Customers and Drama.

Some readers may know about the drama that has taken place in the SL fashion community. Alaska Metropolitan has a related blog post. It's not about the drama per se, but it says something I think is important.

Respect your customers.

It's pretty obvious to me that some SL content creators don't, sometimes it's little things, sometimes it's big thing. Sometimes it might even be something as simple as how easy it is to find what you're looking for in the content creator's store.

Sometimes I think the smaller designers are better at customer service because theire sales are so much lower, they have to be responsive. A single lost sale is a bigger chunk of their proceeds than some super huge "everybody buys from them" store.

The designers that I hype up here have some things in common and one of them tends to be good customer service.

For example, Tete a Pied sells skins, they have demos like everyone else does, but when you get the demo, it has a demo of EVERY skin in the shade you chose. That's right every makeup. There's no trying on a single demo of a sinlge makeup like some other places, there's no guessing, you can see what each and every makeup looks like on you. And I as a customer appreciated that...a LOT. Tete a Pied does custom work for a reasonable fee too. Want red brows, no problem, want freckles, yes indeed. The store is a very pleasant place to shop too, bright cheery. I can't say enough good things about Tete a Pied, that makes me a very satisfied customer.

And those changes in the appearanceTete Deux are there because of customer feedback. Roslin and CJ listened to their customers. Let me repeat that important thing, they listened.

Or take OPIUM, I love OPIUM Everyday. Do you know why? It's quality, reasonably priced clothing that looks "nice". It's hand drawn but it looks "real" And much of it comes with tintable versions alongside the standard colors.

I saw a top in the store once, looked at it, liked it but would have preferred a different color. Then I noticed that it was tintable! That top went smack dab in my inventory, so did the skirts, and the track suit. That's thinking of the customer and their needs and wants. Have you seen the new tank/cami? It covers the belly button! It's assymetrical! It shows just enough cleavage but not too much! It's sitting in my inventory! In other words it looks "nice" and I ought to blog about it.

Alaska does Skin too. Reasonably priced quality skin. Skin that she will customize for a reasonable fee, want extra eyeliner, done. different lippie, done. With a store that is nicely organized and pleasant to shop in. Look at those displays, look at her ads in general.

And both OPIUM SKIN 2.0 and Tete a Pied (along with HoseQueen of Panache) have done something that most of the other skin makers haven't done. Quality newbie skin. Quality CHEAP/FREE newbie skin. We all know that Skin is one of the problems of the default avatar appearance and they've done something about it. Think of all those newbies out there who appreciate what those three skin makers have done. It's not only good PR it's also just simply a nice thing to do.

Or take the Fiendish 3, they've released a nice top recently called Alta, you can buy individual ones for 10L, that's right 10L And they're cute and I think some other places might sell this sort of thing for a 100L. Not only that, but if you're a member of the Fiendish 3 group, you got one for free That's customer appreciation AND good marketing. Customer puts on cute top with the extemely flattering neckline, goes to store, buys the equivalent to the "Willow pack". Why not, it's pocket change!

Or Sylfie Minogue, from whom I ordered some custom shoes. She asked that I come to her location for delivery. She told me to look the shoes over and make certain they're what I wanted. She asked questions about certain aspects too and asked me about additional colors I might like. Which I did. I thought the shoes were perfect. but apparently they weren't perfect enough for Sylfie because a couple days later she IM's me that certain nagging flaws that she had noticed had been fixed and she had some updated ones for me. Flaws? I couldn't see them, but apparently she did. Perfectionism and good customer service.

Trust me, customer service is extremely important even in SL (Marketing too, but that is another story)