Marketplace
Yesterday we were invited on the NORA Expedition to visit some companies in involved in the retailer space. CatchoftheDay was definitely the highlight of the expedition.
From the outside, the building is among many nondescript businesses in the area. However upon entering the premises, you are greeted
by this sign and this slide
.
Work environment
The building used to be occupied by Adidas which is how they inherited the slide and basketball courts. Lots of the Adidas branding is still all over the building.
The break room contains a pool table,foosball table a tv (with an Atari hooked up to it), loads of free snacks everywhere (Groceryrun stuff), and drinks. Funnily enough the top shelf of their fridge was packed with Rekorderlig Cider which has appeared on OzBargain a few times.
To cancel out the unlimited food and drinks, they do have the gym and basketball/soccer courts but also have bicycles by all their entrances. Employees are encouraged to take a bike ride or have a walk.
Employees are also welcome to bring their dogs to work. There were 3 or 4 cute dogs roaming around with nametags.
I also spotted a couple of employees playing Mario Kart for N64. Right next to it was Goldeneye. Awesome!
Everyone appears to be treated as an equal and there are no job titles that start with a C (CEO, CFO etc.). Employees are free to take breaks whenever. As long as all the work is done, then everyone is happy. Imagine if your boss walked into your office and you were playing Mario Kart. No one blinks an eye at Catch.
As the Catch guys said, they spend more time at work then with their families so they want everyone to be as healthy and happy as they can. I suppose that is true for most workplaces.
Canvas Prints
They have many of their own custom canvas prints scattered around the office. Given they've advertised cheap canvas printing services many times on their site, I'm guessing that's why they have many of them. Here is the one from the famous Hungry Jacks deal:
They also had a similar canvas for their Baskin Robbins deal.
Photo Shoot
All the product photos you see are done in house. When we were visiting, they had 3 different photo shoots going on simultaneously. The one picture below is for this Johnson Brothers Dinner Set so not much time between taking the photo, editing photos, and putting them on the web.
Yes, that is real food they are using.
Customer Service
The most asked question they get: "Where is my package?". I think shipping times are one of the biggest complaints from OzBargainers. Most of the time OzBargainers get their items within a few days. However sometimes there are big delays in shipping. I should have asked them about this (I asked them loads of questions!).
They have recently added live chat to their customer service so this may be useful to those who have issues. Throughout their customer service office they have phrases on the wall like honesty, ownership, and other quips to constantly remind staff that the customer is very important.
On the wall in their Scoopon section, they had conditions of deals written on the board. For example, on a particular travel deal they listed conditions of the sale like charges per person and other fine print. They also had a wall of coupon codes. Unfortunately, they were all old and not working (last one from ClickFrenzy) otherwise you may have seen a deal posted. ;)
On OzBargain
Very similar responses to Kogan and other big retailers. They love it and they hate it. OzBargain is a great channel for many companies to promote goods. Some of them enjoy reading about deals on this site. However, what they (and others) don't like is the rudeness and negative comments by some members. We agree and this is something we have been trying to tackle for many years however no silver bullet yet.
Unfortunately, qqq was not there.
ACA/Today Tonight
Today Tonight has been axed and apparently ACA is not doing as many consumer stories anymore. So how do businesses get on these shows? Well, COTD used to pitch to the producers themselves but now use a PR company. Speaking to other businesses there, it seems to be the same deal. Pitch a story that can be easily told and enjoyed by that media outlet's audiences and they will air it. If they won't, they will keep you in their database if they need to run a story later on. Do we want OzBargain on there? Don't know.
Catch took a few years to build their customer base up to 70,000 members. After an appearance on one of these shows, overnight they went up to 100,000 members.
A very interesting day overall. I'll write a part 2 about the other places we visited and other companies that are bargain related. I probably forgot a whole bunch of stuff so ask any questions. I might be able to pass on some of the questions to Gabby (perhaps have an IAMA?).
P.S. Check out Lifehacker, CatchoftheDay Facebook, or our Twitter for more pictures.
Very nice office. Looks like an awesome day :)