Almost two years ago we wrote about Made.com, which had just launched after receiving £2.5m of backing from the likes of Brent Hoberman.
Made.com is a bit like Naked Wines for the furniture, in that it bypasses retailers, connecting consumers directly with wholesalers in order to supply “beautiful furniture without the high street markup”. It’s an innovative idea that we liked, and we said it had an excellent chance of success.
However, there’s a problem. I’m one of the people at Econsultancy who receives comment notifications for our blog, and that Made.com post regularly attracts unhappy customers who complain about poor service, faulty products, cancelled orders, the courier company, and – most commonly – the lack of a telephone number on its website. It's been bugging me.
At some point I expected Made.com to wade into the fray, apologise, listen to the issues, and then try to fix up the problems. But there’s no sign of any intervention from somebody at the firm who cares about service.
I turned to Twitter, to see if the company was more responsive on that channel. There are signs of life, but a search for ‘@madedotcom’ makes for depressing reading, and suggests that the customer experience isn’t what it should be:
The lack of replies from Made.com are telling. In addition, it’s censoring negative comments on Facebook:
All of this is a surprise, given that this is an internet startup that should know better. So much for transparency, engagement, and caring about the customer experience. Clearly Made.com didn’t get the memo.
Why the service allergy?
Avoiding customer complaints is short sighted in the extreme, but when a company is relatively new it is borderline insane. Buying from a new company is always a leap of faith for consumers, but more so when we’re talking about a product such as a sofa, which has a relatively high order value and a lead time that can be as long as 14 weeks.
I can’t find a telephone number on the Made.com website, which is one reason why aggrieved customers are leaving comments on our site, and complaining on Twitter and Facebook (albeit deleted ones), and writing dozens of one star reviews (there are a bunch of five star reviews too, so it’s not all bad). To my mind, this is far from rocket science: the lack of a contact number is forcing people to do their bitching elsewhere. Is that really what Made.com wants?
Trust and transparency are so important in an age where everybody can have an audience and can be a publisher. There is literally nowhere to hide, and businesses need to adjust. It’s easy to delete an unfavourable remark on your Facebook page, but it’s not the smart thing to do, and it’s impossible to delete people’s tweets, comments on blogs like ours, or reviews on consumer websites.
I started this post by comparing Made.com to Naked Wines, but the difference is that the CEO of the latter company actively responds to complaints (even though many of them seem to be dubious).
Lifetime value FTW
In my view the very best KPI in business is average customer lifetime value. It tells you a great deal about loyalty, purchase frequency and average order values.
Companies that focus on this metric tend to have more respect for the customer than ones that don’t, because it’s not just about pricing, it’s about the customer experience, satisfaction and retention. Miserable customers don’t become repeat buyers, or brand advocates. Made.com is missing a trick in this regard, particularly given the nature of its business.
It may be impossible to please all of the people all of the time, but I’ve found that I have much greater respect for a company that fixes a problem, compared to one that makes me sit on hold for 20 minutes before somebody who can’t actually help me picks up the phone. Problems occur: it’s how you deal with them that counts.
Made.com needs to rethink its approach to service, or it is going to face an uphill struggle. Acquiring new customers is one of the more challenging things in business. Retaining them should be far easier, as there’s already an existing relationship in place. Damage that relationship and you’re in trouble, and more so if your customers tell the world how rubbish you are.
The flipside is customer advocacy and lots of repeat business, which is a much better scenario. And that’s why companies or all shapes and sizes need to invest in service, and go the extra mile to deliver a wonderful customer experience.
I don’t really do favourite quotes, but one that has always stuck with me was from Tony Hsieh, the Zappos founder, who said:
“We are a service company that just happens to sell shoes.”
Zappos generates 75% of its annual $1bn+ revenue from existing customers. I think Made.com can learn a lot from that.
Update: Great to see that Made.com CEO Ning Li has left a comment below, in which he pledges to greatly improve service levels.
Chris Lake is Director of Product Development at Econsultancy, an entrepreneur and a long-term internet fiend. Follow him on Twitter, Google+ or connect via Linkedin.
