If you are a customer, shopping with Rigu has largely been the same over the past couple of months as normal. However, as I have only visited the office a handful of times since my last coronavirus-related post, it definitely doesn’t feel normal to me, and I just want to update people on how Rigu is doing.
Here’s where we’re at with operations at the moment:
- My brother Neil is doing an excellent job getting orders sent out to the same schedule as I would normally achieve on weekdays. In this regard, nothing has changed.
- The Royal Mail are doing well, and most orders are arriving within the expected delivery estimate, but there has been an increase in orders which have been arriving late. This often appears to be packages sitting at depots for an extended period. My presumption is that this is due to a reduction in capacity at depots in both the ability to sort and deliver mail and is dependent on the area you’re in. I should reiterate that most orders are arriving within the expected timeframe, but order earlier than usual if you need an item by a certain date.
- Special Delivery services are still not available as an upgrade as the Royal Mail are not able to guarantee that timeframe, and I would rather not make it available than have disappointed customers.
- Customer service e-mails are being responded to quicker than usual, as I am sat at home and there’s less to do here than in the office.
- You are not able to contact me via the office phone number (as I’m not there), all enquiries are to be made via e-mail or social media, please.
- Officially, the personalised camera strap service is not available. However, that hasn’t stopped a couple of people ordering it anyway, and in those cases me and Neil have found a workaround so that I can safely go to the workshop and personalise the strap after which Neil then packs it and preps for postage. It’s not something I want to be doing regularly (it’s an 80 minute round-trip drive to the office) but if you really need a personalised strap, it can be worked into the schedule I have for taking shopping to my family.
One thing I have been enjoying recently is going for lots of walks around the local area, and taking my camera with me too. On these walks I’ve had plenty chances to listen to business podcasts and think about ways I can improve Rigu. I am looking at new brands to bring to the site, and thinking about ways to make the site more efficient, more usable, and better for customers.
Hopefully for all the ways that coronavirus has held Rigu back over the past couple of months, it will provide a chance to focus on other aspects of the business that often get neglected because I have to deal with day-to-day issues and jobs.
As ever, thank you very much to everyone who is placing orders at the moment. I recognise that it’s a time of great uncertainty in all aspects of life, especially financially, and as I said at the start of all this, I understand that a nice camera strap is not at the top of most people’ priorities. I can only assume that there are a lot of people who have had a chance to reconnect with photography and now that they’re spending more time with their camera they want to be comfortable (and look good) whilst they’re taking photos, and I truly appreciate those people visiting Rigu.