The Jiangnan Mall actually sent all its employees on a tour, and it was quite sudden, with almost the entire staff gone within a morning, leaving only a few employees behind.
Fortunately, since the Gouhuansuan platform had already captured most of the business, the departure of a small number of people wouldn't affect the normal operation of the Jiangnan Mall platform.
However, the message this conveyed was significant. Huang He's actions seemed like a case of "breaking a pot and not caring about it," unable to find a solution, so he decided to give his employees a holiday.
To outsiders, this was another excellent development for the Forty Thieves. It was as if Jiangnan Mall had completely conceded defeat. But Brother Ma received this news with a headache because he couldn't recruit anyone.
At this point, the Forty Thieves were already experiencing explosive growth in manpower. Various bugs were emerging in the platform, so much so that everyone on staff, except for Brother Ma himself, was essentially working on the front lines.
Even so, there was still a massive amount of work, piling up like mountains, that needed to be handled. Thus, temporary recruitment became the best option.
However, the e-commerce platform was a brand new industry. Aside from a few administrative, financial, and customer service roles, which were standard for any company, most other positions required professional training and technical skills.
Recruiting in a short period was impossible. Therefore, Brother Ma set his sights on the Jiangnan Mall, which led to the situation where 50 employees were poached from the Jiangnan Mall in just one day.
But now, Brother Ma found himself unable to poach any more employees. This was because all the Jiangnan Mall employees had gone on a trip to Thailand, and communication networks of that era did not cover overseas travel. At the very least, making a phone call was impossible, let alone using WeChat. Therefore, headhunters couldn't contact anyone. The previous plan to poach two to three hundred people in a short period was no longer feasible.
Consequently, the Forty Thieves were still severely understaffed. Even if all 50 poached employees were put to work, it wouldn't change the situation. It was rumored that customer service had accumulated fifty to sixty thousand complaints that couldn't be processed.
In desperation, Brother Ma had to recruit three to four hundred ordinary people to serve as customer service representatives, hiring them on the spot after interviews. At least this way, the backlog of complaints could be dealt with. However, the quality of service from these newly hired individuals, who hadn't even received a proper day of on-the-job training, was anyone's guess.
Nevertheless, the Gouhuansuan platform was developing robustly, with all data growing rapidly. This growth, however, masked many underlying issues.
February 27, 2003, the sixth day after the official launch of the event.
"Comrades, today is a day worth celebrating, a day worth remembering in our company's history, because today, our company's total transaction volume has surpassed 5 billion yuan!" Standing in the company's lobby, Brother Ma, with bloodshot eyes but exuding an air of confidence, addressed his employees, who also had bloodshot eyes, making them look like they were in a zombie apocalypse.
5 billion!
Upon hearing this figure, all the employees were excited. This was 5 billion! It was said that Jiangnan Mall's total sales up to this point were less than 3 billion yuan.
But that data had been accumulated over nearly half a year of operation. They, on the other hand, had achieved this astonishing result in just six days. What a terrifying fact, and what a great company they had!
Although they felt drained, hearing this figure filled them with renewed energy.
"Fellow colleagues, we have made history, and from now on, we will make more history."
"We have set a record, but we must set a new record to break this current one. Each of us here is a witness to history, we are our king!" Brother Ma's speech was quite inspiring, and the employees below were all pumped up.
Brother Ma then delivered a passionate speech for another ten minutes before telling everyone to return to work.
There was no other choice. The platform's business was extremely busy. Taking out ten minutes for a motivational meeting was already the limit for the company. These ten minutes could potentially lead to an unknown number of new problems.
However, as Brother Ma announced that everyone should go back to work, a dozen employees gathered in the lobby, their expressions extremely grim.
"This is bad, I think I made the wrong decision to switch jobs!" one employee grumbled, his words indicating that he was originally an employee of Jiangnan Group.
"No way, 5 billion in 6 days. We worked for Jiangnan for half a year and didn't achieve such results. Doesn't this mean our new company has become the new king of this industry?" someone asked, confused.