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1:10PM on 2nd February 2012
So true - we have a client who put their toe in the water of Facebook recently, and wanted to delete the first negative comment they had. We helped them suck it in and react correctly, and the positive effect of that has been overwhelming.
Interesting that these guys don't publish a phone number and people are resorting to other methods - legally a website has to feature a way to contact the company "rapidly and in a direct and effective manner". No place to hide from an EC Directive....
1:31PM on 2nd February 2012
They also have a very unsophisticated (read annoying) re-marketing campaign which has made me adamant never to order from them - ever.
I visited them once and then for weeks after they were everywhere I went.
A case of style over substance
Director at MMK Media
1:53PM on 2nd February 2012
We had a similar problem as we had a good experience with made.com and reviewed it.
The comments about the article were all about poor customer service, and even claimed that we were blog spamming to help their SEO. Which we weren't.
But I would imagine that people came and commented on our article because they couldn't get hold of anyone at Made. Shame.
2:11PM on 2nd February 2012
I have to disagree a little.. this is an online business and with most businesses operating in this sector you tend not to get access via the telephone.
It adds to cost and I really want a low cost option here having spent fortunes in the past in Heals and Habitat..
When my furniture was delivered from Made I used their perfectly responsive chat facility to sort a few issues out and everything was then perfect.
I know the deal - don't expect the world at those prices... it is only a chair! It will arrive eventually. Most of the tweets I see are really positive.
This is a great online startup UK born and bred.. let's stop destroying the growth that will drive our economy over the coming years.
IrishM
6:37PM on 2nd February 2012
We at Made.com sincerely apologise for any customer frustration caused by our recent spike in sales. The volume of deliveries has doubled in the last few months and despite growing our customer service team to mitigate against the increased volume, we have not responded fast enough. We will rapidly grow the support team so if you have any qualified friends who could help us deliver outstanding customer service in the future, then ask them to send their CVs to
We want to deliver transparent and efficient customer service. Whilst not good enough we are now delivering 92% of orders three weeks ahead of schedule. We have returns well below industry average, we also do offer no quibble cancellations and vouchers if we have messed up.
We aim to respond to all queries within a 24 hour period, but this has been jeopardised by the recent sale activity as well experiencing some delivery company delays, and we apologise as this is simply not good enough and does not reach the standards of service we stand by here at Made.com.
We have a plan in place now and we are working hard to get the service back on track and fulfilling on our promises to all made.com customers as soon as possible.
In addition to doubling our customer service team this month, we are also introducing a designated helpline so that customers may talk to us directly to reach a faster resolution. Please do not hesitate to contact us directly on if there are still outstanding issues with your order and we will aim for a swift resolution.
Our systems and processes are being rapidly improved to cope with any future spikes in demand but we should have been better prepared, we are a young company on a mission and this article has highlighted a problem we know and are addressing but we will use it to spur us to faster resolutions, more delighted customers and saving them more money with less frustration not more!
Ning Li
CEO, Made.com
1:55PM on 4th February 2012
@Ning
If some customers are as badly affected as it seems, you need to start writing something more like this - take a leaf out of this book:
http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Bonobos-have-such-an-epic-fail-on-Cyber-Monday-2011
Such candour and honesty is welcomed by customers and can be a much better source of revenue than remarketing (hint hint).
The management team at mdc are well aware of being caught out by rapid growth (I remember the lastminute offices when I visited for an interview - like a hieoronymous bosch painting crossed with wipeout 2097). This might explain some of the issues seen but doesn't say anything about the stock quality issue alluded to.
Two pieces of advice FWIW : I'd make a big effort to be honest about all the issues and make this open, honest and publicly available and discussed. Hey - it's painful but it's part of the redemption and actually a great story if you do it right, for them - the customers.
Secondly, I'd invest in some conversion optimisation skills in the team - you may need to try and manage or optimise the priority issues by making tweaks to the website and contact handling stuff. This will help keep contact volumes from overwhelming you (this has happened to me before - a kind of perpetual backlog). It's avoidable by scaling but also can be helped by the website design.
