Late yesterday afternoon I purchased a crochet pattern set from Sandy at CapecodConsignments. The pattern is for washcloths and soap savers for gift sets I am working on. As with most e-patterns bought on Etsy, it would be emailed  to me within 24 hours of purchase. But Sandy sent the pattern to me within an hour after purchase. Also included was a nice note with additional info about the pattern that she discovered after it was written. She even took time to let me know how that the pattern has worked well for other soapers and to wish my business well.

Grade: A+

On Sunday, I purchased yet another crochet pattern from eCrochetPatterns.com. They have an Etsy Shop too, but I had decided to purchase from their business site instead because it offered instant downloads. I made my purchase and downloaded the pattern but, when I tried to open the file, I received an error message stating the file had been corrupted. I was a little disappointed, but have plenty of things to work on and – ya know – files just get corrupted sometimes. I wrote to Lesley to let her know about the problem but I didn’t expect to hear from her until Monday. I was wrong. She responded within a few hours. On a Sunday. She apologized for the mishap (which was no fault of her own) and she attached the pattern to the email. The file worked perfectly.

Grade A+

It needs to be said that these purchases were very small in terms of $$ amount and the sellers certainly were not going to go hungry due to losing one sale. Still, they treated me like I had just spent hundreds of dollars in their store. They’ve set a high standard for their businesses and it will pay off in the end.

The World Wide Web has changed the way consumers share their experiences with each other. It used to be that consumers would share their stories with only a handful of people over the years. Now they can reach thousands in the same amount of time that it took them to reach twelve. A negative review is not slander if it’s true and it’s not something you can easily recover from. On the flip side, if customers love your service, they will share that too. They may blog about you or post about how happy they are in forums. Purchase decisions are heavily influenced by the recommendations from peers. It’s even more true for purchases made online. What are your customers saying about you? Can you do better?

If you knit or crochet, please take a moment to visit the following sites and make a purchase if you find something you like. You’ll not be sorry.

CapeCodConsignments – Very cute washcloth, bath mitt and soap bag patterns. You can purchase the finished product too.

eCrochetPatterns.com – A variety of cute and whimsical crochet patterns.