 I actually don't know how I ended up here, I must be honest. I've been changed to my sewing machine for the last three months and I happen to attend a root commerce meetup and I just self, just confessing. I am completely a root commerce addict, sold out, bang girl, absolutely love it. I would be lost without root commerce. I went to meetup and I just learned some amazing things, which had it to Gareth and Matty and they were like, hey, we're looking for speakers and I'm kind of a sucker for this kind of torture standing in front of a group of people and having to give a presentation, I have no idea why. So I'm really, really so honored to be here today. I'm so honored to just be standing here in front of a crowd of incredible people, each and every single one of you this morning. It's amazing. You're here at World Cam, you're here to learn, you're here to grow, you're here to take your lives to the next level and activating dreams and your ideas and just a big, big thank you to the organizers, the sponsors, the volunteers. Where can you attend an event in Cape Town? 450 round for two days and get this kind of amazing awesomeness. So we are so, so lucky, yeah, so lucky to be here. So I am Claire, Claire Neva, this is my husband over here, Kadyan, and he's actually taking a day off work today to be my support. And he is just the most amazing support to me. I honestly couldn't do what I do without him behind me, backing me all the way. You know, driving a car like a radio room, got a rush to occur a deadline because I had last minute order. So just thanks so much, Kadyan, for all you do for me. And yeah, so I am actually here to thank you. Yes, run away from this. I'm here to infect you with this disease that I am so completely infected with. It's loving your customers, even when they drive you crazy, all right? I completely adore my clients. They are the reason for what I do. Here's a slideshow. It's to distract you from my face while I give this comment, this presentation. But basically, I make photos and suspenders and ties. Sometimes I feel like a superhero in the wedding industry because I often get called on at last minute moments. I had a mom, a mother-in-law, to the bride. She phoned me one afternoon. We have lost the page boy of suspenders and buritai. And she's almost in tears. Claire, please, can you send me another pair by tomorrow afternoon in Jorvik? So I said to her, yeah, we can do this. We'll do that, we'll do that. So I think we're on our way. We had an appointment or I had customers coming. So, you know, I just ripped out the fabric materials and pulled out my order sheets. And we were coming, so I knew that what she'd ordered and what the kid's age was and size, and we did it. We managed to get that buritai and suspenders kit and the mom-in-law didn't get found out. So we saved the day for her because imagine having the bride cry and just hate on the mom-in-law because she'd lost the page boys out there. So sometimes I feel like a superhero. Other days I feel like I never leave the house and actually change my sewing machine but I really am grateful that I get paid to hold fabric. It's actually so incredible. I feel so swell. So basically what I'm gonna do today is share a couple of stories with you. My customers have actually written the content of my presentation today. I'm so lucky. And as I said, I'm in the wedding industry and the way I feel about the wedding industry, I've been in it for about six years. It's like being in a special forces training for customer service. You are never going to meet a more demanding, emotional customer than someone in the wedding industry because you are literally defining a moment in their wedding day which is supposed to be the most magical day of their lives, this glorious experience. And you know what? It's a privilege actually to be in that space. And there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of responsibility. I take that responsibility very, very seriously. There should almost be like as the Socratic oath and medicine, you know, first do no harm. I feel like there should be an oath in the wedding industry. Like enter at risk, at your own risk or something like that. So I really do love it. And we're going to be giving away some bowtimes this morning. Woohoo, yes. There are only six, okay. So I am looking for six people. They're gonna be brave enough to put their hands up at the end of my presentation and ask a question. All right. And don't try to trick questions to me people. All right, I got up early this morning to be here. So be gentle. All right, let's jump right in. Okay. So first thing that I have learned about business is that it's not always about investing money. A lot of people think you've got to invest a lot of money. And yes, it takes money to make money. But one of my core success things basically I have invested a lot of time in my business. I have spent a lot of time learning, trying, failing a lot, a lot of failing, but then a lot of learning and trying again. So I don't know how to do it, but we actually have it two and over, last month's turnover was just over 40K. And that's