Last week I posted a survey on my Facebook page and the feedback, suggestions, and ideas were FABULOUS!!! Thank you to all of you who took your time to help me improve my shop! It was such a fun and positive experience I can't wait to have another one!!!
One suggestion that several of you had was a customer loyalty program. I absolutely LOVE this idea! I have been working on this idea and am struggling to find the easiest way to make it work for all of us, so now I need your help again!!!
I love getting my little card punched at my local quilt shop...always reminds me that I have some free fabric coming my way - love this! Since we don't have the face-to-face card punching option, I need a way to implement a program that gives all of you this same happy "Whoo hoo, Free Fabric" feeling with your packages! My only requirement is for a program that is not time and labor intensive for me! I have a very limited amount of time (like ALL of us!) so I need a customer loyalty program to be very simple and straight-forward, without any additional bookkeeping for me.
My thought is this: with each purchase I will send you "Diva Dollars" with your package. I can either have specific "This many Diva Dollars buys you this much fabric" guidelines, or they can have a dollar value in my shop. Which would you prefer?
As for redeeming your "Diva Dollars" I could either ask that you mail them to me and I would then apply your credit to a custom listing, OR, you could text or e-mail me a picture of your combined "Diva Dollars" and then I would apply them to a custom listing. I want a program that rewards all of you fabulous people who buy my fabric, but with instant gratification and no bookwork. Yes, I would like to have a lollipop and world peace too, but for now I'll focus on a loyalty program!
Do you see that I'm totally stuck!?! Ugh, really looking forward to your suggestions on this topic!!!
If you read this and have an even better idea to this "Diva Dollars" concept PLEASE share! I absolutely adore all of you and feel like I've made so many new friends all over the world, which has been the happiest bonus about starting my shop! Seriously, you all are the BEST and I can't wait to start up a program to benefit your loyalty and fabric addictions! ;-)
To offer your ideas or suggestions please leave a comment on this post. You can comment using your name, your shop name, or completely anonymous - please do what is most comfortable! If you use your shop name, by all means please include your shop website so my followers can check you out! Free advertising!
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On a separate topic, SEVERAL mentions were made about International shipping! Enough mentions that I want to address it so you all have some answers!!! Shipping fees for First-Class Mail are 100% based on the weight of the package. In the US, anything over 2 yards has to ship Priority Mail for $4.95, because First Class Mail is SO much more expensive! Yes, 2 Yards will ship for $3.50 within the US, but as soon as I add a Fat Quarter, it is $4.95! I don't like this, but this is the way it is.
As for International shipping charges, the US postal service (USPS) raised Priority Mail envelopes to Canada by $2 to $12.95 and to all other International addresses by $3+ to $16.95 earlier this year. I am outraged by these steep price hikes, but at the same time, my profit margin is so low I don't have the ability to pay these increases myself. The ONE HAPPY BONUS that has come from these price hikes is that I was annoyed enough to figure out how to safely package an additional TWO YARDS of fabric into each Priority Mail envelope! It is amazing what I can do with some ribbon, tissue paper, and some serious arm muscles! Oh yeah, a little "Diva" attitude too! ;-)
For all of the added frustration these shipping increases have caused you, I am sincerely sorry! I am always looking for better shipping options so if you ever learn of a better shipping company and/or options, please send me a note - I will properly thank you, trust me!!!
I am SO honored and humbled by each sale, each time you all choose to shop with me! I am so humbled by your outpouring of love and smiles you send me daily, and I am very eager to start up a customer loyalty program to send some love and smiles right back to each of you! You all are the BEST!!!
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My blog has been sadly neglected the past few months, but the good news is I have several of my customers with FABULOUS shops that I will be featuring very soon, and most of them have amazing tutorials they are going to post! Time to get excited!!!
All the best,
Tayva - StitchStashDiva
I love the idea of a loyalty card :D x
ReplyDeleteI love the loyalty card idea. But the diva bucks sound like they will be time intensive for you. i.e. checking emails etc....
