Epaulet shop - Official Affiliate thread

[stevenkmason]

Potentially the first Epaulet customer to rock a bolo tie. This look is so freaking dope....

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No way I wore a bolo with the chocolate moleskin safari jacket last week. Here’s a crappy picture.

 

[suuteebird]

 

[Epaulet]

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Totally killing it!!!

 

[Epaulet]

No way I wore a bolo with the chocolate moleskin safari jacket last week. Here’s a crappy picture.

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Lol okay, I definitely love that there’s a growing bolo tie community here!

 

[Epaulet]

Let's Start Talking about 2020

Hey guys,

I'd like to start a conversation with everyone on this thread. This past Fall marked our 10-year anniversary as a Styleforum Affiliate, and I can confidently say that owe a majority of our overall success to the community here. I'm so profoundly grateful for all of the support, feedback, and friendship that we receive on here.

A lot has changed since those early days, and I want to maintain and grow this thread.. and ensure that we're creating a space that you really want to visit. There's an information overload these days with all of the social media options out there, but I feel that this thread can be really special and distinct.

Instagram is fast and easy but filled with ads and shills and it's difficult to really converse with anyone there.

Reddit has a ton of knowledge, but the interface is difficult and the community is so large that (for me) it's tough to get to know anyone personally.

Facebook.... I should probably use it more and learn more about it, but it's just not happening.

But this place - and this thread - is unique. We can get to know each other. We have a ton of inspirational and successful subscribers, and we collectively have a huge volume of knowledge. Everyone is polite and friendly here... and it's always been that way. Lord knows it's not like that on other threads.

I can credit this thread for giving me some of my closest friends and best customers. In order for it to grow, I know that it has to be more than just an advertising space. If you already get our email newsletter and follow us on Instagram, you know the products and promotions that we're offering at any given time.

What kind of content would you like to see outside of that? What would make this thread a place that you want to visit and interact with regularly? Let's say that its our goal to make this the absolute best and most dynamic thread on this whole site in 2020. What should we do to get there?

 

[Duke Silver]

I'd like to see you hire some fatter models so I could occasionally snag something during a sample sale.

 

[Epaulet]

I'd like to see you hire some fatter models so I could occasionally snag something during a sample sale.

Lol quality first reply!

 

[K. Nights]

Maybe not what you're asking for, but I really think the customer service aspect needs to be addressed. I've had too many unanswered emails/messages. It really puts me off from ordering things at times. I would say make that your priority

 

[zenosparadox]

Maybe not what you're asking for, but I really think the customer service aspect needs to be addressed. I've had too many unanswered emails/messages. It really puts me off from ordering things at times. I would say make that your priority

I think I'd echo this, as I was coming here for the third time (in three weeks) to inquire about the status of the navy moleskin Doyles. I pre-ordered items from three projects recently (navy moleskin Doyle and pants, SF x sashiko Doyle, and sashiko tote) and am quite happy with what I've received, so I'd have mostly good things to say about Epaulet if asked. But it's unusual to ask the same question three or four times through a few different communication methods and not get a single response. This seems to be a persistent problem, and especially so with delayed pre-orders. I fully realize that pre-orders for MTO can be delayed, but keeping customers up to date in this instance should be a priority. As is, these seem to be the queries that are most often ignored.

 

[Epaulet]

Maybe not what you're asking for, but I really think the customer service aspect needs to be addressed. I've had too many unanswered emails/messages. It really puts me off from ordering things at times. I would say make that your priority

I think I'd echo this, as I was coming here for the third time (in three weeks) to inquire about the status of the navy moleskin Doyles. I pre-ordered items from three projects recently (navy moleskin Doyle and pants, SF x sashiko Doyle, and sashiko tote) and am quite happy with what I've received, so I'd have mostly good things to say about Epaulet if asked. But it's unusual to ask the same question three or four times through a few different communication methods and not get a single response. This seems to be a persistent problem, and especially so with delayed pre-orders. I fully realize that pre-orders for MTO can be delayed, but keeping customers up to date in this instance should be a priority. As is, these seem to be the queries that are most often ignored.

Thanks for the feedback guys, and of course I'll welcome any general feedback. I'm definitely conscious of these things.. and it's absolutely something that we need to fix. If you search for "Epaulet" on Reddit, the first result that you'll get is called "Epaulet Terrible Customer Service Experience." It's exactly related to email. Ultimately a guy bought a pair of jeans, wanted to return them, and it took longer than he wanted to get the return approved and processed. It's not the end of the world, but it's a bad look and we should be doing every reasonable thing to keep customers happy and confident in ordering.

I don't want to give excuses, but there has been four large reasons for the contact issues:

1) Adele Berne was formerly a partner in the business and she left back in July of this year. She generally managed all of the emails and shipping, and she was both good and very experienced with it. It's been tough to fill her shoes, and there were definitely a few months where our responses were extremely lagging. We are catching up recently, and if you have any return requests, you can now email Jay directly at [email protected].