literally me behind a sewing machine and 30 on there taking care of the rest of life for us or the dishes and the cooking and the courier driving. And I don't advertise. So I feel a little bit like a unicorn in this room because everyone says, how do you get business if you don't advertise? So I can't really talk about how we do that. I don't exactly know how we get it that right. But one thing I know is that we, I've invested a lot of time into my SEO strategy. I've researched it as much as possible. There's so much free stuff available online. So one thing I can say is, you know what? If you don't have a lot of money, don't worry. Just get the things right that you can get right. You know, we're commerce. There's so much to free, WordPress, learning, reading. It's free, it's amazing. So invest heavily in your time. Okay, running a business is a lot like farming. Okay, it's kind of a weird thing, but it really is it's a lot like farming. You reap what you sow and there is no overnight success story in farming. Be prepared for the long haul. Excellent customer service is the least expensive investment you can make every day that will bring the greatest return. Okay, as I said before, I really, really love my customers. Even the mother's toys, the mother-in-law's probably used any mother-in-law's in the room, but I once had a woman who literally she phoned me or she watched at me every five or 10 minutes asking these questions about these low ties and it started to drive me a little crazy. But I just kept bringing the friendliness and answering the questions. And I actually got the most beautiful testimonial from her, her name is Amanda. And I'm gonna have my website details up later. So go onto my website, go into the journal and read Amanda's story. So I'm gonna dive right in. Okay, story and values. Your customers are your greatest teachers and keys to your success. I get my best ideas for designs and new products from customer credits. True story. Actually, my biggest selling product, I did not design an amazing customer who literally one day walked through my door, designed it and it has made me a lot of money. You should have taken out shares or something or get a commission. So I'm gonna tell you the story of Heinrich. Basically, the lesson that Heinrich has taught me that I've learned from interacting with them is that going the extra mile, even when it costs you, can have amazing, amazing returns. So this is Heinrich's testimonial. I drive all my reviews and testimonials to Google Maps. So here, Claire's one of the most helpful and pleasant people we have dealt with during the wedding planning process. She's so efficient and it seems like she will do anything to add something special to her customer's wedding day. We wanted to buy some extra fabric for little heart brooches to match the tie and bow ties we got from her and she immediately gave the details of the store we should got the material from. Inside story, I did not want to actually give them extra fabric, that's why I sent them the fabric store because this fabric actually, it's like a really short run and it's sometimes hard to find amazing, amazing fabrics. I thought, ah, let me send them to the fabric store, see if they come right. I know they are ordering more. Anyway, so then this happened, right? When we let her know that they were out of stock, she offered that we can just come fetch some of the extra material at no charge. This level of customer care is not something you experience every day and it's really added to the fun part of wedding planning. Thank you so much, Claire. So clients can become your greater supporters when you take care of the little things for them. Sometimes it means that you're gonna have a little bit less of your favorite fabric in your stash but that person, Nelly, this is my cat, our cat, our first child, right? So, you totally distracted me now. So when you take care of the little things, okay? Sometimes it costs you a little bit but I have won a fan for life. In fact, I've won a friend. I know you can age you on and they'll hang out with us, they come for dinner and it's amazing. I've written my best, best friends through my business and it's a good thing because I don't really get out to meet people. So, the next scenario, right? This is about warren. So I get a phone call on a Sunday afternoon. How many of you people get clients that phone you at the worst times? It's almost like they don't really realize that other people have lives and families, huh? Late-night phone calls Sunday afternoon when you're trying to nap. They kind of know when to phone you, right? So warren was in a desperate situation. He was so panicked when I answered the phone. He was like completely, completely stressed and so this is basically his story. What do you think? Claire literally saved me loads of stress on my wedding day. The boat has I ordered from another company, never arrived and six days before my wedding, I made contact with Claire. Two days later and I had the boat has in my hands. Yay! The boat has looked even better than the images online and just completed my groomsman's attire