Above all - your next chunk of growth and indeed the current one is underpinned by customers buying and then recommending you. It's an invisible part of your brand and it's like removing the floor from an aircraft if you're offering service you can't fulfil. I'd throttle back on acquisition whilst you deal with the chunk that's already on the powerpoint slides - this will ultimately help make sure the next bit isn't shrinking.
C.
4:23PM on 4th February 2012
I CAN SAY WITHOUT ANY DOUGHT THAT MADE. COM ARE THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DONE BUSINES WITH.THEY DELIVRED 2 SOFA BEDS TO ME ON NOV27,ALL WAS WELL UNTIL I STARTED TO PUT THEM TOGETHER,FIRST THE FRONT LEG WAS MISSING FROM ONE OF THEM,THEN THE NUTS AND BOLTS TO HOLD THEM TOGEATHER WERE ALSO MISSING.IT IS NOW THE 3/2/12 AND I AM STIL WAITING FOR THE PARTS TO ARRIVE.THERE EXCUSE LIST IS ENDLESS BUT NEADLES TO SAY THEY ARE PURE BULLSHXX. ADVICE STAY AWAY FROM MADE.COM.
9:30PM on 7th February 2012
I believe their customer service email must be automated as the replies to my questions are parrot like repetition that my items are due to be delivered (on a date in the past) whilst their website has tracked the items from China to the UK and now 2 of them seem to be back in China in the factory again! It seems pointless writing long emails to them that get the same response - I ask them to call but my requests are ignored. I will try going to their registered office in Notting Hill tomorrow
2:09PM on 10th February 2012
I agree with this post completely. The Made.com service is awful. I ordered a table and couldn't arrange with their outsourced delivery company a decent time to deliver the item. They only wanted to deliver in the afternoon when I'm at work. Of course, there's no telephone number and nobody at made want's to take responsibility once you finally get hold of them via email.
In the end I had to get the table delivered to my office and take it home in a can - a massive effort! The cheeky part is they wouldn't refund me the ridiculous delivery charge even though if I'd ordered on their website that week I'd have qualified for free delivery anyway.
Terrible customer service compounded by the lack of responsibility and transparency. They have no understanding of the lifetime value of a customer or the amount of negative word of mouth they cause. The post from the CEO above is just a bunch of rubbish excuses without actually addressing the issues. Just but a phone number on their site would be massive and overdue start!!!
10:48PM on 14th February 2012
update on my previous post - Claire from customer service has been in touch a few times and it now seems my sofa has arrived and will be delivered this Friday along with the armchair. I understand that made.com are launching a customer service phone line tomorrow which should make it easier to get a response
10:29PM on 5th March 2012
Last year my wife ordered an £80 LED lamp from them, which finally turned up in September, then promptly went on the blink over Xmas, so when we asked for a replacement or a refund were told we could have a £25 voucher off our next purchase. If this is the best they can do it will be a very long time before we ever contemplate doing that, but rather more likely that we'll be exploring other avenues - like the Sale of Goods Act and/or the Small Claims Court!
12:17PM on 9th March 2012
I think that the concept and product(s) is excellent. But when something goes wrong it goes VERY wrong.
I am still waiting for a replacement part almost 2 and 1/2 months after the original delivery. It is integral to the furniture but Made.com actually offered me £75 to buy a part myself - shocking. They have sent me £25 off my next order (!?!) which I had to ASK for. And have said they have no way of knowing when the part will arrive. Absolutely outrageous. And I am sure this contravenes EU regulations on settling issues such in a timely manner.
4:56PM on 30th March 2012
This company has learnt nothing since you wrote the main review. Ning Li (comment above) says they are introducing a help line - well, they haven't! I ordered over £1600 worth of goods, all that arrived were faulty. They say they will refund - and don't. They say they will collect items - and don't. Their customer service is atrocious. I have written over 40 emails since January and still issues are not resolved. I wrote to Ning Li - he did not reply. They have no complaints procedure and no phone number. People should be warned about them.
1:47PM on 3rd April 2012
We would like to update Econsultancy and our customers who have been previously affected by poor service levels following our post of February.
