Meet the team

A little while ago I introduced myself, admittedly not looking my best in an anti-ageing facemask. However, it's worth noting that there are more members of this staff. Firstly (and you won't see them unless I manage to do some super-secret photography) are Sue, Kayleigh and Lucy.

Sue runs the show. It's her baby. She started out selling beauty products and when the companies she sold for started asking for her customers' opinions, she realised she could make a business out of it. I wouldn't say anything negative about her in case I lost my job, but I also wouldn't say anything negative about her because she's an attentive, thoughtful, and generous boss. She cares about her employees more than she cares about her company. At the same time Sue is also an energetic and inspiring business woman, who can see creative ways around issues. All this adds up to someone who is respected by both her clients and those who work for her.

Kayleigh is Sue's right-hand woman. She effectively keeps the company going by speaking to clients on a day-to-day basis, keeping all of us workers in line, and generally organising everything. Sue may be the head of the company, but Kayleigh is the backbone; without her support the company would most likely flop!

In charge of the money is Lucy. She's a bubbly and funny girl, and keeps us all laughing with her antics. But any time we have a problem with wages, or holiday, or sickness... she's there for all of us, ready to sort it out.

Co-heading the Social Networking Campaign for Clicks Research is Millie (or Milz as she prefers). She's in charge of the Facebook side of things and runs a tight ship. She's also a fantastic singer and is currently building a recording studio in her free time! The entire campaign has been a collaboration between me and her, and I have to admit that she sometimes sees the solutions far quicker than I do!

 Meet some of our intrepid interns! From left to right: Mohammed, in charge of the Arabic countries; Esme, representing China; Vinay, heading up all activities in India; Milz, you've already heard about her. We have others as well, some who come into the office, others who work from their respective countries or from their dorm rooms at University (we have close links with the University of West England who help us get in contact with foreign students for the purposes of translating and marketing in their home-countries).

Here you can see Mohammed and Vinay admiring the chickens! Yes, in our garden out the back of the office we have a pen containing hand-reared chickens. They're tame, produce eggs, and are a constant source of amusement when we let them out to peck away at the grass.

In this image you can see Ollie (in front) and Jess (in the background). They're part of our team who keep the products flowing out of our office and building up the questionnaires that our volunteers fill in. Ollie's looking unusually menacing in this photo. Jess didn't know we caught her on camera.

Finally, this is Jack. He's taking a week's holiday at the moment so he can't see what we write about him here! In all honesty, he's a great fella, as is Ollie. In fact, you'll never meet a nicer bunch of people than when you come into our office here in Somerset. Jack is also a member of the admin team, helping build questionnaires and send products out.

That's the whole office staff introduced. Hopefully you feel more inclined to accept free products off of us now! If you do, please visit http://www.clicksresearch.com/ and sign yourself up for product trials. Remember, all we ask is that you fill in the questionnaires after the trial, and in return you get to keep any remaining product.

I'm ready for my close-up!

Although old news in the office, this is an exciting announcement for the company - we have just brokered a deal with an American company to have a televised advertisement of our service broadcast nationally in the United States! The advert will involve a wide range of women receiving a goody-bag of cosmetic and beauty products from some of our clients. Not only does it give the American audience an idea of the kind of products that we trial (admittedly, most of our work is based on the cosmetic and beauty product market) but also gives some of our clients some free advertising in the USA. All we're asking of them is to help towards the cost of shipping their items to the States. Personally, we think it's a deal for them - the cost of sending the products compared to how much they would have to spend on getting their brands on the screen is a major draw.

The main point is that we're getting on television, so hopefully we'll see more action from across the pond. On another note, we've been working like sweatshop workers to get a load of questionnaires built for one of our larger clients. Will you be one of the volunteers who ends up filling one in? http://www.clicksresearch.com/

The German offer and the Australian link

For the final working day of the week we've started out with a busy morning. A hunt was arranged in our packing shed for any spare products, leftovers, unwanted etc. Basically, any cosmetic and beauty products that would be available to people of any skin-type that would also fit into a tiny package. Why? A special offer for our current German volunteers.

Our German volunteers have been given a message - get a friend to sign up with us at http://www.clicksresearch.com/ and we'll send you a free beauty item! We managed to find mascaras, lip gloss, anti-ageing wrinkle diffusers... all sorts of cosmetics for any person.