"Yes, Brother Ma has become king, and his eighteen arhats will also get shares, but what do we have? Just a meager salary, and it's not even payday yet!" said one of the employees who had switched jobs.
"But the salary they offered us is already quite good, 1.5 times what we got at Jiangnan Group!" someone remarked.
"Good, my foot! My brother-in-law said that although working at Jiangnan wasn't easy, it was definitely manageable. We only worked overtime a few days a month. It's nothing like now, where we're practically living in the company!"
"But this is only for a few days, and it should get better after this promotional period!"
"Heh heh, you guys are thinking wrong. Let me ask you, when our Jiangnan Mall broke the 1 billion yuan total sales mark, how did the boss treat us?"
"He rewarded everyone with three months' salary as a bonus and gave each of us a dormitory at the company headquarters, promising that if we stayed for 20 years, the dormitory would be ours!"
"But now, after breaking the 5 billion yuan mark, all he did was give a few self-important speeches on stage and that was it, with no tangible benefits for us. This is breaking 5 billion, and from this, you can see how stingy our new boss is!"
"Yes, it's too hateful!"
"It's over, I'm already starting to regret it!"
"Oh no, I forgot about the dormitory! Doesn't that mean my wife will be kicked out soon? My child is still studying in Wenzhou, what should I do!"
"..." People often fail to see what they have gained and focus only on what they cannot obtain.
It was as if these employees, who were in a well-paying job at Jiangnan Mall with excellent benefits far exceeding those of other companies, were tempted by a small piece of meat and abandoned their principles. Only after joining the new company did they realize that they might have lost more.
Of course, these employees' lives were destined to be ordinary, so there was no need to dwell on them. The most important thing now was Brother Ma.
These employees were unaware that after Brother Ma had finished his motivational speech with great fervor, his expression instantly collapsed the moment he returned to his office.
A few minutes later, Jin Yuanying entered with a nervous expression and looked at Brother Ma pitifully.
"What's going on?" Brother Ma threw a thick file at Jin Yuanying and said, "The comrades from the GS Bureau are already talking to me, asking me to solve the problem, but I don't even know what's happening. Why haven't customers received their goods after six full days?"
"Also, why did someone buy a box of chocolates, only to receive a lump of melted chocolate? Even more outrageous is this: someone bought a plastic water cup, only to find it shattered into pieces upon opening it!"
"Oh, and there's this: a user complained that they purchased 30 boxes of Jiangnan blind boxes, but upon delivery, the seals on all the blind boxes showed signs of being opened and resealed. Now they're saying that a delivery driver swapped the items inside the blind boxes, and they don't acknowledge these blind boxes, demanding a return and refund!" Brother Ma questioned furiously.
In fact, earlier that morning, Brother Ma was feeling quite happy, as beating the Jiangnan Group on their turf felt incredibly satisfying.
However, around 10 AM, staff from the GS Bureau unexpectedly arrived. They handed Brother Ma over a hundred complaint letters simultaneously and, with a wry smile, told him that these were received within just two days, and all of them were from within Zhejiang Province. They didn't know how many there were from outside the province, but it was rumored that comrades from other provinces had already forwarded relevant complaint letters. Therefore, they estimated that they would have to come again tomorrow to hand over the related information.
Perhaps because the Forty Thieves were now a nationally recognized enterprise, the attitude of these comrades was quite friendly and gentle. They simply asked Brother Ma to properly resolve these issues and appease consumers, and then the matter would be smoothed over.
However, if consumers were to become displeased and attract significant media attention, the situation would become difficult!
So, Brother Ma smiled and sent off the staff, then went back to motivate his employees and called Jin Yuanying, who was responsible for backend customer service, intending to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.
Jin Yuanying quickly took the complaint files, scanned through them, and said with great grievance, "Boss, this has nothing to do with our platform. These are clearly shipping problems. No matter how capable our platform is, we can't control these express delivery companies!"