As part of the growing pains of a start-up, in February and March we experienced low levels of customer support and we were understaffed to meet the volume of deliveries which took place.
Whilst we still have a long way to go and we recognise part of the improvement will be an on-going process, we did listen to our customers and have worked very hard in the past few months to improve our service. Here are a few things we have achieved that we would like to share with our customers:
- We have scaled up the customer service team, which has tripled in size in the last few weeks resulting in a much improved service level
- As promised we have set up a new hotline. All our customers now can call us on 0845 557 6888 between the hours of 9:30am and 5pm (Monday to Friday)
- We have implemented a Live Chat feature on Made.com so you will also be able to chat online with one of our team in real time.
We still have a lot of room for improvement and we are aware of that. Please bear with us as we are working hard behind the scenes to resolve the outstanding issues. If you need any help for your orders (deliveries, refunds, etc) please send us an email to or call our customer services team.
Thank you very much for your support!
Ning Li
CEO, made.com
2:59PM on 5th April 2012
Ning,
I have bought one product from yourselves, a coffee table, which is a decent piece of furniture for a fair price.
However, you need to sack your customer services team as they are ignorant to the point of being rude. Three e-mail requests to arrange delivery on a day which I would be in were ignored, the fourth received a response by someone who failed to respond to the issues I raised regarding delivery and, by that time, absolute dissatisfaction with their service. Leaving customers raging through simple things like failing to respond to reasonable requests, let alone failing to actually resolve customer issues will not be conducive to your future growth.
I was tempted by a fine looking sofa on made.com but really don't want to deal with amateurs again so will seek a similar design elsewhere even if that be at a higher cost. I'm more than happy to pay for quality customer service, as happy as you seem to be to drive away sales...
You advise people to e-mail your customer service people? Yeah, good luck to anyone that tries as answering e-mails seems to be outwith of their responsibilities.
An absolutely appalling company.
10:15AM on 15th April 2012
Dear Ning
I have purchased a number of items from made.com. So far I have had a Tomoko Bench ( arrived as promised - wasnt as nice in the flesh as on the web but not bad for the money) and a Chopper Coast stand. These items were delivered as promised and reasonable quality which then encouraged me to try a few more of your products - HUGE MISTAKE!!
I have since had:
Bergman Coffee Table - arrived with one broken leg, scratched enamel and rust. I ordered this in October, received it early December and finally received a replacement last month. This was after many unfulfilled promises from your company and about 10 emails.
3 sense bins - 2 with lids that don't work, one that is dented. Since arriving in December the 3rd one has stopped working. I informed you of this in December and despite numerous promises from Fiona Adomake, Justin Barrett and Paul Scattergood that the new lids have been dispatched to me I still haven't received anything. THe latest information I have from Paul Scattergood is that despite being told the new lids have been dispatched the warehouse hasnt been able to locate them between December and the 26th March and in fact the hadn't been dispatched as promised by 3 different members of your customer service Team. Paul has told me that I will now receive new bins which will arrive in the UK on May 17th ( only 7 months after the order has been placed and 5 months of living with bins that dont work.) I await the arrival with baited breath but wonder if they will actually arrive.
The Newark Sofa - This was a delivery disaster like no other - despite communicating with your customer service staff that it was being delivered to a holiday home and we would have to have a couple of days notice of delivery in order to make sure someone was in to receive it. At the time of order I was assured that this wouldn't be a problem and that I would be given notice and a degree of flexibility.
After a great deal of communication between the delivery company and yourselves I organised for the Newark Sofa and the Orsen Chair to be delivered on the Friday. I organised for my in-laws to travel from their home 80b miles away to be at the house on the Thursday evening so they would be home all day for delivery on the Friday.
Imagine my surprise and horror that on Thursday afternoon I received a call from a dedlivery man saying that he was outside my property with the Sofa and chair. I told him he was supposed to be delivering on the Friday and was informed " a lot of people have said that today" I explained that I didn't live there full time but my in-laws would be in tomorrow as arranged. He told me that if he didn't deliver today that it would be another week to arrange delivery. My in laws had already set off to the house and would have been ridiculous for them to have a wasted trip and come back a week later. Fortunately the delivery driver was really helpful and said if i could find someone locally with a key to pop round he would wait till they arrived. Fortunately I found someone who has a key who was able to pop round and let them in.
