#019 A busy week (09/10/2022)

Welcome to the 19th installment of our weekly journal, where we continue to share our weekly work and events at Re Pillow Co.

Re Pillow is out of stock again.

This week we had a few more customers buying, but our production capacity is still quite limited. Even making just ten or twenty more pillows would be difficult. Therefore, we were busy catching up on production this week, working on Saturdays, Sundays, and the Chung Yeung Festival. A few months ago, I only worked six days a week at the factory, but now it's seven. A customer kindly asked why we didn't order more. It's because of the "land issue." Hong Kong is small and rent is expensive; we still don't have enough space to streamline production, and the costs are too high. Or perhaps it's because our current Re Pillow pillow production method is very much like making "handicrafts," not very efficient. The factory's automated methods, like the "flood-flood" method, make it time-consuming, costly, and inevitably limited in scale – something we all know. Given my young age and lack of experience, I've been figuring things out and trying things out as I go. I'm sorry to have kept so many people waiting, but we will definitely do our best to do each one well. We're not in a rush, but speed is the most important thing. In addition, I will be going back to work full-time on Sunday, September 10th, and we currently expect to be able to mail everything out by the middle of next week.

Also, this week a current customer visited our Taikoo Shing Experience Center and told us they really liked the pillow. They recommended it to many friends and even bought six more at once. We are truly grateful for this customer's recognition of our work; it's really encouraging. My gratitude isn't just because they bought so many, but because of their trust in us. I am truly thankful. Thank you, and thank you to everyone else who has encouraged us or bought our products and tried them. Because of you, we can continue on.

Post-purchase Support Centre

Sometimes we receive messages from customers asking what pillow height is right for them, which might cause them to sleep uncomfortably at the wrong height. This has made me think about how I can do a better job.

Actually, I made this pillow so that everyone could sleep well. Maybe it's because I designed and created Re Pillow myself, and I also sleep every day, so I pay special attention to messages like "You can't sleep well if you don't know how." I know it sounds old-fashioned, but I really hope that through Re Pillow, everyone can live a better life. Society, work, and life are full of unhappy things every day, and there are many difficulties that we have to face alone, but at least when we get home to our beds, we can sleep comfortably and simply.

As mentioned in this week's journal entry, I am well aware that Re Pillow's current "handicraft" production model will never allow us to grow significantly. Therefore, I think it's better to focus on doing our best within our own limited scope, improving the customer experience, and continuously improving our products (for recent product improvements in the Re Pillow 2 series, please refer to the September week's journal entry #016). Although we may be small in scale, customer satisfaction is what makes me happier than trying to grow bigger or compare with other bedding companies.

Unlike many other pillows, Re Pillow requires users to adjust the pillow height to their liking. Therefore, to help more people easily learn how to use a pillow and find the right height, I started a simple website this week called the "Post-purchase Support Centre." It provides explanations, videos, and pictures to teach people how to use a pillow and find the right height for most comfortable sleeping. I believe this online Support Centre should be helpful to some users.

I'm currently working on the Support Centre website and hope it will be launched within a few weeks.

The Chinese name of Re Pillow Co.

This week, on a whim, I looked through some old photos as Re Pillow's second anniversary approached. It reminded me of a time when I thought of changing the Chinese name of Re Pillow Co. to "创床厂" (Chuang Chuang Chang).

Lazy food, what a low-class name: "Creating a Bed Factory".

However, at the time, I thought each character had a meaning: "创" represents innovation, "床" represents that we make bedding, and "厂" represents that we are a factory. When I first thought of this name, I thought it was perfect. It was almost like the name Re Pillow Co., which also had a sense of innovation, but with three homophones.

(Although I quickly realized it was too "playful" and unprofessional, so I didn't adopt it in the end.)

But I just wanted to share this with everyone!

It's late, so I'll stop writing here for this week. See you next week!