It's the Little Things
We got an order yesterday from the parents of a couple who are celebrating their anniversary. It came with a request for a gift card so we assumed it should also be gift wrapped. Besides having beautiful penmanship (she signs all of the things we make with a pyrography pen and writes the gift cards) she is also gifted at gift wrapping. We offer free gift cards and free gift wrapping. Below is a picture of the bowl that she just gift wrapped.
One of the things we take great pride in is fast shipping. We use USPS Priority Mail almost exclusively. They ship to almost everywhere and in the US, 2-3 days to deliver. Because we want to get it to you fast, Pennie has to drop whatever she’s doing when we get an order. We keep all of the finished pieces in totes so they don’t get dusty or get bumped. Several years ago Pennie started putting a packing list on each tote with the item numbers of what’s inside. Right now, we have over 160 items in inventory so there are a lot of totes. The packing lists really speed up the locating process.
She wraps the bowls in unbleached tissue paper. Then comes several layers of bubble wrap. She folds over a tab on every piece of tape so it’s easy to unwrap. We have a large storage room in the basement that is over one half full of assorted box sizes. We use heavy duty boxes. We buy perforated bubble wrap in bulk and Pennie put up a closet pole on the wall to hold the two sizes we use. That way she can roll off the length she needs. After they are wrapped she fits the order in the box, puts the order receipt and care instructions in the box in an envelope and tapes it shut. She weighs each box and writes the details on a post-it note.
I print the labels. When Oscar sees me carrying boxes up from the basement, he makes a beeline for the kitchen door. He knows we’re going to the post office. He rides in the back seat area. His window gets rolled down no matter the weather. He especially likes it when it’s raining, he bites the raindrops.
We’ve been shipping out items for over 10 years and have only had one damaged shipment. I attribute that to the quality boxes and the great care Pennie takes in packing. Almost half of the people who leave feedback mention the quality of the packing. That’s pretty amazing. Pennie is pretty amazing!