perfectly. Claire was super friendly and efficient, which is a combination hard to beat. I would highly recommend Stitched as the look, quality and overall experience was amazing. So what was the lesson there? The lesson was be willing to answer that Sunday afternoon phone call and you know what? Do it with a smile. It's like a hack. You know when you're irritable and angry, just smile and you really can't sound irritable at all. That is my number one hack. Because if you can answer a call and be like, hey, how are you? Wow, great to hear from you. People are like, who is this person? This is amazing. And then you definitely feel like they've got someone they can trust. And how many of you know that when you're dealing in the e-commerce space, that trust, especially with us suspicious South Africans, is vital. I mean, you're asking people to give you money for something that they can't touch or see and they've got a trust that is gonna arrive. So trust is a big, big deal. All right, so that's my tip. Remember that just fake that smile and it'll come through your voice. Okay, and the other thing, this is, I mean, when you're making handmade stuff, I mean guys, like it's always a labor of love. And so there's a lot of work that I have to do to make sure that I'm organized, that I literally can turn on a tiki if my mom says, I don't even know what a tiki is, but you know, to get something done really, really quickly. You know, I have this cabbage, which I've turned into this magical nine-year desk thing. I don't have a photo, but it's amazing. You should pop in sometime or straight. And I've got all my bow ties pre-cut folded everything. So they're there, they're ready to go. They're just ready and waiting. So stay organized. When you're, I don't know how many makers who have in the room, maybe your clients. There are a lot of people in Cape Town who love making stuff, wanna sell it. So if you're gonna be working with a client designing online store for them, give them this tip, say, hey, you know what? Stay as organized as you can, because the quicker you can turn those products around, the faster they're gonna arrive, the happier clients they're gonna be. I know we're all so impatient about stuff. I mean, when we order from take a lot, we just drive there, because we're around the corner, because we don't wanna wait for the courier. So be organized. And if you have, you know, a warehouse you're doing, warehousing, drop shipping, that sort of thing, invest in that kind of software to make sure you've got your stock. Stay organized. It has literally saved my life many times and made me able to deliver amazing value. So this is actually a really cool story. This picture is somewhere in this group of slides, but it was a Friday afternoon and I got this email. Hi, I am urgently looking for men's suspenders, 50 millimeters wide. Question mark, question mark, question mark. I am from Victoria, but currently in Cape Town, needed by today if possible. So I get this email making up, dude, it's Friday afternoon. Do I really wanna respond to this? Like, I wanna just be like, yay, it's Friday, and switch off. But I was kinda curious, why does this guy need it today? What are 50 millimeter wide suspenders? I had no idea what he was looking for, and this is my business. So thankfully he gave his number, so I called him like, hey, Andre, just got your email. Tell me more, what is it you're looking for? Like, I think what's the coolest story for this guy is actually this, like, I don't know, I call them a tactical shooter, I don't know, competitive shooter. But actually there's the sport out there where these guys have guns and they have these targets and it's like in the video games and they have to like jump through obstacles and they've got like microseconds to shoot targets. It's so exciting. So, you know, this guy says, he is looking for a pair of custom made suspenders and he's been like all over, jukebook everywhere, looking and nobody can help him. And I'm like, challenge accepted. So I say to him, right, where are you? Can you come to our home, run my studio? Let's do this, let's make these suspenders for you. And so he rocks up, he's so excited. You know, I pull out the leather and rivets and everything and I have no idea really what he's gonna ask me to do and I love challenges like that. So he rocks up, we design these amazing suspenders for him. I felt like I was building armor for a gladiator and I actually call it, call the suspenders at the gladiator. It was brilliant. I felt so cool like making this stuff because I'm super gaily, I think you can tell. So when I get to do stuff like that, I'm like, oh, you know. So he actually was gonna be in a competition the next day and he was so excited to have these suspenders because maybe Fideon can demonstrate. But think about it, you've got a rig around your waist and it's like five to 10 kgs and you're crouching down and you're jumping and you're crawling and your pants kind of keeps slipping down and time matters, you can't waste time pulling up your pants the whole time. So he's just so excited and he came in second place which was actually