Friday Giveaway with Lucy

Trivia Question November 11^th, 2011

What color is the complimentary color to GREEN on the six-color – color wheel? BLUE, RED, BLACK or YELLOW?

Answer posted here: FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Send your answer here: TRIVIA ENTRY FORM

General Information: 

Our Scavenger Trivia Game began October 7^th at noon CST. It will continue – every Friday at noon CST until December 16^th, 2011. Each week we’ll post a TRIVIA question on our Blog asked by Lucy – our Lucite Ambassador. The correct answer to our question will be posted on our Facebook Fan page before midnight CST every Friday. The FIRST four correct answers sent to this link: TRIVIA ENTRY FORM wins a $25.00 gift certificate to shop with us.

Since the TRIVIA ENTRY FORMS are sent to us there is a time and date stamp. Every answer will be posted as it is received. And only correct answers will be counted to win the gift certificates.

You can share the blog and questions with your own friends to get in on the fun. Some of the questions and answers will be bead related – some will not – but we’re still looking for very specific answers – so if you’re not absolutely right – you’ll lose the gift certificate.

RULES:

1. The questions will be posted on our blog – every Friday at noon CST.

2. Answers will be displayed on our FB Fan page before midnight CST every Friday until game ends: WE ARE LOOKING FOR A VERY SPECIFIC ANSWER, YOU'VE GOT TO FIND IT. The answer must be the one we’ve posted on our Facebook page and must be sent to this link: TRIVIA ENTRY FORM You must fill out the form in it’s entirety to be entered.

3. You can only win ONE time per month.

4. You can only use one gift certificate per shopping trip. (our website only allows one coupon)

5. The first FOUR correct answers will win a $25.00 gift certificate to shop with us.

6. Gift Certificates will be awarded by e-mail, are not redeemable for cash and can take up to 48 hours to process - please make sure to check your SPAM filters. We're not responsible for lost gift certificates but will do everything to make sure you know the code.

7. Winners will be posted each week on our BLOG and FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Remember - the answer will be on our: FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and you must send answers via our TRIVIA ENTRY FORM

The first FOUR correct answers posted at this link: win a $25.00 gift certificate. There will be other giveaways in the next 10+ weeks that won't be advertised so you better check back!

Lucy is the creation of Eddie Howe - contact Eddie here: Eddie's e-mail

Share it. Join our blog. Leave a comment. Check a box. Thanks for reading and playing along.

Friday Giveaway with Lucy

Trivia Question November 4^th, 2011:

Where did the first 12 birthstones originate? 

What did they represent?

Answer posted here: FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Send your answer here: TRIVIA ENTRY FORM


GAME BONUS*: This week - ONE- Lucky winner will be randomly chosen from the comments left on our entry form to WIN - The Swarovski Magazine. It's AWESOME! I love it and it's got some gorgeous creations in it.! A $20.00 value. Make sure to send in your entry form (link above) and along with your answer WRITE: I WANT TO WIN SWAROVSKI MAGAZINE! THE WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN 11/10/2011 - so enter NOW! 

General Information: 

Our Scavenger Trivia Game began October 7^th at noon CST. It will continue – every Friday at noon CST until December 16^th, 2011. Each week we’ll post a TRIVIA question on our Blog asked by Lucy – our Lucite Ambassador. The correct answer to our question will be posted on our Facebook Fan page before midnight CST every Friday. The FIRST four correct answers sent to this link: TRIVIA ENTRY FORM wins a $25.00 gift certificate to shop with us.

Since the TRIVIA ENTRY FORMS are sent to us there is a time and date stamp. Every answer will be posted as it is received. And only correct answers will be counted to win the gift certificates.

You can share the blog and questions with your own friends to get in on the fun. Some of the questions and answers will be bead related – some will not – but we’re still looking for very specific answers – so if you’re not absolutely right – you’ll lose the gift certificate.

RULES:

1. The questions will be posted on our blog – every Friday at noon CST.

2. Answers will be displayed on our FB Fan page before midnight CST every Friday until game ends: WE ARE LOOKING FOR A VERY SPECIFIC ANSWER, YOU'VE GOT TO FIND IT. The answer must be the one we’ve posted on our Facebook page and must be sent to this link: TRIVIA ENTRY FORM You must fill out the form in it’s entirety to be entered.

3. You can only win ONE time per month.

4. You can only use one gift certificate per shopping trip. (our website only allows one coupon)

5. The first FOUR correct answers will win a $25.00 gift certificate to shop with us.

6. Gift Certificates will be awarded by e-mail, are not redeemable for cash and can take up to 48 hours to process - please make sure to check your SPAM filters. We're not responsible for lost gift certificates but will do everything to make sure you know the code.

7. Winners will be posted each week on our BLOG and FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Remember - the answer will be on our: FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and you must send answers via our TRIVIA ENTRY FORM

The first FOUR correct answers posted at this link: win a $25.00 gift certificate. There will be other giveaways in the next 10+ weeks that won't be advertised so you better check back!

Lucy is the creation of Eddie Howe - contact Eddie here: Eddie's e-mail

Share it. Join our blog. Leave a comment. Check a box. Thanks for reading and playing along.

Tuesday Evening

Eating Beef Ribs
and watching "The Hunting Party", be very careful what you wish for, you just might get it. Very interesting movie even though I had never heard of it. Thank goodness for the FREE cable trial.

Well, last night I mentioned that tonight we'd be addressing E-mail Etiquette. Boring. How many times has that subject been posted/broached/addressed/covered? Whatever you want to call it...

