“We also have Handy Crew which is an install business which connects the products we sell, as well as products our competitors sell.”
One of Winnings’ most formative moments in the business to date was the experience of expanding from Sydney to Melbourne.
“To go into a state we’d never been in and have a whole warehouse full of stock, that was a big unknown,” he says.
“We knew we had customers, but we didn’t know how many or if it would be a success. I packed up my stuff and moved to Melbourne for a year. We set up a warehouse and just waited for the orders to come in. It was a slow process, but eventually Victorians took to us and we discovered our model didn’t just work in Sydney. That made the process of going to Brisbane a lot easier.”
Winning says the growth of the company has been driven by “a major marketing secret” – word of mouth.
“When you’re delivering to hundreds or thousands of customers a day and they’re all happy, word of mouth is your biggest asset. If you have good customer service, there’s not better advertising than that.
“We complement this with good SEO and SEM, but as it becomes more expensive it’s more and more important to attract people through word of mouth.”
To ensure customer service standards are up to scratch, Appliances Online has full-time in-house training staff and product specific experts to teach employees new and old about the products and how to deal with customers.
“We have a trainer for Appliances Online and another who does audio visual and another for white goods and cooking.
“We do two training sessions a week and also send staff overseas each year to visit different suppliers, have a look at the factories and develop a better understanding of the products.”
When looking for the right staff, Winning says a good portion of his decision is motivated by “gut instinct”.
“It’s hugely important that they’re a cultural fit. There have been a few who have come in and aren’t the right fit and we found they move on quickly,” he says.
“We’re all different and one of our values is to be proud of this difference, but also to be respectful. It’s also not uncommon for me to ask someone to tell me a joke in an interview.”
To attract motivated young people, Appliances Online sponsors students at the University of Technology Sydney to come and work at the company for six months.
In the past year the group has doubled in staff from 250 to 500 people, but it’s maintained the company’s values by keeping them front of mind.
“Our mission values are on everyone’s desk and everyone knows how we act as a company, what we believe in and how we’re going to get there,” he says.
Winning has recently started participating in charity work. After taking part in the CEO CookOff last year, he realised he wanted to do more for the community on a regular basis.
“Since then I’ve been working closely with a group called Birds of Passage and we’ll go and prepare food and feed the homeless each Monday night at Woolloomooloo.”
Winning has also always been passionate about music and sailing. While he doesn’t have a lot of spare time, he encourages others in the business to have a work-life balance.
“One of our values is ‘family matters’. We value being a family at work, and part of that culture is also having a work-life balance and making sure you’re giving enough time to your family at home,” he says.
“It’s not uncommon for me to be here late at night, but I don’t have my own family, if I see a staff member who does have a family working late at night I’ll sometimes go and turn off their computer.”
Looking forward, Winning says he wants Appliances Online to “grow as fast as it can”, but without losing the customer experience.
“We’ve actually found with size we’ve managed to improve the customer experience. We used to only be able to go to Wollongong once a week, but now we go their daily. The bigger we get, the more places we can go,” he says.
“We’d like to get a warehouse in Tasmania. We’re super loyal to Australia; we believe Australia deserves to have as good a shopping experience anywhere else in the world. It’s not our fault we have a large geographical area, so the more Australians who use our service, the quicker we can be.”