ReplyDeleteWhat if we provided you with some kind of receipt (like the notes you put in your packages)? You could do some kind of "buy 10 get 1 free" deal, and all you'd have to do is write the value/date on your note. Then a customer could place an order and say "cashing in my freebie, see your email" and email you a scan/picture of the 10 receipts/notes :)
ReplyDeleteI think the diva dollars sounds great! It might get tricky having folks email them to you, so I would suggest straight up mailing them, then you could also reuse them to help keep the cost of the program down.
ReplyDeleteIf you wanted to do an email program, you could maybe include small stickers with.packages and have customers collect them on a sheet of paper and date/ photograph the page and email that to you.
Looking forward to what you decide!
Candi
www.ByCeeCee. com
When I go to yoga, we have punch cards that she keeps in a recipe box, filed by name. You could print a whole sheet of cards on card stock,cut out and keep for your customers. that way it is in your hands and you just give their card a punch when they purchase. Include a note on their invoice when they get to 10 and let them know they earned a free yard or whatever your reward system is. Start new card as they redeem.
ReplyDeletei like this idea
DeleteI love the idea of Diva Dollars or like the comment above me diva stickers! I think that'd be a great way to do it as well especially for e-mailing pictures. Makes it harder to copy or duplicate, which hopefully no one would do anyways but ya never know. Whatever you come up with will be great! Can't wait for the loyalty program!
ReplyDeleteMichelle @ GoodiesN2Shoes.etsy.com
What about asking repeat customers to put a link to their sold orders in the comments transaction? Or, even easier, on their 10th sale have them simply write (10th sale) in the comments. Then when you click their name under sold orders, you can look at their order history and quickly verify that they have ordered 10 items in the past.
ReplyDeleteShana
redmorningstudios.etsy.com
I like the idea that you'd keep all the paperwork for us on your end (although, it would seem time intensive at first). If you just had an excel file with the alphabetized list of your customers and the number of orders they'd placed since the start of the loyalty program, that will be paperless and it'd take just a few clicks for you to be sure that no one is taking advantage. They'd have to be pretty hardcore to try and cheat you when you're using a spreadsheet at home! That way, there'd also be no paper going through the mail, and it'd be greener. Once the shopper has 10 sales, you'd just have to scroll to their name and verify.
ReplyDelete-Amanda
Amanda's Hang Ups
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AmandasHangUps?ref=pr_shop
I like SHana's idea. I just checked how i would do it and you can click on your shops name in the purchases section and see the history of purchases. I have 4 seperate purchases now and you must be able to see that as well. The only thing is that you would have to make a note of points being redeemed or people would "have to" redeem point when the reach 10 purchases or something, so with purchase 11 as then it will be easier for you to check.
ReplyDeleteI also suggested the loyalty program in the survey so I glad lots of other think alike.
The Diva dollars, i like but I would do it as emailing will get people to use dollars again or copy them as you dont really see them. Posting them would be good, but from Australia it would take for ever to get there, and what if they get lost.
Maybe on your blog you can get to make an extra section for customers where THEY can put in the orders they have made ( receipt numbers or something) and you just have to add an extra section on the card or receipt how many points they have gained with their purchase.
I dont know if thats possible but if you could do a customer tab in your blog it would be like a punch card you leave at the gym / coffee shop / fabric store..
Anyways.. Good work Tavya !!!
Isabel
Lambandwolfie.etsy.com
What if you create a "Diva Dollars" customer code? That way when someone purchases something they enter in "Diva Dollars" and you keep a tab going. That way after say 9 transactions, the 10th they get a $10 credit. Of course, just like a store it is up to the customer to enter in the code to get the reward. When they reach 10, you can send another customer code like "10 Diva Dollars" that would remove the $10 on their next purchase.
ReplyDeleteJuliana
https://www.bbcollections.etsy.com
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI might be a little late for this, but anyway.
My suggestion is you can send the card just like you said, but instead of asking to send you the coupong via mail or pictures, you could include aunique different code to each coupon, like "A4KD5F77J89LFGL" (just an ecample) something is totally unique, and then tou keep your own list with the codes you have created and the discount or watever it is entitled. So when people purchases they can send you a message with the code and you can apply the code to the custom listing or refund or whatever is best.
Hope it helps!