SherrilTree- my latest experience

Crimsonking

Crimsonking

Been here a while
Today my coworker and I stopped by SherrillTree on the way to the Charlotte competition. We've both been treestuff fans for some time, and even felt a little weird buying things from "the other guy". Well, we got a surprise. The staff were great. Brandon is a knowledgable, passionate climber who helped us out and hooked us up with over $60 of freebies each! He introduced me to Sean, who is their representative here on the buzz. I have appreciated the way Sean handles questions and complaints here, so it was cool to meet him. We talked about the direction of the company, and he and Brandon both seemed very open to input. Their new leadership is ready to make a comeback from the reputation they've had for some time, and you can tell when you talk to the team. I'm looking forward to see what comes from Greensboro. My coworker and I were both pleasantly surprised. Thanks, Brandon and Sean for a great visit and the free gear!image.webp
 
Sean, I have been hearing some great and heartening rumors about Sherrill's new direction and new leadership taking it there. I don't believe I have read too much about that directly from a Sherrill representative. Would this be an appropriate place and thread to tell us the story and vision.

Whenever my wife and I see kids, a company, or any group doing either really poorly or really well our minds go to leadership. Leadership is everything.
 
Hey Merle,

Thank you for asking. It is true that we have a new CEO. Tripp Wyckoff took the helm in the first week of January this year. He's got over 20 years of experience in the outdoor industry. His introduction letter in our 2015 catalog expands on that, and also mentions our intention to become more customer-focused than ever.

I know Tripp would love this opportunity to talk about his vision for SherrillTree. He's been hard at it for little over three months now, getting to know us here at SherrillTree, getting to know our vendors and industry, but most importantly, getting to know our customers.

From my point-of-view, we're making a lot of little, obvious changes that are making a big difference. The end goal being a frictionless experience for our customers. Refocusing and reconnecting. All positive things.

I'm looking forward to expanding of this conversation.

Thanks!

-Sean
 
Two words: FREE SHIPPING

Everybody and their uncle have free shipping over some fixed amount (usually $100 or $150) but only one will ship a couple of $18 carabiners for free instead of the $12 or more others want you to pay. I don't care if a company wants to use FedEx to ship something for $15 that USPS will ship in a padded envelope for $4 but I don't like paying that difference and having no choice. Just sayin'... :frio:
 
Hey Jeff,

Thank you for the feedback. Shipping is another area we're looking for ways to give our customers more value. I'm forwarding your post to the folks working on that.

Thanks!

-Sean
 
Sean as a possibility for shipping the little stuff have you thought of a blanket type membership. Something like the "Prime" that Amazon does. I know that the little stuff is what always drives me nuts and stops me from ordering the little stuff when I need it (not just from you). What if you could pay say maybe 50-75 bucks to buy free shipping for anything under the $100 level. Maybe the cost is to high or to low but I am thinking more about the concept in general.

Frank
 
Hey Frank,

Thank you for the suggestion. We actually already offer a membership style service as you describe, called Canopy Club. http://www.sherrilltree.com/Canopy

It's a $49.95 annual fee, and offers discounts, special promotions, reward points, and free UPS ground shipping on any order (with the usual exclusions; contiguous US only and doesn't apply to oversized/overweight, or PHC chemicals with special shipping needs). The link above explains the whole program in detail.

I always thought the price was right on this one. You get 10% off your first order when you sign up, so in essence, it's free if you spend over $500, which is not hard for a tree person or company to do.

We've tweaked the benefits since we started offering this service, and again, this is one of those customer focused areas we're looking at improving. It's pretty good, but we want it to be better.

Thanks!

-Sean
 
I learned something new again. I just started climbing a couple years ago so I really only knew of the past reputation so I honestly have only briefly been on your site. That will change now, thanks Sean.
 
monkeylove said:
I learned something new again. I just started climbing a couple years ago so I really only knew of the past reputation so I honestly have only briefly been on your site. That will change now, thanks Sean.
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That's great. I appreciate you giving us a look. If you'd like, PM me your address and I'll send you our 2015 catalog. Thanks again.

