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Your temps could be doing more harm than good.

My store manager received an interesting mailer this week from a company called , Aquent , An 8″ x 11″ clear envelope with a cut-out cow against a full-sized orange sheet. Clearly a big budget mailer. Die-cuts, heavy weight stock, color, mass-mailing, great graphics. Not cheap.

The tag line on the address label was “Will your next hire go sour on you?”
The title printed on the other side of the cow was,”Why buy the cow before you try the milk.”

Highlighted in the text was“Introducing Aquent Talent Bridge “.

Anna, my manager, loved the mailer. It caught her eye. But she was not too clear about the term “Talent Bridge”. So Anna saw the 800 number listed,called the company, and spoke to the Aquent receptionist:

“Hello, my name is Anna —– from The Zen Merchant.I just received a mailer from your company and I would like to know what type of business this is.”

” A mailer? Why do you want to know? What type ofcompany are you calling from? ”

“The mailer was a cut-out cow…. Are you a temp agency?”

“Yes, we’re a temp agency. But I don’t know anything about the mailer. You can look at our website.”

“There’s no web address on your mailer”

“Oh. I wouldn’t know. I’m just a temp here.”

Train your temps. Empower them with pertinent information, such as “We just spent a truckload of money on a big marketing campaign. Be prepared for calls”.
Give your temps the freedom to ask for answers to customers inquiries.”

If you have a website —– put your web address on all your marketing material. Most people may be looking at your materials after-hours and prefer to look on the web.

Oh! To think of the money these people spent on such a big campaign! As a small independent retailer, I may not have a big marketing budget, but I’m lucky to have such great employees such as Anna.