Our new Thank You cards that go with every shipment are going to detail this new email and hopefully make the process easier.

2) We migrated the site from epauletnewyork.com to epauletbrand.com and it threw my email forwards into total disarray. I have some redundancies but we were getting constant issues with emails bouncing and customers trying to use the emails associated with the wrong domain. Hopefully we're past that as well.

3) I need to have a phone number associated with our Shopify site, but honestly, there's no way possible for us to really manage it. It rings about 25 times a day with spam calls in various foreign languages. When people leave messages, they're often jumbled, and many times their last name will come through incorrectly and they don't state their order number, so it's really difficult to track down what they're saying. We've just recorded a voice mail message asking to send an email when you call the number. It's pretty much all that we can do at this point.

4) A lot of customers - particularly new ones - expect an impossible turnaround time on responses. Like sending an email on Friday night, and then following up Saturday morning with messages on IG, FB, and Reddit. It creates a lot of duplicate work and just slows things down. This is something that all retailers are contenting with now, as larger entities like Amazon and Mr. Porter have made customers expect instantaneous shipping and responses.

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All that said, it is definitely a priority for us to clean things up with all of our logistics. I was definitely happy that our Sashiko Doyle, Tote Bag, Thomas Mason chainstitch shirts, and Individaulized shirts delivered in time and complete. I've redone our Facebook page and this is an easy place to send messages to if you're a member there.

And it would be really smart for us to make a status page of the site that posts updates on special order projects. That way guys like @zenosparadox can check in on their orders without going through the trouble of emailing us. And t will cut down on emails in general.

Now that our domain issues are worked out, I'll most likely set up a few different mailboxes so that customers asking for assistance on purchases can be separated from return requests. And as always, you can PM me here but please include your last name and an order number (if you have that). I know some people by their username, but certainly not everyone.. and it just makes the process faster.

 

[wakawaka]

Maybe not what you're asking for, but I really think the customer service aspect needs to be addressed. I've had too many unanswered emails/messages. It really puts me off from ordering things at times. I would say make that your priority

I'll take the opportunity to second that. I've sent multiple emails/messages in span of several weeks about my Southwick order and an uncompleted 15$ hemming service, but none of them has been answered. I might be a small Epaulet customer in comparison to some, but still - please respond to my query when you successfully manage the whole ruckus Mike sir. I'll forgo pasting the old message; my Southwick order number is #45903. EDIT: Maybe I'll just contact Mr. Jay at [email protected], seems like a good idea .

 

[dazedstate]

I feel your pain @Epaulet. Amazon has brought out the worst in people's expectations. It does seem you may be undermanned though too. Hire me and pay me in clothes

 

[Todd V]

I always enjoy the discussion of the endz and finds projects, which one is coolest. Which I should get.

Your “picks” of the fabrics . Seeing how other’s orders made up. That’s what I like to see. That’s what makes me want to buy more stuff.

 

[Epaulet]

I feel your pain @Epaulet. Amazon has brought out the worst in people's expectations. It does seem you may be undermanned though too. Hire me and pay me in clothes

@dazedstate haha believe me I'm open to that!

And I don't mean to hit the usual anti-Amazon bitching points. If I've learned anything in almost 20 years of retailing, it's that you need to change things up about every 18mos. Things are constantly evolving and those who fall behind are those who fail.

It was easier before in many ways, but lots of things are easier now. I've spent 2019 reorganizing things, getting back to basics, paying off a lot of loans (which are happily almost done!) and getting ready for next year. When I think of Epaulet in the future, I look at a lot of brands for inspiration. I like Noah for their design and social messaging. I like Figs (scrubs and jackets for medical professionals) for their advertising and user engagement. I did two trunk shows in 2019 after like three years of not doing them, and we'll do a LOT more in 2020. I really want to offer the best clothes and have the most satisfied customers of my career.

I always enjoy the discussion of the endz and finds projects, which one is coolest. Which I should get.

Your “picks” of the fabrics . Seeing how other’s orders made up. That’s what I like to see. That’s what makes me want to buy more stuff.

@Todd V good call, I feel that I've been really remiss on that this year. In the past, just launching the project was enough to spur discussion here, and I could kind of pop in to answer, but it's clear that I have to be a bit more proactive with things.

The good news is that we're way more on top with photographing makeups. I have gorgeous pics of most custom doyles and shirts that we've done. Southwick ships direct to customers, so that's hard to capture, but I should start ordering sample garments in select fabrics so we can constantly show things.

 

[Epaulet]

So.. this is an honestly non-judgmental question to everyone out there who participated in our recent projects:

We sold about 95 Doyles and close to 75 totebags. Got them in on time and shipped them out complete. I had a few return requests (10 jackets or so), but everything else was retained by the customers. I haven't seen any photos or heard any feedback besides one very early tote bag pic.

A very large part of this customer base is on Styleforum, so I'm wondering... what are your thoughts on posting photos or feedback? Is it too difficult with the interface here? Do you feel that people acknowledge your contribution enough? Is there something that I can do to make it easier or more attractive to post things?