-Sean
 
seanlarkin said:
It's a $49.95 annual fee, and offers discounts, special promotions, reward points, and free UPS ground shipping on any order (with the usual exclusions; contiguous US only and doesn't apply to oversized/overweight, or PHC chemicals with special shipping needs). The link above explains the whole program in detail.
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how about you figure out how to make this worth while for us northerners, I understand charging for border crossings and such but if ebayers and amazon can do free international shipping I'm sure you guys could too, so we can stop getting screwed by our local(4 hours away) Vermeer shop
 
classictruckman said:
how about you figure out how to make this worth while for us northerners, I understand charging for border crossings and such but if ebayers and amazon can do free international shipping I'm sure you guys could too, so we can stop getting screwed by our local(4 hours away) Vermeer shop
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Classictruckman,

I will make sure we look into this. It's definitely an issue we'd love to remedy. Thanks for the post!

-Sean
 
Thanks for posting some of the story Sean. Anytime and anything that can be added would be benificial to all involved I am sure.

I have had past dealings with a company leader that had a sales force of 30,ooo people. One time there was a product that he didn't think was right for the consumer and he told the sales force that he didn't think they should sell it. It went from high millions in sales per week to almost zero overnight. The parent company found it in their heart to fix the product quite soon after that.

That kind of devotion to a leader only comes when his people feel that he is devoted to them. From what I have heard Tripp Wyckoff is that kind of leader. He treats people well, his team, his suppliers, and his customers.
 
To add to what classictruckman said, a couple of years ago I paid more in shipping charges for a climbing line (order was more than $150) shipped from your Brampton Vermeer associate (2 hour drive) than shipping charges amounted to for a similar purchase from a vendor in Indianapolis...
If I want to get gouged again on s&h charges I can just deal with eBay, thanks.
 
JeffGu said:
Two words: FREE SHIPPING

Everybody and their uncle have free shipping over some fixed amount (usually $100 or $150) but only one will ship a couple of $18 carabiners for free instead of the $12 or more others want you to pay. I don't care if a company wants to use FedEx to ship something for $15 that USPS will ship in a padded envelope for $4 but I don't like paying that difference and having no choice. Just sayin'... :frio:
Click to expand...

As a compromise, how about free shipping for every $100 of accumulated purchases?

Example: I buy $130 of stuff and get free shipping. Next order is only $40, so I pay for shipping. Next order is $50 and I get free shipping because I crossed the $200 threshold of total purchases. I hate waiting to accumulate a hundred dollars worth of needs to get something I want now.
 
It's a good thing that a digital checkbox on a site form isn't an actual mechanical device, or the checkbox on sites like FeeBay and Crapazon to filter by: FREE SHIPPING would be worn out in a week. Absorbing the shipping costs on orders over a hundred dollars is very effective for an online store. Easily recovered by the increase in total sales. Recovering shipping costs on smaller orders appears to be a tougher nut to crack, on the surface of things. Thousands of FeeBay vendors are doing it, though, with only a slight shift in the business model. They don't use FedEx and UPS just because they'll come pick it all up for them. They use cheap, but effective packaging and shipping methods and make tons of small sales, which keeps steady sales coming in all year long. It's often called "economy shipping" and if you can stuff that product in a bubblewrap mylar bag/envelope that a bald eagle can't get open, then the customer will get it in an acceptable time frame. You can always opt for the more expensive shipping methods if it's something you positively need in a certain time frame, or that you really can't afford to have damaged enroute.

The problem with some sites is that you are never given the free, economy shipping choice. Not even the non-free economy shipping choice. Smaller items end up costing as much to ship as the price of the item. Personally, I go elsewhere. I nearly always find a source for the product with either free, or very reasonable shipping. There is one site, where we all know the coupon codes, and everything ships free. Even that mini-carabiner we gotta have between paychecks. And it still comes in their usual packaging materials. I won't mention their name, but their initials are TreeStuff.com and it's going to be damn tough to lure me away from them, unless the concept of free shipping sinks into your business model, because I know how to use a calculator and add up what those shipping costs end up running me every year. You don't want to dip into the profit margin a little bit? Fine. Neither do I. My profit margin isn't even in the ballpark of yours, and never will be, because you're the one getting wholesale prices on the stuff I need, not me.

I do buy from other sources, and I don't always get free shipping. Usually it's because my favorite source just doesn't carry the item I need. But the bulk of my purchases will always be from... well, you know who.
 
Hey Jeff,

Thank you for expanding on your original response. It definitely reinforces the things we're looking to improve on, and the pilot programs we're going to be experimenting with.

Thanks!

-Sean
 
My pet peeve is with the price guarantee. Make it that minor details that don't have any bearing on the product function aren't enough to disqualify a product from the guarantee. For instance, the color of the biner. In all other respects the same product but color and thus no price guarantee. Not good.
 
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