For all you soapmakers, how do you know that people like your soaps? I mean, they may be in awe of your soapmaking abilities and gush over your endless creativity. They may buy soaps from you in such quantities that you wonder if they experience most of life from within the confines of a bathtub.
But don't you sometimes still have lingering doubts? Do your customers just sense your desperate need for positive reinforcement? Do they hope that their financial support will enable you to take a vacation and get away from the lye fumes that have obviously affected you? Or do they simply feel pity for their friend who whiles away the time combining quantities of oils and liquids with stuff that cleans out drains and thinks it's the funnest thing ever?
I thought I'd offer two foolproof indicators that your customers really, truly love your soaps.
1. They use it up. Literally. One of my regular customers said that she needed soap because she was down to a sliver of her last bar. To demonstrate her desperation, she presented me with the sliver, a generous term. To keep it from sliding down the drain, she'd placed it in one palm and rubbed it with the finger of her other hand. (We can safely assume that a friend held up a magnifying glass to enable her to complete this operation.) I sent her on her way with not only several bars, but also a stack of scrap chunks and ends to ward off another soap crisis.
2. A picture will suffice here....
Is this evidence of an irresistable bar of soap, or what? I didn't discover it until I was setting up for an indoor farmer's market and must have happened the previous week at a craft show. After examination and consultation with the other vendors, we determined it must have been done by a child. I think it should be noted that my friend's honey products on the neighboring table remained unscathed, so I feel even more honored. The typical polite comment of a browser at a craft show is "Oh, your soaps look good enough to eat." And to some, apparently, it is.
A sidenote: Recently a woman remarked that my soaps looked too good to eat. It makes you shudder to think of what she does with homely soaps, doesn't it?
But don't you sometimes still have lingering doubts? Do your customers just sense your desperate need for positive reinforcement? Do they hope that their financial support will enable you to take a vacation and get away from the lye fumes that have obviously affected you? Or do they simply feel pity for their friend who whiles away the time combining quantities of oils and liquids with stuff that cleans out drains and thinks it's the funnest thing ever?
I thought I'd offer two foolproof indicators that your customers really, truly love your soaps.
1. They use it up. Literally. One of my regular customers said that she needed soap because she was down to a sliver of her last bar. To demonstrate her desperation, she presented me with the sliver, a generous term. To keep it from sliding down the drain, she'd placed it in one palm and rubbed it with the finger of her other hand. (We can safely assume that a friend held up a magnifying glass to enable her to complete this operation.) I sent her on her way with not only several bars, but also a stack of scrap chunks and ends to ward off another soap crisis.
2. A picture will suffice here....
Is this evidence of an irresistable bar of soap, or what? I didn't discover it until I was setting up for an indoor farmer's market and must have happened the previous week at a craft show. After examination and consultation with the other vendors, we determined it must have been done by a child. I think it should be noted that my friend's honey products on the neighboring table remained unscathed, so I feel even more honored. The typical polite comment of a browser at a craft show is "Oh, your soaps look good enough to eat." And to some, apparently, it is.
A sidenote: Recently a woman remarked that my soaps looked too good to eat. It makes you shudder to think of what she does with homely soaps, doesn't it?
My soap dish is getting close to looking like that! Luckily I still have 2 bars in reserve. I hate to run out!
ReplyDeleteHee hee! I bet you can go through soap quickly with all those little hands using it! :)
DeleteDo you need the better approval and nicer commliment than your No.1 indicator for moving you on? I think you're getting enough signals form outhere: just keep working!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Diva! :) I love making soap and it's even nicer when someone likes to use my soap. Both of these incidents happened in the past week and they made me laugh, so I had some fun writing a silly kind of post.
DeleteThat's too funny about the lady who thought your soaps were too good to eat. You often wonder what is going through their mind. I remember when I first started soaping and I had made a cupcake soap and before I could stop them, someone came up and took a huge bite! They knew from that first bite that it wasn't as sweet as it looked.
ReplyDeleteGetting a mouthful of soap has to be a huge let-down, doesn't it? I teased a young boy and asked him if he wanted one of the gingersnap cookie soaps I made for BB's Givember. He eyed the plate, carefully touched one, then looked at me and said, "I don't know!" (He's a smart one!)
DeleteAlways a pleasure to find teeth marks in your soap! LOL!
ReplyDeleteIt's a compliment of the highest kind, isn't it? :)
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