Consumer Maven

Cliptomania Clip on Earrings: Revisited

I love businesses that not only try to "get it right" but do things so well that they create customer evangelists.  I've written about Cliptomania before, but after a recent experience with them, I felt it only appropriate to revisit this small and growing company.

We recently  interviewed Candy Santo, one of the owners of Cliptomania and would like to share our interview with you.  For the uninitiated, Cliptomania is the place on the Internet to find ear rings for us girls who do not have pierced ears.  They not only have a stellar selection for all ranges of budgets, but an equally interesting selection in terms of colors, gemstones, and fashion needs.

Consumer Maven:  Can you tell me more about when and how you got started?  What was your inspiration for  starting your business???

Candy Santo:  The idea for Cliptomania arose from my husband's attempt to find me  nice earrings for our 30th anniversary in 1998.  We were living in the New York metropolitan area and not only could he not find anything, but they laughed at him at Macy's.  He thought that maybe this was a need that an Internet store could fill.  Our oldest was already out on his own and our daughter was in college and he thought a small Internet business would be a good counter to the empty nesting. 

After a year of study and planning, we opened our online store on Thanksgiving Day 1999.  Looking back, we were so naive that it is a miracle that we are still in business!  Had we tried it just 2 years later when online selling had taken off and start-ups were much more difficult and expensive, we're pretty sure it wouldn't have worked.   It helped that neither of us quit our day jobs and business was light enough then that our daughter could help while continuing her studies. One of our best assets, however, was my several decades of non-profit management which provided a good knowledge base for growing our little business.

Consumer Maven:  Are you in  partnership or sole proprietership?  What are your overall goals in terms of business growth?

Candy Santo:  Where we are now with a customer base of approximately 20,000 is something we never imagined and on most days more than half our customers are first timers so it looks like there's more growth ahead.  In addition to the 3 owner/operators (Christy & I are now full-timers & then some) Cliptomania - an LLC - employs 2 full-time and 5 part-timers.

Our primary goal is to be the Kleenex of clip earrings.
Secondary goals are:
... to provide a range of styles that makes it possible for a customer to find at least 2 pair of earrings they want to buy whenever they come into our store; 

... to image and describe the earrings in such a way that the customer gets what they expected (that this goal is being attained is demonstrated by the fact that less than 5% of what we sell is returned to us.)

... to provide outstanding customer service, giving customers the feeling they are shopping in a good local jewelry store

We couldn't meet these goals - particularly the range of products offered - if we were making them ourselves. So at any given time I'm dealing with at least 40 manufacturers, importers and designers.  I have a core group that have been key parts of our success as they have been willing and able to provide products that meet the unique needs of an Internet store.

Thank you Candy, and thanks for a great shopping experience!!

Cliptomania:  http://www.cliptomania.com

The Consumer Maven isn't the only fan here!  Check out the Tamale Chica Chronicles for another customer evangelistic perspective.

UPS Quality of Service

I'm sitting in my office when I hear the UPS truck pull up.  We are, for the record, in 60625.  Up to two years ago, we had UPS service that was so good that I'd always request orders be shipped UPS.  No more.

During the time when we had a high level of service, it was the absolute best service imaginable.  Back then, our driver was this incredibly hard working man named Jesus.  We also had many hard working substitute drivers, including one named Lionel.  And then there was Curtis, who generally has provided us the opposite level of service, and I use the term 'service' loosely. 

This is a UPS driver who refuses to bring packages upstairs.  When we've asked him to bring them upstairs, he refuses.  He chooses to dump them in the foyer, which is unsecured.    Most of the time he doesn't even bother to ring the doorbell.  Notes requesting him to ring the bell, or to deliver heavy packages to the appropriate floors have been ignored.  The worst time was when this particular driver dropped a 50 pound case in the foyer and when we called to have it brought up, he refused. 

Requesting a delivery pick-up isn't much better -- this person has blown off pickups several times, and when we check on line there's some story about being unable to do the pick up request.  This excuse shows up despite someone being here WAITING for the delivery pickup.  Have we complained??? YES absolutely. 

December 2007 rolled through and we were cringing at the thought of more Curtis "deliveries" but for some odd and wonderful reason, the UPS Santa delivered Arnold to us for the holidays.  Arnold was another driver par excellence, and another hard worker, with impeccable manners and providing excellent delivery service. Unfortunately they took Arnold away from our route, and instead of our regular guy Sergio, all too often we are still stuck with lousy delivery service.  With inconsistent and usually lousy UPS service, it's hard not to want to call FedEx for package delivery service.

Our  experience with UPS in the last two years has been very inconsistent, from stellar to very poor.  Poor service in the package delivery service is not a service level to aspire to.   

John Okumura

I was sad to hear about John Okumura, a man who lived honestly, honored his committment to quality and was one of the best of his generation of architectural woodworkers.  We recently found out about a memorial website that was done by the family, and we'd like to share it with you.  The beauty of the work that he produced is more than evident, as he put his energy and life force into all of his creative endeavors.  He is, as one of his past employees commented, considered the "Mr. Miyage of Japanese architectural woodworking."  Click here to check out the memorial website of the work of John Okumura.  Our heartfelt condolences to the family.  Because of what he did for a living, we are grateful that there is certainly one of his works, the Japanese wood joinery and gate at Osaka Gardens in Chicago's Jackson Park, that we can all enjoy.  The beauty and splendor of traditional wood joinery, right here in Chicago...who knew???