes the beauty manufacturer so special?
Marco Your day starts early, what is there to do at 5 a.m.?
Sometimes my day starts at 4 a.m. because there is already a lot to do at that time. The orders have to be checked and sorted. What exactly was ordered and what are the stock levels - do products need to be reordered? We also receive customer emails every day that I would like to answer in peace and quiet without the phone ringing. For these reasons, I like to answer my emails at night or early in the morning.
Do you answer your emails at night? Don't customers find that strange?
Yes and no. Customers are rather surprised when the answer to a question comes shortly after 4 or 4:30, but they appreciate it and they also appreciate that they are a bit more detailed, that products are presented and that I can answer questions in more detail. When a customer has requests or questions, it takes time and I think that excitement outweighs surprise (laughs).
And then you surely have to pack?
Not quite yet. Before we can pack, everything has to be prepared, commissioned or, as they say, picked, which means we have lots of small plastic boxes. Each box has a number on it and an order in it. The order is collected, then we run through the shelves, get the relevant products and pack them into the "order boxes".
Then the lovely little messages have to be written by hand. It is very, very important to me that every customer gets their own message, not just a pre-made card that is then signed with a pen, but everything should be kept very personal - just like the shop as a whole.
Once everything is prepared in the order boxes, the first blue carts filled with order boxes roll towards the warehouse, where the little "helpers", my beauty angels so to speak, can start packing. And in the meantime there are also discussions with suppliers who have to be called. There are very, very customer-specific questions that I then clarify individually with the suppliers. As you can see, there is still a lot to do.
How do you handle the product selection in the shop?
Well, it takes quite a while until a new product ends up in the shop because it is very, very important to me personally that I really test the products.
I check them, I test them, so it's not just me who tests them, but when a new product comes in, there is a small group of women and men who are given the products to test them. Then we simply check whether the product does what the manufacturer promises. If it's up to the manufacturers, of course everyone has the best and greatest product.
If our shop is so personal, I also want to be able to fully stand behind each individual product. The moment the majority of the "testers" say: "OK, the product is great", then it goes into our shop.
And now you're finishing work? Theoretically, YOU're finished, right?
I wouldn't say I'm completely finished yet, I might be done with the world at the beginning (laughs), but no. Quite the opposite, then campaigns have to be planned, all the work in the shop itself is still waiting - prices have to be adjusted, certain products have to be deactivated and reactivated, negotiations have to be held with new suppliers, new products have to be found. It's also important that new, great products for the end customer keep coming into the shop.
But now you can go home?
I'm almost, almost allowed to go home. But now I'm off to do a quick quality control check. That means that the packages will be picked up by DHL in the afternoon and before that, if the girls in the warehouse aren't finished yet, I'll help pack the last packages and check that the quality is right.
If the packages are complete and packed according to expectations, there is as much heart and soul in them as I would put into them and as much as I love them - then you do another random check.
But we don't just send out packages, we also receive lots and lots of them - supplies, so to speak. We usually get fresh goods from our suppliers three times a week, which means that no product stays on our shelves for longer than 10 days - so you can rest assured that you won't get any "dusty" goods from us. When it's 6 p.m. and all the goods have been sorted again, then the final step is what is known as back deliveries, i.e. there are always products that I can't put in the order boxes because they aren't currently in stock and the order won't arrive until the next day or the day after. I then look to see which boxes I can refill, what orders can still be sent out - then it's sorted and sent to the warehouse. That way the early shift that comes in the next morning can get started straight away and doesn't have to wait long.
How many helpers are currently on duty to ensure that all orders reach customers on time?
We currently have 6 people, including me. Everyone can do everything, and the tasks are clearly distributed. One person is responsible for the orders, the next for the goods, another for quality, and others for packing. But with such a small team, it is very important that everyone can do everything.
It's a long day. How do you manage it?
Yes, the days are really long - it's absolutely crazy. But they're also incredibly beautiful. That's what I keep getting from feedback from customers. I talk to lots and lots of customers who get back to me and say that they've never received a package like this before and just want to thank us, and that gives you a certain amount of strength and confirmation that I'm working here for hours. So it's absolutely beautiful - you can only cope with it if you love cosmetics, of course, and if you love your team.
And I love my team – it’s amazing! Everyone here works with the same passion as me and you can tell. The girls are tireless and do and do. They run to the post office for five packages just so that the customer gets their goods faster, even though they could leave them for the next day. But that would simply not be an option for my girls. So here again a huge thank you to my employees – and of course to my customers who shop in my shop. I’m looking forward to the next weeks and months, to the development, to see how it continues. But I can promise one thing for sure: the basic idea of the shop is personal. Buying online but basically being just a click away from us. We will maintain this personal touch here because that is exactly the basic idea of our shop – an idea that I love and want to do exactly like that.
