[Jewelry making - Article 01486] - Re: [Orchid] Companies and Customer Service

[Thomas Janstrom]

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    I'd just like to say I agree with this, we have had to change the
    way we the "small" guys (and yes I know some of you are rather big
    fish, but I'm not one) have had to work and "behave" in the market
    place just to keep pace with the big chains. 

    I have had to educate my customers (most of whom just keep on
    returning to me for the art I create) on the difference between my
    pricing and that of the chains, at first when I started charging more
    realistically for my work (I found two years ago I was just barely
    covering materials as my work load increased), which put me quite a
    bit over the prices charged by the chain stores, this came as a bit
    of a shock to some of my long standing customers, but after sitting
    down with them and explaining (educating them) to them what was what
    etc. I now find that my customer base has not stayed the same, it has
    grown, all through word of mouth. 

    To that end I value my reputation, and so I take an hour or two each
    day to make sure that my correspondence is all up to date and that
    the news letter goes out when it should etc. Yes it takes a chunk out
    of the day that I could be making stuff in, but I find that the
    "reward" for giving up this bit of time is a lot of jobs that just
    wouldn't have come my way other wise. So in my book there is no
    excuse to not reply to email/phone calls etc, just as there is little
    room/time for "bad mouthing" those who for what ever reason find it
    hard to do this themselves. 

OK ramble over.

Cheers, Thomas.
Janstrom Designs.
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