Del Toro Shoes: A Qualified Perhaps

The Rapture is scheduled for May 21st. But at least I can go out with my Del Toro shoes on that I ordered five months ago. They arrived yesterday and barring the protracted interval involved in actually getting them, they are a home run.

The boys at Del Toro have already received my feedback. You can read it below if you want but for now, here's some feedback for those who might be interested in the Del Toro experience.

1. The quality equals or exceed Stubbs and Wootton.

2. The same basic custom monogram order option at Stubbs will cost you almost double the price of Del Toro.

3. You will need to at least go up one half size or maybe a whole size. Do not order a pair without trying on their sample shoes first.

4. Four to five months is a perfectly reasonable time-frame for waiting on this level of value. But you need to expect to wait that long so that you avoid getting frustrated with the process. And the Del boys need to clearly articulate this up front. In fairness, their drop down menu on customer orders now states I think, "3-4 months".

These guys have a good product for the money and I recommend it with qualifications. Hopefully they'll tighten up some of their process glitches and become a bit more customer centric and service driven. These are needed tweaks, not overhaul imperatives. So go over to Del Toro and order yourself a pair. Hell, order five pairs. After May 21 it's gonna be irrelevant anyway.

Onward. On the cusp of a week long Spring Break with LFG. First stop on the LFG express next week...The Waldorf in NYC.

ADG, II

From: ADG
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2011 8:33 AM
To: ADG; James Bohannon
Cc: Matthew Chevallard
Subject: The Shoes Are Here....Home Run...Sort Of

James and Matt

My shoes arrived and they are perfect in every way. And thank you James, for your email below regarding my satisfaction with the entire ordering experience. The 25% discount offer on another pair is a nice thing to include in the update letter that came with the shoes.

Guys…please…let me offer you some free consulting... ( I know, I know…you’ve had a zillion people try to tell you how to run your business and it gets old after a while. I’m a management and strategy consultant who’s been helping businesses with this stuff for years) …please hear me out.

1.      1. I understand operational and growing pains with businesses. I run one.

2.      2. I appreciate the fact that global suppliers and manufacturing partners can sometimes get you over a barrel re manufacturing consistency and delivery deadlines. If this is a problem, then consider building-in additional performance incentives to your contract with your maker.

3.      3. Service is at an all time low. Therefore you have an opportunity to really impress people with what used to be standard service. But you are fumbling the ball here.

Evidence:

A.     A. You promised a mock-up of my monogram choice to assure accuracy in the set-up. It never came.

B.     B. Your system never loaded my order into the personalized order page after I signed on. Never. So either have that as the function you currently offer or remove it from your website.

C.     C. I requested try-on shoes and you guys delivered them promptly. I promptly returned them via UPS. Sometime later I get an email from Matt informing me that if I didn’t get the shoes back to you, he was going to charge me for them. What do you think that communicates to your customers? I had to track down my UPS proof of delivery information to assure Del Toro that I didn’t steal your shoes. This initial incident gave me an uneasy feeling regarding how you run your organization. It says that you don’t have processes in place to assure that you are executing consistently on basic procedural stuff.

D.     D. Unanswered emails. I understand staffing and workload issues. But it’s no excuse. When you have customers who have legitimate concerns regarding their order status, you need to respond to their emails on a timely basis. This is the moment during the process when I began to get pissed off. You need a 36 hour turnaround time for all emails that come from customers with purchases in works. Period. No excuses.

4.      When orders are delayed, you need to over communicate with your customers as opposed to allowing them to simmer and become aggravated. Come on guys, this is business management 101.

5.      The drop down menu for your custom shoes now clearly states that the order interval will be 3-4 months. Guys, your product is worth a 5 month wait. So make sure people know this clearly from the get go. State it prominently in the email confirmation that goes out after the order is processed.

And finally guys, if this business is just a little folly of yours and you don’t see it as a long term endeavor, just ignore my advice. Or, if the percentage of your revenue coming from these one-off custom orders like mine is inconsequential, then ignore my advice and grow your business for the less than demanding masses, not the persnickety custom order asses…like me. But I can tell you that you are developing a less than stellar among some folks in the of the social media realm.

You’ve got a great product for the money. Don’t fumble the ball by not having a basic level of service to complement it.