The sofa cushions do not fit the Sofa properly and after very light use already the cushions are looking worn and tired so it looks about 3 years old - amazing for a sofa in a house that is only used as a holiday home - it is poor quality and will not last very long. I was offered a refund and they would come and collect it but after the fiasco of the delivery I had no confidence that they would be able to organise a collection when I was actually in the property.
The Orsen Chair - this came on the same day as the sofa. The wooden chair legs were chipped, the webbing torn on the underside and the fabric had chalk marks showing where it had been cut. It looked like it had been made in a rush with little care. Although unlike the sofa it is actually very comfortable and now that i have removed the chalk marks myself it looks good.
After numerous email's we agreed to a partial refund and eventually ( after a few more emails) it arrived back in my account.
On each occasion when I complained I felt that my emails were being skim read and a standard response given - my points were not addressed and often I had to email 2 or 3 times before I got a response. I was passed from person to person and despite entering into correspondence with you about faulty items in December I still have outstanding issues.
I understand that you are a relatively new company and that sometimes things go wrong. However all it would have taken was for an actual apology and a phone call from someone to tell me that things were going to be sorted out and that it was just an unfortunate one off case. THis did not happen and did not receive a proper apology or an explanation of why so many things went wrong and i was told incorrect information numerous times.
I understand that made.com is cheap and you get what you pay for. However your marketing strategy consists of a promotion on the fact that you offer good quality products from the best furniture makers in the world but cut out the middleman so that is how the saving is made not by reducing the quality.
Ironically i sent the photo's of the damaged chair and sofa to you when you requested publicity pictures for your website. I got the speediest reply i have ever had from made saying thank you and giving me a £15 voucher. If only response to customer complaints were answered so quickly.
I also have a £50 voucher off my next order which I am not sure how to use as I don't have the energy to chase up after a poor quality or damaged items.
I was so excited by the idea of made.com but have been left bitterly disappointed by the whole experience - quality of products, delivery and customer service has been a huge let down.
2:31PM on 19th April 2012
After reading these comments, I was scared senseless and decided that instead of buying a lot of cool looking furniture with risk of disaster that I would just go small with a lamp and cheap sleeper sofa.
So far, I have had a CS response that said, "Due to large volumes this easter..." 10 days after Easter.
Stay tuned, more to come when I actually receive my products!
5:03PM on 24th April 2012
Having recently bought two items through made, I'd say the biggest problem is their choice of delivery partner. Yodel are awful. I waited in for an entire afternoon, only to find one item wasn't delivered, despite both being together in the same warehouse - according to an email from made.
Yodel have this morning left a garbled voicemail stating the next item will be delivered TOMORROW between 12-4 pm! What planet do these people live on? Obviously one in which nobody works or has any other obligations.
What i can't understand is why they persist wiht Yodel. The delivery fees are significant, but all I've ever heard about yodel/HDNL are awful stories. Surely another important thing for them to consider, when the awful reviews of yodel are also all over the internet.
9:35AM on 16th May 2012
I originally ordered a Moritz coffee table which I was very pleased with when it arrived in January. We then ordered some table lamps and another matching table being confident in the quality and service. The lamps were delivered within weeks, however we were informed that the table was being manufactured and would not be delivered for another three months. Despite our disappointment we waited and at the end of April had to contact Made as no delivery had been advised. We were than advised that out order had been cancelled and allegedly we had been informed by email (not received)! It took three attempts to refund the full value of the product, and we are now left with a single table for which we cannot achieve a matching one. Our attempts to return it were met with a tardy response suggesting that we return the table in the original packaging? Inconceivable to think we would have kept it for three months, and moreover placing the onus on us to return the table undamaged giving the impression that we are the guilty party when in fact we are the victims. We will certainly never again attempt to purchase anything from Made.com