Wow – what a week! The shoppers were out in full force this past week – both in stores and online. And yes ….I was one of them! I will admit I am drawn to a great sale – where my husband would “rather pay more that deal with all those shoppers”. But I also enjoy any reason to get out with the girls – so Black Friday shopping has been one of those “reasons” for the last few years. We don’t need anything that bad that we wait in crazy lines or do any “camping out” and I think we may have been known to “possibly” buy more things for ourselves than anyone else on occasion …but one thing that never changes for me is that my holiday shopping always starts out as a good time!
But let’s talk about what DOES change – and a lot – in our “neck of the woods” – THE WEATHER! Last Tuesday it reached a beautiful 70 degrees here in central New York. By Thanksgiving, we had a winter wonderland! The trees' branches were wilting from the weight of the thick lush white snow that glistened on every branch – so beautiful! And today …. remnants of fall are back in full view! The air is crisp but warm, the snow has melted, leaving a soggy green carpet for walking, and piles of wet, brown and golden leaves are exposed wherever the fall wind of today has not whisked them to the lot next door!
With all of the changes in the weather for us at Mele & Co., one thing remains the same … this is our busiest week of the year and we continue to do what we do – get orders in and ship them out. FAST, FAST, FAST! A visit into our warehouse this week is like walking into Santa’s workshop –Christmas songs are playing, some are singing, employees are packing, wrapping, taping, moving stock, restocking stock, unloading, loading…. We are shipping for ourselves directly to our www.melecompany.com customers, but we also ship an amazing number of orders directly to customers like you that shop at your favorite retailers that sell our products. There are so many orders being processed and shipped one might think we could never accomplish it all – but we do. And we do it fast! As I reflect on my own cyber week online shopping experiences, I am reminded just how great we are at getting your orders out asap.
Online shopping has been a huge help to a shopper like me with limited time and many people on my list to shop for. Just like many of you – I also expect my orders to process and ship to me very quickly. Knowing just how fast we ship at Mele & Co. with the tight team that we have – I also know how possible it is to ship with speed. Last year I waited, and waited, and waited ….. as my orders trickled in over several weeks. Some came super fast –but many did not. How long could it possibly take them to ship my order out? One order from a huge company all moms with girls know was tracked to another state. I emailed, I did live chat, I called, I was put on hold for over an hour (this was my multi tasking time) and never did a customer service representative answer my inquiries or ever take my call. Like many other shoppers – I purchased several store’s ‘hot ticket” items. Unfortunately – we all know sometimes they sell out even after your order is placed. I understand that – I just would like to know before the package comes with a missing item I was counting on (something that one of my girls was really counting on) that I then had to scurry to a store to find! As I reflect on all of my online shopping experiences of service – some with very slow processing times and many with a huge lack of customer service - I again realize how great our Mele & Co team is at getting your jewelry boxes out to you. Do we ever mess up – sure we do – who doesn’t mess up once in a while? But we have a great system, we move fast, we work together and we communicate to our customers. Depending on the circumstances – many orders can go out the same day they are received, and if we have a problem we reach out to our customers as soon as possible. Whether you are a store that is our customer or an actual retail customer – yes you can actually talk to a real live person here at Mele & Co. Our customer service is not a computer and we do actually answer the phone! Just try it – 800-635-6353 – we would love to hear from you!
Margaret Graniero
VP Ecommerce
Mele & Co