Carephone Warehouse and it’s cultural issues
July 17, 2008 //
James Whatley wrote a post where he describes why he feels Carephone Warehouse should employ an evangelist. I tried to leave a comment but the blog has a horrendous registration process which I got bored with. So instead, I’ve decided to publish my comment here.
I’d rather encourage all staff into becoming evangelists, but that will only happen when they care enough about the brand to become brand guardians. Having nominated evangelists only works when they’re evangelising specific technologies - like you get with companies such as Microsoft and Apple. By demonstrating that you care to educate and listen to people about your technology, you end up doing the marketing bit indirectly and in a much more discrete manner.
My advice to Carphone Warehouse is for the senior management team to take stock of public perception and put in place a plan to change the culture across the company. They have a serious culture issue which I believe is management’s failure to evolve as the company changed direction over the past few years. Only then will staff care enough to treat customers as customers and not second class citizens.
Carephone should consider hiring new management, not tech evangelists. Change must come from the top, even if instigated and encouraged by those on the ground.
Cuan Mulligan says 
Psst… It’s ‘Whatley’
And I’ve passed your comments about disqus back to the Ewan Macleod, the guy who runs SMS Text News.
Good viewpoint re: Nominating the evangelists. To be honest I think that’s how I became one in my last job at Refresh Mobile.
Makes sense.
July 17th, 2008
Ouch! Sowwy James. I’ve edited with the correct spelling.
I really can’t stress enough, how annoying the comments registration is on SMS Text News. It’s that bad I’m never going to comment unless they change it - too much hassle.
July 17th, 2008
I wonder why my face didn’t appear before?
What do you use for your comments Paul?
July 17th, 2008
@James it’s picking up your mugshot from MyBlogLog. Like it?
July 17th, 2008
Yes - and now I’ve figured out why it didn’t work before.
Nicely done.
July 17th, 2008
I have Kamrul to thank for everything. He’s a star!
July 17th, 2008
Paul,
SMS Text News is Ewan’s baby, but I’ll follow up re the comments…
What particularly is the issue with Disqus? If you leave the ‘verify post’ option un-ticked all that’s needed is a name and e-mail address and Ewan can moderate the comment (just like this blog). There are more complex options (which I agree are a bit ‘love em or hate em’), but hopefully this most basic option won’t dissuade anyone from commenting.
If that’s not been your experience or I’ve missed the point I’d love to hear. Either here or by e-mail.
Cheers,
Ben
July 17th, 2008
[...] Walsh says “Carephone [sic] should consider hiring new [...]
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