FC Meets…Nick Sinfield CEO of DUO

FC: What an incredibly tough time it has been for retail – how have you adapted the company to survive?

Nick: Principally we’ve focused on our customers, lifting service levels, developing winning product, putting ourselves in their shoes to ensure we are exceeding expectations wherever possible. In such a competitive environment service counts for a great deal.

(Nick pictured right)

FC:  What has been developed in terms of new technology – buying online, shopping from smart phones/tablets etc?

Nick: We launched a tablet site this year, enabling our customers to buy in a way which suits an increasing part of our audience. Mobile is next on the list. In addition we’ve really begun to harness email technology to personalise customer journeys. We are not alone in trying to communicate regularly with our customers, and in increasingly busy inboxes finding a point of difference in the message is now critical to success.

 

FC:  How often do you introduce new lines to the shop floor / online?

Nick: It depends on the season but in our peak winter period we are introducing new product every 6-8 weeks.

FC:  What would you advise to a company that is thinking of branching out internationally?

Nick: Find specialist expertise in the local market to advise on marketing initiatives. Ensuring your spend comes with a positive ROI is important, particularly in markets that are new and unfamiliar.

FC: How does a SME company cope with an International customer base?

Nick: Actually quite easily – we view the world as one audience these days. We keep our infrastructure simple, basing ourselves in the UK but behaving as a local company where we can to give confidence to international customers. Having local language service advisors online builds trust, whilst an easy and cost effective returns service helps new international customers try us out for the first time.

FC:  We work with a lot of students, apprentices and young designers – if they were interested in designing for Duo what experience and skills would you look for?

Nick: Creative talent comes top of the list, but tempered with a commercial eye. We’d look for designers who enjoy getting in front of customers on shop floors – ivory towers have their limitations!

FC: Do you have any news / expansion plans etc that you would like to share with us?

Nick: Right now for us we’re focused on differentiating ourselves from the mass of high street offers. We’re a challenger brand on account of our unique size USP – living up to this specialness throughout the customer journey remains a critical point of difference.

 

Many thanks Nick.