I recently had a couple of chances for some really important feedback. The first was positive. I put my products in front of a jury for the first time and they were judging on presentation, packaging, originality, scent, price point, etc. I felt on top of the world having been approved to be in my city’s Craft Fair and I was relishing in their kind words. The other situation wasn’t as positive. I had shipped some product and I was upset to hear that they didn’t meet their expectations. It caused me to take a step back and I actually started wondering if I should even do my Little Soapy Biz stuff any more. Yep, I’m that dramatic.
As a person that is always striving to make the best natural goodies that not only works for myself, for my family, for my friends and for people I’ve never met; it was hard for me to receive some critical feedback since I put my heart and soul into this! I usually get really positive feedback and feel so proud of what I create. Heck, I use this stuff everyday and so do many others. I just haven’t had too much negative feedback and I’m used to being the main one criticizing my own work and then improving on it! However, I really appreciate it when people are candid and honest with me. While it may have taken me aback at first, I began to strategize on how to make those particular products even better.
While the specifics of which products may not really matter, I want to share the details with you because I want you to know that I really care and I truly want you to be happy with what I make for you.
What I learned
First of all, my Citrus Zest Bath Salt Fizz was put to the test. I only made this a few months ago so I didn’t think anything would be less than great with it… however I found out when the person used it, it didn’t have ANY scent. WHOA. Not cool, right? I would personally expect the same. Also, my Chocolate Bath Truffles, while yes, they do make your skin soft, and yes they did smell chocolatey in the package, the recipient was surprised that it didn’t smell in the tub… Funny, that wasn’t my intention for them to do that. I realized that I made these and knew they wouldn’t smell very strong, but didn’t note that anywhere on the label or description. Some people actually don’t want strong smelling things so that actually might be a selling feature. This was obviously an oversight to me, as I didn’t mention it.
What I’m going to do about it
Well, to you it may be obvious for the Chocolate Truffles, that I’m going to update my labels to reflect that they aren’t overpowering in scent. I only use natural ingredients to scent them, and I will convey that. I will also look at my other products where this is the case and update my descriptions. Easy.
For the Citrus Zest Bath Salt Fizz, I’ve come up with a few solutions… The first, may be obvious… is to only make the salt when it’s ordered. To manage delivery expectations, I will note in my Etsy shop, that because it is made fresh, that it will take a few extra days to ship out. The second, is more around thinking of the product make up and chemical behaviour of the natural essential oils… I know citrus is a top note in the scent world, which means it will evaporate the quickest compared to middle and base notes (ahh perfumery 101)… so this means I may want to start making more blends that include not only top notes, but middle and base notes as well. As a bonus, I can create more intention setting, therapeutic blends (ie: relaxing, or uplifting blends). The third thing I can change is my packaging. I have two types of packaging for my bath salts. I will be discontinuing the paper 126g packets as they don’t seal as well which means the essential oils will dissipate more quickly. For now I will offer the larger size that is in a sealed container, but also look into glass containers in different sizes for the future as they do not absorb the essential oil scents and they are more environmentally friendly. So watch this space for those changes!
I’ve got a lot of things to consider here and to work on. And, this is great. I love finding solutions to problems and making my products even better. However, a side-effect about being a one person business is that I don’t really have many people to bounce my ideas off of, (my dog loves everything I do ;)) so I put it out there to you, if you have any thoughts or ideas, I’d really love to hear them! Also, please keep the feedback coming. I love hearing the positive stuff about how my products make your skin so soft, so moisturized, and how it cleared up that dry skin, or makes your skin feel just so good! But as you can see, when you tell me you aren’t happy with something, I’ll do something about it! Thanks for helping me grow. I look forward to hearing from you.
Naturally yours, Susan
A Little Soapy Business 