Recently, I had a wonderful buying experience with Melissa of Brag About It on Etsy. Melissa makes beautiful hand stamped, customizable jewelry.
I reached out to Melissa to have her make a customized necklace to celebrate a good friend’s birthday and pregnancy and Melissa delivered exactly what I wanted and exactly what I had visualized in my mind. I was thrilled, and so was my friend, Haley. She reacted by sending me a note saying that the necklace was “So AWESOME” and that “I couldn’t get it around my neck fast enough.”
As a token of my appreciation for Melissa's beautiful work (and since I’m still trying to refine my photography skills) I took the picture featured above and included it in my buyer feedback on Etsy as a buyer appreciation photo (I love the buyer appreciation photo feature within Etsy). This triggered Melissa to send me the nicest note thanking me writing a kind comment and for taking the picture. This made me so delighted… as a buyer, especially within the handmade community, I feel a moral obligation to tell an artist if I love what they’ve made and to me, that is the beauty of handmade. You are able to connect and thank people personally for what they do and support them by spreading the word about what they sell. When they engage back with you, it just makes you further committed to them. This is what I call “buyers becoming your ambassadors” and I am now a totally committed ambassador of Melissa's and her store, Brag About It.
This “buyer ambassador” concept can also create a domino effect when an ambassador evangelizes about you and your products and thereby creates new followers (or ambassadors) for you. In this case, Melissa is a lucky girl because the recipient of my necklace, Haley is one connected girl who will no doubt share her necklace and it's maker with the world.
I now consider Melissa to be one of my creative online friends, which is such a blessing. AND, Melissa has been kind enough to volunteer making the same necklace for one of our lucky readers who leaves a comment through July 20th. We would love to hear your stories of wonderful handmade buying experiences so feel free to share links to the stores you purchased from, tell us a little about them and why you love them. Here’s your chance to be an ambassador for someone who has provided you with a great buying experience. Enter a comment below and you'll be eligible to win. We’ll use Random.org to pick a winner of Melissa's beautiful necklace next Wednesday, July 20th! Good luck!
RSS
Email
Add your Comment!
8 Comments
Networking is great, I love Melissa's work!
I love Melissa's work. She is just amazing.
I could not agree more. I have been on both sides of this equation and still keep in touch with many people I have bought from and who have bought from me. Whenever I use the thing I bought, I have an actual person to connect it to. It just makes life better.
Networking makes the world (and the internet) go round! Great story here.
Fabulous post! I noticed an increase in facebook fans and in orders when someone posted a fan photo on my page. Beautiful necklace!
As a designer (and of course a consumer) I found this tale very heartwarming! I always love hearing of support for small businesses and what wonderful relationships the internet is able to create.
This is so classy! Thanks for the support and love for us tiny businesses.
How marvelous! I've bought several pieces from Courtney Chu, and I've always been delighted with them. She knows my individual taste, so buying from her feels like buying from someone I know, even though I've never met her. http://courtneychu.blogspot.com/