a huge deal because it was a national competition. Can you tell I love my clients? Like their stories are like my stories that make me so happy. All right, so then what happens when you get it wrong? Guys, I'll get to Chris, Chris was after. What happens when you fail really badly? I've failed so many times. Okay, it's scary. Now, I had gone overseas and I got a call, an email from a client looking for an item and I said, I'll get in touch with me through next time, I'll be back, I can help you out. I got back from overseas and a member of my family, actually my brother's newborn had died and it was incredibly tragic and devastating and I wasn't actually in that moment in that space able to do my business and it was horrible. I knew I was letting people down, I couldn't get emails, I kept having to email people and say, guys, I'm so sorry this has happened and people were really understanding. But Ray, who'd contacted me like weeks before and was quite an urgent order, I kept forgetting about him and eventually he messaged me and was like, hey, like, are you still gonna do this? And it was major like fumble pie moments. I had to apologize, but I jumped right on it and I got that order out and this is his review. He said, Ray, Snow or World War III, you can rely on Claire to meet your request. What you want is what you get to quality. Okay, this was a person I totally disappointed. I'd actually looked like I didn't care about him, but we turned the situation around. So this is the thing, we can get stuff wrong, guys. Be real, be honest, be human. Like my golden rule is the minute I get an email from someone, I say, hey, this is so amazing. I love you, my dudes. Renan is gonna be so cool. Friendliness is celebrating people. So when you're dealing with, you know, making websites with someone, you know, get excited about their business idea. That's the key to friendliness. And the other thing is when you're friendly, when you're human, it totally sets the tone for when you stop up and you need to ask, I am so sorry, can you give me some grace? People are way more willing to do that. How much time do we have left, Kim? 15 minutes, we're still good, we're still good. Okay. Oh, the other thing. You know how like people can be really scary and nasty in an email and on social media? Like, it's really scary. So, you know, actually we've all had some pretty aggressive emails. You know what I do? I phone people, because guess what? They can't be that aggressive when they're talking to you on the phone, maybe some can, but in my experience, most people kind of chicken out and they become more human with you. So the minute something goes wrong or you know, phone that person, be honest, say, hey, I have stuffed up, but I'm gonna be doing this to fix it. Is this okay with you? How can we work together? It kind of diffuses the tension. So that's my tip, because people can get pretty angry in the wedding industry when you've done something wrong. All right. I had this really cool review from a guy who full disclosure, he actually works for Gumtree. So he's a little bit more jacked on what to expect on online shopping. And I'm just gonna read you a quick portion of his review. So two things made Claire stand out from the crowd. The prompt and professional way in which she handles all communications and the perceived quality, value, and uniqueness of her products. Communication skills might seem like it's less important than providing a quality product, but especially in the world of online shopping, it shapes the perception you have of the business or person that you are dealing with long before you get hold of any of their products. Claire certainly takes a lot of care to ensure their customers are serviced by a transparent, prompt, and professional communication. So I would say a fast and friendly reply is the easiest win of your competition. Because I can promise you, people shop around, they have emailed other people. Be the first to reply, you will be ahead of the game. I have this golden rule. I never open an email or a WhatsApp message unless I'm able to reply straight away. And the other golden rule is that I just reply straight away. I have my phone on data all the time. It's always with me. I'm always accessible. And I take 10 seconds to reply. Literally, I just take 10 seconds. I don't overthink my replies. And the beauty of that is that people feel... See, getting a call from a client. There you go, you got to answer that. So the beauty of that is that people feel really appreciated and respected and you will be gained trust. OK, how many of you live in fear of the bad review on social media? Anyone here, has Facebook got you in terror? Yes, OK. My best friend in all the world. She's a phenomenal designer, internationally known. She got a one-star review on Etsy. That is like every designer's worst nightmare. And the clients happen to be one of those clients that did not read the policies, did not order the right size, did everything wrong and then came back at Anna like it was her fault. Like a ton of bricks. So Anna taught me something amazing is that when you get those really snutty