But why do this for our German volunteers and not for our British ones? Or Japanese? The reality is that although we can start trials in Germany, we need more to sign up to ensure we have a wider and more varied sample for trials. Admittedly we need more in all of our countries, but we are focussing on the German market while we have our German intern in.

In other news, we're setting up links with Australia. In particular, we're looking to start trials for sun cream there (for obvious reasons). Facebook groups and Twitter pages have been set up and they're easy to sort out because they don't need to be translated!

Going global

"May you live in interesting times." Well, we certainly are at the moment. A selection of free products were sent to volunteers in Japan at the end of last week and so they're probably there now. Haven't heard anything yet, but we don't plan to either. A similar package has also been sent over to China. Interestingly, we've been met with challenges with both of the countries. Understandably, there are limitations and licenses that have to be bought to send products into the countries, and without the help of our Chinese and Japanese interns we'd have been scuppered.
Another package will be going out to Germany with a trial of face masks, the lucky Germans! I'm currently sat next to our German intern as she translates questionnaires into her language ready for our volunteers over there.
Though this might seem like small-fry news, its exciting for us. This is the start of some truly global work - although the freebies going over to China and Japan aren't actual trials, they'll get people signing up for ACTUAL trials.
Not only this, but we're setting up to get in touch with potential volunteers in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Canada. We're all getting worked up (in a good way) about all these developments, and I think that we deservedly should be! We're starting to see ourselves moving away from a UK-centric company towards being truly global.

Also, in a little footnote, if you haven't already done so, please sign up as a volunteer for trials at http://www.clicksresearch.com/

A volunteer visits

Just a quick post. One of our pretty little volunteers came in and we convinced them to try on a free face mask. They described it as "refreshing". We described it as something that should only be worn in private.

Many thanks go out to this volunteer who has asked not to be named and shamed. However, they did look fabulous after the face mask was removed, and their skin felt absolutely divine.

Inside the office

This blog promised to show the human (and inhuman) side of the company, and finally we can do this for you. We spent a bit of time getting trigger-happy with the camera and now have some photos for you all to see.

Here we have the lovely Esme, our Chinese intern. She's just come back from a holiday in Italy and is hard at work at catching up on some translating work. She treated us all with some Swiss chocolate she bought when she popped over the border.

This here is Bobby. He's a stud. He's a techno-whiz. He refused to show his face. He's currently looking into online advertising, comparing prices etc.

This is Rolly, pretending that she's in charge of the social networking campaign... as she stole my chair. I couldn't bring taking her off it. Look at those eyes...

And looking like something from a horror film is me. I thought it would be interesting to try out one of the anti-ageing fabric face masks we had lying around. I have to say, after using the face mask I have no wrinkles on my face at all!

Keep following our blog for more insights into our company, who works for us, and how we work. While you're at it, why not sign up as a trial volunteer at http://www.clicksresearch.com/ ? There's no obligation and you can receive free items simply for testing them!

Great for us

During a session of packing and stacking beauty items, I discovered a literal treasure trove of spare products. I know that normally these can be sent out to prospective volunteers to encourage them to sign up, but they're also available to us as staff members.

Today I'll be going home with face masks, body oil, mascara and lip balms. Sometimes the little perks can make all the difference to a job, and this perk will set me up nicely for a while.

The Saga Begins

Today marks the start of the Clicks Research UK blogging activity. How successful this is or whether it's worth doing at all remains to be seen. Nevertheless...

If you're wondering what Clicks Research UK is, then you can go on http://www.clicksresearch.com/ and sign up and find out for yourself, or you can read this. We're the public face of a company that sends out products to be trialled and tested by the public. We have thousands of volunteers already, but we always welcome more. We send out trials for all sorts of products: cosmetics, beauty products, household cleaners, clothes, shoes, food, drink... If somebody wants a product tested by the public, they come to us.

Add to all of this that we have franchises in countries across the globe, and it all adds up to global products being tested globally! Well... that's the theory. The reality is that we have a major need for volunteers from most countries and we decided the way to get them was to go on a "Social Networking Campaign" (cue fanfare).

We hope people follow this, we hope you enjoy it and get to learn some more about the company's business and the amazing people that work in our UK office.