~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 8) ~ Please read first post :)

I,_Geek

^ OOS items

What does it say on your invoice? Whatever the cost price is for the item that's being sent out, that's what Avon will expect to be paid off.

Have they split the cost in two (say, £5 each if the set was £10)?

Or have they charged full price for one item, and then the OOS item will be free when it arrives?

If they've split the cost in two that's easier and you can just ask the customer for half the price of the total set. If they've charged you in full, it's best to explain to the customer and see what they want to do. Some will happily pay in full and wait for the OOS item. If the OOS item never arrives (unlikely), then you'd have to go back and do a refund. Some will want to wait until both are in to pay.

If it's a small amount owed, it should be okay to leave this on your balance. Technically Avon want paying for that but other reps have reported that you can leave up to £20 owing and not get your next order held.

Or you can pay upfront yourself, even if the customer hasn't paid yet. When the OOS item arrives all's good, but if it doesn't you can still send the half of it back to get your money back.

lisyloo

Hi, Just wondering whether those of you who sell Avon are aware that they sell in countries who test on Animals (like China)?
If you are already aware then please ignore, but if you aren't aware then please google for PETA and Avon.
I'm not buying anymore.
Even if you don't care about animals you might like to consider the economic implications to your own business as consumers become informed.

I,_Geek

The animal testing info has been around for at least a year now, and it was publicised on Facebook and similar sites at the time. I've lost one customer only recently (but she didn't explicitly mention animal testing), but my sales are still going strong and not one person has mentioned it.

" you might like to consider the economic implications to your own business as consumers become informed." - But what should we do after that? Okay, our customer numbers may go down but your post implies that we should stop selling Avon altogether due to loss of customers. That would lead to zero income, which is even worse than losing a few customers.

lozza1985

And to be fair, unfortunately most large companies sell globally and so will also have to submit to the animal testing laws that still stand in certain countries, its not unique to avon, companies aren't likely to not sell in certain countries unless being against animal testing is something they feel very strongly about (and let's face it, most companies only feel strongly about making a profit).

elsbels10

Hello, I am a newbie here

I started Avon on campaign 12- now on campaign 13 and so far I love it! I have a good round of customers who were passed on to me by someone who wanted to give up and she had been doing it for 8 years so she had a good customer base. My customers aren't exactly near to where I live about a half hour walk away. I am really enjoying it and don't want to give it up and at the moment (probably because I'm new to it) the whole thing is very time consuming! In September I am going to start college and wanted to know any tips to make me more organised/quicker at filling out forms, bagging it all up etc?

Sorry if I rambled on a bit in my post lol x

lozza1985

Hi a lot of it will come with practice, took me ages to sort & bag my first order but I'm so much quicker at it now - instead of doing a box at a time I empty it all onto the table into groups (make up together etc) then work through the invoice checking it off and putting it back into boxes, again keeping things in some sort of order. When I bag the orders up I write on the box lid which street(s) that the box contains, makes it quicker for me when delivering. Contact your customers before you deliver (text & email is great for this), to let them know a day & rough time (5-8pm day), then if they won't be in they can let you know, saves time standing at the door!

I don't write anything on my order forms these days, but I print a note that goes with my books (I get 2 to an a4 page), that has my contact details on, approx date of delivery and highlighting a few good offers from that book. Costs in ink & paper of course but saves me a lot of time so I think it's worth it. I have also manage to get a lot of my customers to contact me with orders which saves me collecting in as many books, saves me a lot of time, but not all of them will do this but it's certainly helped. Anyone who does have their book collected - if its not out on the day it should be, I don't go back for it - if they want anything they have to contact me with their order, its takes too much time/fuel otherwise - helps them to remember to leave it out on the right day in the future to

Can't think of anything of the top of the top of my head that saves me time, but I do try to split my jobs up over the weeks so it doesn't feel like I'm spending ages on avon jobs. I also buy enough books for each customer to have a book each - again costs more, but saves us time which for us is more valuable with working full time, and especially now we have a baby on the way I don't want to spending longer than I have to, and brochures don't really cost all that much in the grand scheme of things.

elsbels10

Thanks for writing back to me

Ok, contacting them to tell them when I'll be taking their delivery sounds good. Also printing out the note, will save a lot of aching hands too! I will also make sure i have enough books for every person that will save alot as I wont have to keep putting them back out! I guess after a while I will get into a routine and keep learning new things. Thankyou

lozza1985

Everyone gets their own system of what works best for them after a while, it'll get quicker with time too as you get the hang of everything

lisyloo

but your post implies that we should stop selling Avon altogether due to loss of customers. That would lead to zero income, which is even worse than losing a few customers.

If there was an economic reason to stop i.e. business was affected then I would suggest finding an alternative. I was not expecting doing nothing to be a financial equivalent and would be surprised if anyone expected that :-)

I am genuinely suprised so many people seem to not care, but the honesty is at least refreshing.

And to be fair, unfortunately most large companies sell globally

It is certainly not that hard to buy cosmetics without testing on animals. Not sure I'd agree with most, but we'd need facts and figures to go any further on that.

Pips_Mum

I unpack mine by sitting on the floor with open boxes infront of me and all the order forms in a circle around me, pull out an item then rotate round to find whos it was!!