Wrapped Up In My Product

Everyday I am trying to figure out how to produce a better product. Better ingredients, better customer service – putting my best business foot forward, as it were.

I look very intently at how other businesses run, how they look, what attracts me as a customer and what repels me. At the top of the list is customer service. If that is sucks, then your endeavor is down the tubes. It may work for large corporations, but not for the small business owner. And it shouldn’t.

One of the challenges I faced early on was finding a name and an identity for my business. I knew that my ideal business would bring in the aspects of what I loved the most...and what I loved was the beach. The sun, the sand, the proximity to nature. If you have not awakened to the sound of ocean waves against the sand, you haven’t lived.

My son and I make regular trips to the Chesapeake Bay, about an hour away from our home along the Eastern Shore. The water is so basic and so simple. It was that lifestyle I wanted to impart in our product: simplicity. So it was a logical name for something so important to me.

Once my soaps leave the mold and it is time for me to cut them into bars, they also have to packaged. I do that myself. Initially I chose craft boxes I found on the Internet. But it left me somewhat cold. They didn’t allow the client to feel or smell their contents. It distanced them from the product. I didn’t want that.

So I decided to shrink wrap them in clear wrapping, then surround them with a plain brown band with the company name and tag line.

It worked.

The clients I had over the holidays enjoyed the bars they purchased and they looked wonderful in the gift baskets I created.

A lot of the feedback I received from Web sites with forums suggested product wrapping that was clearly low-tech, but those recommendations lacked the professional edge I craved. So it was one of those times I had to seek out professional help.

I contacted a printing company and explained to the sales representative exactly what I wanted. He was able to create what I had in my mind’s eye and I immediately saw potential. As my company grows, I will be able to take that wrapper and expand it into different colors, keeping the low-tech feel, but preserving the smell and texture experience for my clients.

I have been reading Joseph A. Michelli’s book, “The Starbucks Experience: Five Principles For Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary.” Michelli talks about how something as simple as a cup of coffee was turned into a cultural icon through two things: customer experience and customer service.

Both concepts keep customers returning.


Kathy A. Gambrell
Founder
ChesapeakeBayBathandBody.com