bad reviews you've kind of already lost that person. Like their goal now is just to spew their hatred all over your business. You're not going to win them back. But like in high school, when things go down there's never only just the two of you in the room. There's always a crowd, people watching and wanting to see who's going to get mud on their face, who's going to get punched. So remember, you're not talking to the person who's trying to fight with you. You're talking to the audience who's watching. So when you respond to those bad reviews it's a learning opportunity for your audience. You can basically use it as an opportunity to very politely say what went wrong, why it went wrong. Use it as an opportunity to explain your policies. Well, we have a timeframe, we need these requirements and apologize for going wrong but use it as an opportunity to educate your future customers because they're going to read that and be like, ah, okay, this is what happened. So that was my golden tip. And I am now at the end of my presentation. So who's ready to get a bow tie? Okay, you over there, the red jersey. Okay. Lady over there with the red jersey. Oh, sorry. Ladies and gentlemen, you have quite a broader range. Yes. You've been bringing it up to be able to do the communication decently and it also lets you try to grow the extra custom while going through the race as well. How did you decide what your limits are going to be in terms of I'm ready to do this but I'm not also going to do that. They're obviously asking you to do this and this and this but I'm not going to do that, I'm with you. Do you think about that range? It's a difficult one. I basically, the existing range I have helps me to stay organized. And when it comes to people asking things I often do get a lot of custom orders. But what it comes down to for me is time management. So I try to stay as organized as possible keep my workflow as streamlined as possible that and then enables me to go the extra mile and do the strange unusual orders. Is that answer your question? Okay. And the nice thing is I really did a lot of research through the last six years over the wedding trains and with guys, thankfully, there's a lot of basics that you can stick with that kind of control the product range. Otherwise I could have thousands of items on my shop. Yes. Okay. You got to jump up. You got to jump up. All right. There we go. Yes. Yeah, I actually used to do like a specific product range I didn't get started in this whole industry like I do in the current students, like I'm a business man, just as I think it up. It was an accident, complete and total accident. I studied marketing and I dreamt of being this like brand manager for Coca-Cola, something like that. And I got into the industry and I absolutely hated it. Sorry, marketing people. I hated it. And on the side, I was making these accessories for brides and then my dad said, hey, you hate what you're doing. Stop. I'm going to fund you and I'll take care of you. So it was literally just by accident. I had someone contact me say, can you make this for me? And I was like, sure, let me try it. And that basically burst the business. So sometimes the best ideas and opportunities come by accident. All right, good. Okay, you look really keen. Okay, come on, come on. There we go. Okay, this is a really hard job that you didn't have right now. Oh, you didn't get to do anything. It's both eyes open. So you mentioned that you need to get things right so that you can get things right. I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying. So my question is basically, how do you go about doing your creative process in any downtime? You know, creating, we have like, downtime. Yes, yes. And now, how do you manage that when you have ad hoc clients who are like, I need this product such as this every time? Yes. How do you manage your downtime, ad hoc clients, and also the real effect of that in your time? So how do I stay human? Yes, yes, right. I don't actually know, but what I'm trying to do is that I take every Sunday and that is my complete day off. I do things that energize me. I've heard that a Sunday well spent brings a week of content. And I sometimes work from eight until 10 at night. For disclosure, we don't have kids. We have a fair child. But I try to stay organized. I can't stress that enough. Keep your workspace clean so that you can really move fast. So being organized creates time for you. And I think it's a lot of just flying by the seat of my pants. Like, I just, I love each day for each day. Like, I don't stress too much about what's going to happen. Yes. Yeah. This is like, yeah, I've been here for a while. I think you can choose your answer. Okay, okay. So as a sort of entrepreneur, I have fun with what it is to say, I can really approach the entire leg with responding to clients. And like, you seem like you just always say yes. Yes. So like, I can do, like, do I have to say yes? So like, how many people would kind of, like, differentiate between, like, I can't say yes at this point and then saying, you know, I'm going to say yes even though they come dead right