What does Excellent Customer Service look like?

This week was Christmas for me! Over the years, I've read lots of articles and blogs about customer service. I've included many of the ideas in my own shop, craft shows and other venues. This week, I received a package in the mail that was the perfect example of EXCELLENT customer service.

I ordered fibers, decorative yarns, from a seller on Etsy. I want to include some colorful fibers in my mixed media art and as accents in my packages and on my journals I'm making. I spent quite a bit of time on Etsy looking at all the different types and colors of fibers and finally chose a seller that offered a variety of fibers.

After a couple of emails where I explained what I was looking for and she explained what she had, I ordered 2 yards each of 10 different colors/types, and let her choose for me.

I received a brown Kraft envelope and when I opened it, this is when my Christmas in September began. This is what I saw first:



My package was a clear cello envelope wrapped and tied with ivory tulle tied in the center with a pink silk ribbon. Two lovely tags were attached to the center, a vintage image of a little girl and a stamped "Thank you."

As I untied the tulle and ribbon, I found my next surprise - a stack of three beautiful gifts tags in separate cello envelopes. Two tags were chip board and one was a Kraft paper tag with bunnies and glitter. What beautiful freebies!



Then I discovered that each separate color and type of fiber was wrapped on a single, scented Kraft tag and enlcosed in a separate, sealed cello bag:



I carefully unwrapped each fiber package so I could hang up the fibers to let them straighten out. I don't think that ironing them is an option and I also love the look of them hanging in my art studio. Then I realized that I now had a collection of stained, scented Kraft tags that the fibers were wrapped on - tags that I could use for gifts or giveaways. Some of the tags I received were stamped with designs and colors, others were plain, but all were unique and beautiful!



As I unwrapped this package of fibers, it did feel like a Christmas gift. I felt like the seller really cared about choosing my fibers and delivering them to me in a personal way. I sent her a message thanking her for the beautiful fibers and the amazing packages, and asked her permission to share my experience here on MidwestieLady. She agreed, saying:

"Yes, yes, please ---you may ----Blessings to you! I love to sell on Etsy. So my heart and soul goes into all that I do. Thank you so much.
If it inspires or helps, yes ... by all means... I would be honored for sure.
hugs and stay in touch!
Jezelle -very happy!"

Jezelle does put her heart and soul into her shop, MonarchLineage, and I'm sure that every purchase from her is handled just like mine was!

Here they are - my purchase of colorful fibers, including some freebie fiber too!



Thank you, Jezelle, for giving me Christmas in September!

I received a message from Jezelle today, thanking me for posting this article about her, and telling me that she is moving to Maine and will have to temporarily close her shop. So if you stop by to see her shop, it's closed for a bit, but she will open it after she gets settled in Maine. Jezelle, I hope your move goes smoothly!

Linda Harbin
MidwestieLady

A new Group Offer from ArtFire

Recently I've explored the internet checking out different sites that I might use to sell my art. One site I looked at was ArtFire. They don't charge a seller for listings and take no percent out of your sales. I signed up for a studio there a while back, but have never listed any items there. But I plan to now.

THIS WEEK I received an email from ArtFire about a Group Offer. Imagine a Pro Account there with all the features for $5.95 per month-with no costs to list items and no final sale costs!

Here are the details posted on ArtFire:

"We've been keeping a very special promotion tightly under wraps for the last week. Some of you may have been given a few hints or a heads up from the ArtFire Maven team, who we want to thank profusely for helping us ‘focus group’ many parts of this deal and who were on hand when we needed help testing. A big thanks to our Mavens, we couldn’t have pulled this off without you.

ArtFire will be exiting beta very shortly and to celebrate we’re offering, for a limited time only, the chance for up to 50,000 members to lock-in a Pro account for $5.95/month. The initial deal does have a few conditions; mainly that we need a minimum of 20,000 people to opt in at the $5.95 rate before we can give anyone this incredible rate. We want to be very clear, by opting in you are not getting a $5.95/month Pro account right away. Your information is securely stored and will not be charged unless the deal is on. If we don’t meet the minimum threshold, nobody gets a $5.95 account, your credit card isn’t charged, and your existing account and any associated subscriptions will not be affected."

I've spent quite a bit of time on ArtFire this week, checking out this Group Offer, reading in the forums, looking at what is selling there, and comparing the costs of having an Etsy shop with an ArtFire studio. Sellers there don't renew, so I wouldn't have costs of renewing daily like in my Etsy shop.

Stay tuned...I'll be setting up my ArtFire studio in a few days, and learning the ropes over there.

Come on over and check it out: http://www.artfire.com/

Linda