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Below is a letter I wrote back in December. I chose not to publish at that time as I felt people would see it as a list of excuses, but I'm publishing it now in hopes of giving everyone an insider's view into my situation.
AC Forum Members:
I appreciate your frustration and impatience with my customer service lately and I’m posting this letter here to help you understand what is going on with me and my business.
This September I accepted a job with a living history museum in Virginia. I took this job after much thought about the future of my family and the future of my business, it wasn’t an easy choice, but in the end, I feel it was the right course for me to take. At that time, I took certain steps to change the business format:
I tried the best I could on the short notice I had to come up with a plan which would allow me to slow down the business, work on back orders, reduce paperwork and keep in contact with you.
Imagine pulling on the emergency brake at 70mph – the car will slow down, but it ain’t pretty. After 11 years of running the business at full speed, I am suddenly pulling the emergency brake. I’ve never tried running this business while holding a full-time job, and here are some of the issues I face that are directly affecting you:
Looking ahead:
Call me, or tell me when I can call you. You can reach me between 8-10 pm est, Monday-Friday at 757-229-2834.
Best of luck to you all in 2008,
Christopher J. Daley
AC Forum Members:
I appreciate your frustration and impatience with my customer service lately and I’m posting this letter here to help you understand what is going on with me and my business.
This September I accepted a job with a living history museum in Virginia. I took this job after much thought about the future of my family and the future of my business, it wasn’t an easy choice, but in the end, I feel it was the right course for me to take. At that time, I took certain steps to change the business format:
- NO NEW ORDERS: The day I accepted the position I posted an announcement on all relevant forums and on my website that I was no longer going to take new orders after 9/15/07. I did this to give everyone enough time to place any orders they were planning on placing and to give a grace period to my long time and loyal customer base. I set the deadline so I could work on current back orders. I felt I owed it to customers to give them once last chance before I cut them off from custom orders.
- REDUCED PRODUCT LINE: On 9/16/07 I eliminated about 80 different items from my offerings. These items were eliminated for a variety of reasons including profit margin and popularity. After the current orders are complete, I hope to build a solid inventory and concentrate on only a few key items.
- PHONE HOURS: Once I started the new job, I set up phone hours: Monday-Friday 8pm-10pm. With the job and the commute, these are the times I can guarantee being near the phone to take your call. However, as Paul Calloway pointed out, these hours are your family time hours. I appreciate that -- they are my family hours as well. (I'm still not sure how to get around that.)
I tried the best I could on the short notice I had to come up with a plan which would allow me to slow down the business, work on back orders, reduce paperwork and keep in contact with you.
Imagine pulling on the emergency brake at 70mph – the car will slow down, but it ain’t pretty. After 11 years of running the business at full speed, I am suddenly pulling the emergency brake. I’ve never tried running this business while holding a full-time job, and here are some of the issues I face that are directly affecting you:
- YOU HAVE MAIL :)…AND LOTS OF IT! :( At 70+ e-mails a day (after spam), my in box quickly grew to almost 1,000. I tried to organize them into categories and priorities as best I could, but I don’t have much time to spend on the computer. I don’t have access to personal e-mail during the day and am limited to checking e-mails only a few hours at night. These are the same hours during which I am sewing your orders and answering your phone calls. I made a choice to concentrate on catching up on your orders instead of catching up on e-mail. Sewing machine vs. computer. Tough choice, and I’m still not sure what the best solution is. Not an excuse, just an insiders look into what’s going on.
- PRODUCTION SLOW DOWN: New job, switching schools, selling a house, moving, the retail store, Cedar Creek, Remembrance Day and supply problems are some of the obstacles I’ve run into while attempting to catch up on your orders. I had planned to have all orders caught up by December 31st, but as the weeks wore that deadline vanished. What I would normally spend 10 hours a day on, was now reduced to 2. Pattern drafting, cutting, sewing, pressing, packing, shipping, bookkeeping, website updates, e-mails, phone calls and purchasing from vendors was all compacted into a small space. It’s like putting 5 silly putty balls into 1 egg. Again, not an excuse, just an insiders look into what’s going on.
- MISSED DEADLINES: I’ve always had missed deadlines, but not like in the last few months. While I did make some people happy at The Outpost gig, Chickamauga and other events, there were far more people at those events still waiting on stuff to arrive. I would tell a customer something would ship, then get delayed in finishing the garment, or run out of buttons, or get caught up at work and not get to the post office during my lunch break. I didn’t mean to miss those deadlines, I just couldn’t keep them for a variety of reasons. Customer service has never been my strong suit. After 11 years, 10,000+ transactions and over 4,000 customers, I would argue that the vast majority of those were long in getting to customers. I appreciate your patience, I’m a reenactor too and I know what it’s like to wait and wait for a garment and look in the mail box every day. It sucks. I honestly had no intention of “lying” to people about delivery dates and tried very hard to meet those dates and deadlines. I just didn’t in most circumstances. Again, not an excuse, just an insiders look into what’s going on.
- MULTIPLE ORDERS: One major problem I didn’t anticipate was how quickly stuff would sell once I wasn’t doing this full time. I couldn’t keep up with online sales and update the website quickly enough. For example, 3 people bought the same size 50 NYS jacket within hours of each other. (Since then, I’ve taken down all the ‘add to cart’ and ‘buy it now’ buttons on my website. I’ve also taken down my in stock page until I have more time to maintain it properly.) Again, not an excuse, just an insiders look into what’s going on.
Looking ahead:
- PLEASE USE THE PHONE: Please consider calling me vs. e-mail, PM or posting online. I know some of you spend a lot of time due to your work situation and personal life on the internet. There is much that can be done in this hobby on the internet, but for me, my computer time is limited. I have phone hours which are listed below. If I don’t pickup during those hours, it’s usually because I’m on the phone with another customer, but leave a message.
- DON’T LIKE THE SOUND OF MY VOICE? If you choose not to call me, please understand that I will return your e-mail and PM, but it may take some time. In your initial e-mail, please be very specific with your question – I can answer you more quickly when I have everything I need to check on your order: your full name, exactly what you ordered, when you placed that order, and when I can best reach you.
- FORUMS: I understand the desire to use the forums to communicate and vent your frustration, but there are hundreds of chat rooms and forums out there and I just don’t have time to check in to every one. If you choose to start a thread about me, it may take me some time to respond.
- SUGGESTIONS: I’ve always been behind on orders. Since the day I started in August of 1996 I’ve always had more orders than time. I’m all ears guys, if you can figure out how I can satisfy your needs and not get fired from my job or get a divorce, I need to hear it. Tailor, cutter, seamster, salesman, webmaster, bookkeeper, packer, shipper, receiver, receptionist, customer service rep and purchasing agent are all the hats I wear here. I would really prefer to spend all my time behind the sewing machine catching up on orders, but if anyone can give me a thought as to how I can better serve you, I’d like to hear it. Seriously.
Call me, or tell me when I can call you. You can reach me between 8-10 pm est, Monday-Friday at 757-229-2834.
Best of luck to you all in 2008,
Christopher J. Daley
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