I was genuinely hoping that someone would post remarks here since a blog was the number one requested item on our survey. I know it takes time for people to get interested but this place is for you to post your ideas and thoughts about whatever you want to talk about.
Pose a question. Comment on my post. Write me an e-mail about something you want to talk about and we'll open a new forum...

So what are your concerns with e-mail? When you send customers e-mails about sales, back-ordered items, etc. What do you consider is a long enough amount of time to wait for a response? How do you handle an e-mail that has not gotten a response? Do you resend the original e-mail? Write a new e-mail? Call the client?

I'll start with what I do (as a general rule, of course some exceptions apply):

1. When writing the e-mail be as specific as possible.

• What you want.
• When you need a reply.
• Ask the person to let you know they actually received the e-mail if need be.
• Embed or attach a picture or document to help make your point or give the receiver a visual perspective.

2. Be as short as possible.

• One sentence per idea is usually best.
• One paragraph (two at the most) seems to be all people have time to respond to these days.

3. If there is no rush, I usually wait 5 (five) to 7 (seven) days for a response. Then I usually generate a new e-mail and paste the previous correspondence in the newly generated e-mail. I add a new note stating: I sent you this last week, just checking to see if you got it. And I explain Sometimes AOL (America Online) doesn't always send or let me receive all e-mail posts so I am trying to verify that you actually received my original post. If the person does not respond to the second e-mail, I call them.

4. If there is a rush, I try to send the e-mail at night and make sure you state the e-mail is urgent. I do this hoping the receiver gets the e-mail first thing in the morning. Most people respond to e-mails when they first sit down at their desks in the morning. I give the person one full day to answer especially if I stated the e-mail needed an immediate response. If the person has not responded by the next morning. I call them.

Please note that this only applies to Monday through Friday posts. I try to take into consideration that everyone is extremely busy and isn't ignoring me, they just don't always have time to respond quickly.

Even though I attempt to answer every single e-mail we get within several hours of receiving it, that does not mean others have the same time or philosophy that I do. I believe a happy client is a returning client. Even if I do not have the answer someone is looking for, I tell the person, "let me check on that and I'll get back to you." There is nothing wrong with not knowing the answer to something and explaining that you need to find the answer lets the client or customer know you're working on the problem. It never hurts to tell someone you're trying...

So what are your thoughts...? Feelings? Ideas? We, The Hole Bead Shoppe, would love to hear from you.

Write us here.
Write us at theholebeadshop [!at] aol [!dot] com

Visit the site. Tell us what you'd like to see here, on these pages. It's me writing but it's your blog.

xxoo
K~

E-mail List Obsession

Trying to figure out:

when to send an e-mail about our products and website and when NOT to send an e-mail about our products and website has become a source of constant frustration for me.

I try to put myself in the place of the consumer and predict what might be appealing to the mass. However, I like getting e-mails from my favorite shops about sales, new inventory, ideas etc. If I am broke or don't need whatever they are selling, I just delete the e-mail. I don't remove my name from the list. Who knows, they might have a great sale on that pair of pants I've been drooling over and if I don't get the e-mail, I may NOT get those pants?!?!

But when you're the person who spends hours developing the e-mail to be appealing, you can't help but wonder when someone unsubscribes:

1. Did my e-mail upset someone?
2. Am I sending too many e-mails?
3. Was the arrangement of the e-mail confusing?
4. Is/was the client upset about something ELSE and didn't tell me?
5. Why did a client subscribe only to unsubscribe?

And believe it or not, I can make up a million other things in my mind when I am supposed to be sleeping at night. I understand that there are some clients who just do not want to get e-mails from businesses.

I have even asked some of the clients who jumped ship and they told me they just got too many e-mails and spent too much time trying to sort through all the e-mails to find what they were looking to find. So there. It's not personal. But it is hard NOT to take it that way. Just like it's hard not to take it that way when someone says they don't like something you've created (jewelry, food, clothing) ...I guess it's something that you have to live with when you own a business.

Here are some ideas I try to follow when I do send an e-mail out:

• Pictures. I try to include as many pictures as I can to make the e-mail visually interesting.
• Color. I attempt to color coordinate all areas within the e-mail. Even the FONT.
• I try to use different fonts to attract attention to areas of importance but not fonts that might be hard to read on the computer.
• I make every effort to make the point I need to make in a very short concise format. Easy directions or link to the directions. Easy to understand and clickable links to save time.
• Only send the e-mail to those who would really find it interesting. We have 8 e-mail lists set up in our e-mail program. Since we have a retail store, web presence, wholesale, designer, etc. Some e-mails are informative for all the groups. Other e-mails are specific to a certain group.

And while I take all the above into consideration, I still have to deal with the e-mail software itself. As with any other software sometimes it works without a hitch and then there are those HAPPY days! When nothing goes right. Those days are the best days for a business owner. When the computer you use doesn't want to work. And all the activities you had planned that involve the machine that is now not working, go right out the door. So you then improvise and find other non-computer related activities to amuse yourself.
It seems though that most of my work at the shop now involves doing something with the computer. And since we just added Facebook, Twitter, and blogging to the list. I think I'll be doing more computer related activities.

If you have any comments about e-mail lists, e-mails sent to clients or you're a client and want to comment on the e-mails you get....please write. We'd love to hear what you have to say!

I think next time I write, we'll talk about e-mail etiquette and what we find appropriate for business versus personal. What are your thoughts about response time? What I mean is, if someone writes you an e-mail what is the protocol you follow in responding, if any? What about people who get your e-mail and do not respond? What is a timely manner for response time? What are your pet peeves about e-mails, if any? Think about it. . .

Again, thanks for reading. Thanks for being here...
xoxo
Kelli