One of the most important aspects of my job is meeting the people who actually use the Sizzix products on a daily basis. I want to hear what they like, what they need and what could we do better. I want to know how people are using the different products and what their favourite dies/folders are. Only by absorbing all the feedback can I do my job properly and create things that, hopefully will help to spark someone's creativity.
I have been attending trade and retail shows with Sizzix since 2001, and I always make notes while speaking to people to be filed away for later use. It's so nice to see familiar faces at the shows, most of them are people I only see once a year.
In February, I was in my usual spot at our UK trade show in Birmingham when one of those familiar faces appeared out of the sea of people. Sandra has been a Sizzix devotee since the very beginning, as such I always like to pick her brains and she in turn has a few questions of her own. Of course I always have answers, not necessarily the right ones!
Sandra told me that she was looking for a Christmas Bauble die which was sadly discontinued, she had checked all her local retailers and online sources but to no avail. She told me that she had lost the die and missed it tremendously.
I remembered the die from her description and promised that I would search for it among my archives. As soon as I returned from the show a few days later, I had a good root around for the elusive die. I found the product code and checked our system, I even did an online search of my own but came up empty handed.
I kept Sandra's business card pinned to my cork board as a reminder, just in case one turned up out of the blue. About 3 months later I was teaching a workshop in Helsinki, Finland for Sinelli. I spent a little while roaming around their wonderful Aladdin's cave of a shop when I was stopped in my tracks; there in the Sizzix section was our missing die.
I couldn't wait to get back to the UK to give Sandra the good news, all I asked in return was a card and she duly obliged as you can see below.
I know that our wonderful customer service team spend a great deal of their time trying to solve similar problems for people on a daily basis, not just for our distributors and retailers but for individuals like Sandra. Happy Days!!
