Pickle Reviews

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I’m really sorry you feel negatively about your experience. Our people are the heart of the business and we care a great deal about their time with us, so I’d like to address the points you’ve made. Our company is built on the invaluable work of the Fyxers and their wellbeing is first and foremost in our mind. That’s why we have a Head of People, whose role includes HR duties. We don’t think of people as ‘resources’, so we didn’t think the HR label was a good one. About appraisals: it’s important to us that our clients receive a great service. Our Head of People works closely with our Head of Operations when it comes to appraisals and we take into account many factors when it comes to reviewing employees. As you describe, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology is one component. NPS is used to measure customers’ satisfaction by a great number of businesses, including Amazon and Apple to American Express and GE. It makes up just one strand of our performance reviews; we also speak to customers directly and hold bi-weekly catch-ups with Fyxers and their team heads. The management team is appraised in the same way. This multifaceted process gives us a well-rounded view. It’s a genuinely sad day when a member of the FYXER team chooses to leave. So far, we have been fortunate that this is a rare occurrence. We think people’s voices matter. When an employee does choose to leave, the company does not announce the news in the first instance. Instead, we ask the leaving Fyxer, if they are happy to do so, to speak to the team at our weekly in-person meet up, so their voice is heard and so they can communicate the news in a way they’re comfortable with. We’re a young, growing company that was founded in 2015. As a predominantly virtual company, where employees work four days out of five from the comfort of their own home, a ‘flashy’ office never made sense to us. We preferred to take the difference and pay our Fyxers more. We are the only VA business I am aware of that pays a salary. Our offices were, however, functional and safe; you can see pictures of them on Instagram (link below). Today, our office is in the White Collar Factory in Old Street (Link below). We’re always looking at ways to improve things for our Fyxers. I regret the experience you had with your Mac. In the past, we let people use their own laptops. Today, new Fyxers can receive a new FYXER laptop. We’ve also signed up to Apple Care Enterprise to take care of any technical or hardware problems immediately. When we don’t get things right, we really do listen and take action. Myself and my co-founder don’t have a background as an Executive Assistant – but every other member of the senior management team does. Further, every member of the senior management team has spent time working as a Fyxer in the past year. So as a group we do understand and appreciate the nature of an Executive Assistant’s role. But every employee at FYXER also has a ‘growth mindset’ and the need to improve their abilities. That’s why we’ve committed our leadership team to one day per month this year working with leading a consultancy firm for our own training, as managers. As I hope is clear, we’re a company that listens openly and acts. We’re pleased that already, in the young life of FYXER, eight out of ten employees would recommend working at FYXER to a friend. But to us, that means we’ve still got a lot of work to do. We want every person here to have a great experience. I apologise for the poor experience you had and your feedback is sincerely appreciated. We’ve listened and made changes based upon it. Myself and the whole team wish you every success with your future endeavours. http://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/companies-using-nps.aspx https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tog+white+collar+factory&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOpPj9q4_ZAhXlBcAKHU1qCZ8Q_AUICygC&biw=1440&bih=780 https://www.instagram.com/fyxer_london/ https://www.apple.com/uk/support/enterprise/

The team and I are very sad you had a bad experience. We don’t get everything right. Constructive criticism enables us learn and improve so, sincerely, thank you for highlighting how you felt. Let me address your points, so everyone understands what we do and why. Performance assessments are important because client satisfaction is the lifeblood of our business. If, over a sustained period of time, clients do not believe they are receiving good service, we can’t let that Fyxer continue. We take a lot of care, time and money to collect accurate client feedback. As you highlight, we use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology as one component. NPS is used to measure customer satisfaction by many businesses including Amazon, Apple and J P Morgan. You can find a fuller list at the bottom of this post. We complement this metric with calls to customers to hear their feedback. We never assess a Fyxer’s performance solely using the NPS scores they received. Fyxers enjoy three benefits that traditional Executive Assistants rarely receive. The first is the comfort, flexibility and efficiency of working from home. Fyxers can now receive a company laptop. The second is working hours that, through our customer agreements, are limited to 9am to 5.30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Third, Fyxers always work in groups, with colleagues helping and supporting each other. This is why we ask Fyxers to be in the office one day (not two) per week. We’ve created a culture where, after 12 weeks of training, Fyxers receive ongoing support. FYXER is an exciting, rewarding and generally very happy place to work. Glassdoor highlights that eight out of ten Fyxers already recommend working at FYXER to their friends. We hope this will become ten out of ten, over time, as we keep making improvements. During 2017, three Fyxers (out of 20) asked to leave, in an industry with over 19% employee turnover. We feel each loss deeply so we’re continually improving the support we provide. You can read the FYXER blog and testimonials to see how we change Executive Assistants’ lives for the better. Thank you again for sharing your feedback. I’m genuinely sorry you had a bad experience. I hope the above explains how we work, and why. We’re also acting on your feedback to make improvements. For example, Fyxers will now receive extra support during their first few months with us, when the learning curve is steepest. I, and the whole team, wish you every success in the future. http://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/companies-using-nps.aspx https://www.nbrii.com/employee-survey-white-papers/survey-research-yields-data-on-employee-turnover/ http://www.fyxer.co/blog