Encouraging customer feedback

Steve and I often have conversations with people as they look at and smell the soap.  Concerns about allergies, and problems with skin issues come up alot.  We make no claims on our soap, other than we use wholesome ingredients, and the recipes are well crafted to produce wonderful bars of soap.  And yes, we do try to pick ingredients that will not give people with allergy issues reason to be frustrated.   I myself have had lifelong allergies to some things, and i have had eczema for the past 25 years.  So i understand full well the concerns voiced.

In our own experience we have found that using essential oils to add the fragrance to the soap is much safer than adding fragrant oils.  Essential oils are distilled directly from the plant – for example rosemary essential oil is distilled from rosemary plants.  No additives, no artificial chemicals.  Fragrant oils are created by using some essential oil, but cutting it with synthetic blends to produce an oil that is fragrant.  It is these additional chemicals that often bother people.  For that reason we use very little fragrant oils. (we do use it for some soaps, but make it very clear on labeling, and when we sell them).

The discussion of one such customer came at the end of the Great Lakes Art Fair in Novi Michigan a month ago.  We, admittedly, were a bit tired from the 3 day show, and it was perhaps a half hour until the show ended and we could take it all down, pack up and drive home.  A woman with several other people came up to our booth asking a ton of questions, reading every label.  Her daughter suffers from some difficult skin issues… chronic, not going away.  She had tried so many things, with no success.  Again, we make no claims that our soap does anything other than be soap and clean your skin.  She looked through the rack, sniffing, asking questions, and selecting soaps.  We remember her telling us about her daughter’s plight with skin issues.  For some odd reason we dont remember which soaps she bought, but last thursday in our email was this:

Hi there.                                                                                                                                                               I’m the lady that bought soap at the end of the day, for my daughter that has all the allergies. You asked for feedback. Well you, by far, have the best natural soap she has ever used!!! The chronic rash on her arms went away the first time she used it. We were shocked! I wanted to show you before and after pics. They’re not on my phone.  So when I get a chance I’ll dig them out. And send u before and after pics. Because u need to see the difference u made in her life.  I can’t tell you enough, how grateful I am to come across you. Please keep making it!! A huge THANK YOU!!! You will have a customer for life!!          Thank you,                                                                                                                                                                  Rose

It was so surprising to get this feedback.  We dont make any claims about our soap except that it is soap, but when someone experiences other benefits how wonderful.  Thank you Rose for making our day!!

And we had a special order for soap eggs for two gals that stopped at Novi.  They wanted soap eggs for favors for a baby shower.  Knowing the baby would be a little boy, they asked us to make a small batch of a blue colored eggs…. in the display on each table the blue egg would be the reveal that it is a boy.  We shipped the finished order to them, and a week ago she sent me the photo of the cute little newborn, Lucas Paul, born slightly premature, but otherwise healthy.  Mom and baby were doing well.  These are the back stories of the soap business that we love.