Customer Relations

When I started out in this business it really was just a hobby. I had made too much soap and needed a place to sell it so I could make more. The fact that anyone bought it and encouraged me to make more is really amazing to me. I look back and I think my first bars just sucked.

But I got more than I expected over the years. I didn't expect customer relations to actually include real relationships. Some of my best and closest friends I have met through my business. I have watched young couples bring by their new children and those children grow up (some are now in high school). Some who where in high school when I met them are grown and have children of their own. I have received sad letters and emails telling me of the passing of loyal customers as well.

I have made friends with other artisans, promoters, and their families. I have knit blankets for new babies, attended weddings, and even a few funerals.

I didn't expect to have what we now call my "soapy family". I didn't expect to see people so often, to care about them so much, or to have them care about me. Some of this has come with the rise of social media, where everyone can stay in better touch due to technology. But even before the rise of Facebook, I saw a web of relationships that I am grateful for.

I feel as though I run my business and my life in the essence of the old fashioned way. I don't advertise, I rely on word of mouth. I rely on people giving my products as gifts and introducing new people to me. I rely on my customers giving birth and raising my next generation of customers. There are children now that have never really used anything other than handmade soap and that fact will be what keeps our little industry strong into the future.

On the days that I am tired, that I am sick, or that I am just frustrated, it is the customers that keep me going. I started out doing this for me, and now I do it for you.