now? Right, that's such a good question. So, be comfortable with saying no. Sometimes you do have to say no. And I put in a boundary in place where I basically have, if it's a rush order, if it's overnight thing, I charge people for that because, you know, their crisis is not my fault or my problem. So they're going to need to pay a special fee for that. And sometimes I do just have to say no to people. I say, look, I'm so sorry. We are fully booked right now. We do have this stock, which is ready to ship. But don't be afraid to say no. Like, it took me a really long time to learn that. I really did. And you can ask my husband. I actually, I've learned that by breaking. You eventually reach a point where you realize this is where my boundary is because if you're extending yourself so much, you're not able to share, like, take care of your current customers. And I learned that and I was like, you know what? I have to say no to this person or I'm disrespecting my current customers if that helps you. It's a journey. It really is, but you have to understand it. Okay, now I need to pick someone. How many boat eyes have we got left? Two more. Two more boat eyes. Okay. All right, someone stand up. Someone stand up. You, okay, lady over there with the black. It's a vlog. Wow. And I ended up saying, like, how is it verified that we do all the planning online? So you literally just go online, submit that and stuff. But I was always trying to be aware of that. Wow. I'm so sensitive to that. I can't do it personally. How do you not take things personally? Like, is it, like, it's a problem just by yourself and then you work at a small time? No, it's a problem. It needs to be, like, negative about the situation and then how do you get out of that? All right, so there's an amazing woman called Renee Brown. Renee Brown. She talks a lot on shame and, you know, all that stuff. I really recommend that you listen to some of her talks on YouTube and some of her books. The thing is, like, if you're gonna carry another person's irritation and anger, it's like, it's gonna, it really is gonna drain you. And I learned from an incredible teacher that it's like people, when they're trying to give you drama, they're like, they're trying to give you a gift. They're holding out this parcel to you to take. It's your choice to take that and unwrap it or not. And that's something that's helped me amazingly. Like, I just know, you know, I can make a mistake, I'm human and I don't have to take on their drama. So I'd love to chat with you afterwards. I've got some wedding stories I can share with you. I'd love to encourage you. Okay, is there one more? Jump up, you gotta jump up. Okay. All right, go for it. You talked about a bad response. Yes. In your process, do you have a point that this person is not gonna be winnable over? Or do you, what I'm actually asking is, would you cut off your limit to help them to rectify it? Or is it rather an issue of, like I said, education for the rest of them? Is that point that you think, okay, this person is not helping you? Okay. So I find, you know, when I'm responsible, there's so much room for redeeming the situation. We can only do what we can, but I feel like there's a bit more room when you're at fault, because you can say, look, I stuffed up here, but this is how I'm going to resolve the situation. How they react to that is completely in their own court. We unfortunately can't control people's reactions to us. So when you have someone that is like belligerently angry with you and aggressive, you really can't do much with that person, that's kind of when you know, okay, look, I have to let this person go because they've actually got other issues. But one of the things that I know when it comes to, you know, worrying about bad reviews when you've made a mistake or something, well, you just feel sometimes you just have a feeling that a client isn't happy with you. Make that phone call, like take it offline as quickly as possible, that's the golden rule. So if they have left a message on social media, respond and say, we'd love to talk to you in person about what happened. We really feel like we can do something here to turn this around for you. So be positive. And if they just keep bringing you down, just at some point you have to let it go. Because again, it's like you only have so much to give and so much you can do. So that's it. Okay, do we have time for more questions? I think we've run out of bow ties, is that it? Okay, I will be here still. Come and find me. I'd love to talk to you and answer your questions. All right, thank you so much, everyone. It's been so much time. We have two questions. One of them is for one short question. I'll see you in one hour. I don't know if you've made the most amazing set up for dogs. I have made the most amazing set up for dogs where I actually did this gorgeous fish and collar and custom harness. So any dog lovers out there, definitely bow ties. I can do it. There are my details, guys. You'll see my cell phone number, my email address, and website. Feel free to get in touch, okay? Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.