Want to chat on the phone?

Ah, a question I get a lot! I've even had a handful of potential customers say they would refuse to do business with me if I wouldn't speak with them over the phone. 

I totally get being cautious about buying things on the internet. But imagine it from my perspective - I'm here doing my thing, busy with orders, creating invoices, measuring for custom harnesses or special-request tethers that I've never made before, printing shipping labels, and BOOM, out of nowhere, a demand to make a phone call to someone I don't know lands in my inbox. 

Let's go back in time 16 years. I was just in the early stages of business and was willing to do pretty much anything to get a sale. I made the phone call. I was on the phone with this person for 48 minutes, answering questions, giving measuring instructions, talking over color options and width options. 48 minutes. For 48 minutes I did nothing else because I can't sew or cut or email or unpack boxes while I'm talking someone through all of that. The person on the line was excited to order, she said "Send the invoice, I can't wait to get my new {whatever it was}!"

I sent the invoice. Crickets. I sent a reminder email a few days later. Nothing.

I spent an hour (plus follow up) with someone who ultimately didn't order and would never be a repeat customer. That's fine, I thought. They won't all turn out to be buyers, but soon enough someone will! Gosh I was optimistic. I did that several more times. It was often the same outcome.

I realized (not so quickly) that while I didn't so much mind spending the time with the person and answering the questions and talking about the pets (love this one, actually), on the phone I had zero control of my time. I could get sucked into hearing about Fluffy, Fluffy II, Fluffy IV, the uncle on hospice, the noisy neighbor, and then at the end, the dreaded "I don't get paid till next month, can you start on it now and I'll pay for it when I get around to it". 

However, I can send an email in 3 minutes and get back to making awesome stuff for the other person who has already paid and is waiting for their package to come in the mail.

Ultimately, this ^^ is why I won't make or take phone calls. 

I still get the tire kickers who will send me 20 emails over the course of week, planning out something they want me to make, colors, widths, sizes, questions about fit, questions about personalization, questions about customizing a feature of Product A into Product B... and then ghost me. I still spend a lot of time on customer service that doesn't come back to me in a sale. But it's still a lot less than if I spend half my day on the phone.

My shop is a big metal box. Guess what doesn't work inside of big metal boxes. Cell phones. And we are rural - so sometimes we have cell service at the house. Sometimes it just decides to take a day off. Being on the phone and then losing signal and then the call-back and the ring-through and then the voicemail and... well you get the idea. No thanks. It's a hassle.

Couple that with my working hours actually making stuff and filling orders, plus doing animal chores plus doing family things and driving kids all over and household chores and meals and... again, you get the idea. 

I appreciate your willingness to keep things digital!

(ps forgive my use of AI for the blog image. Blog images are apparently where I draw the line of 'acceptable use of a technology I hate')