Tailor Archive
Thread: Best Customer You Have
Ya know, these boards can bring a person down. Yes, I believe in honesty, you should lay it out to people who post the question do you make lots of money and is tailor worth it. Each individual experience is different and my individual experience climbing to master wasn't a bed of roses like it was for some. I will say I'm making a happy living now. I'm still within range of the masters surrounding me and on my planet, but I'm still on the lower end of the scale, and I think everyone is comfortable with my pricing and I know I am. Anyway, I digress...so much debate on any type of public board is natural. There are many types of views of the world and lots of different opinions so there will always be disagreement and at other times strife.
Lets have a good thread though of the best customer(s) you have, I think it would be a bit more cheery than what we have up top thus far.
For me, my experience has been I get lots of good friends out of being tailor. One of them is a customer who found me, insists on always tipping me tons of credits before I even start his order. He is demanding of my time, but he pays me well for it. He actually wanted me to replace all of his previous clothing that he still liked so that it was made by me and not another tailor. He comes by to visit regularly even if he has no clothing requests and I consider him a good friend now and we had never met previously.
There are a lot of other customers like that. Lots that I hadn't met until they asked me for clothing, and now we are good friends and just have a nice time at my shop. The fun thing about my shop is all my regular customers (friends now) now know each other and have developed friendships because of their mutual like of their tailor.My shop at times is a blast, far more amusing than any cantina I've been in.
When all the price debates, annoying customers, training debates, factory woes, and other woes come into play I have to remind myself of the FUN of the game, and this customer/friend in particular is a highlight.
I don't make much profit in tailoring. I have countless hours of restocking, consulting with customers, managing 16 harvestors, 6 vendors, 3 factories, and 1 large house. I have over 175 clothes on display and over 225 clothes in stock at all times.
Some people ask me why I do it? Well, like you said.. it's all about the customers. I get countless emails and tells thanking me for the store. I have many many repeat customers who often bring friends. I have not met a customer I didn't like... even the ones who didn't buy anything 
. Alot of people just come to browse or to show a friend what a large house looks like or what all the different clothing options are. Some come to sit in my VIP room and chat about whatever is on their minds.
Everything aside... my customers are why I'm a tailor... all the new friends I've found and even my new guild who I found from a rather large commission .
Raea of Light Designs
Corbantis, Naboo, Theed
I have also made alot of good friends through tailoring. My IG boyfriend kids me all the time about how many friends I have and that his friends started out as my friends. Most of the friends started out as clients. I am very generous to my friends but they are usually really good about tipping me very well.
The bonus is that my IG boyfriend is a master image designer so our professions fit together nicely. He will often do someone's hair while I am making their outfit.
hugs,
chiana
I've been fortunate to have a lot of really fantastic customers -- the vast majority have been friendly and easy-going, not to mention tolerant of my relatively-brief online time.. *chuckles* The entertainers have been particularly wonderful; those in the cantina where I first began selling (it's a great way to generate a customer base, by the way) swore to buy from me exclusively when I made Master, and have done so -- I cannot count the number of dresses each dancer has bought so far, sometimes simply in three and four colour variations of the same design. Those girls -- and guys! -- have always been delighted to have the chance to browse around a showroom and talk about colours, and that's one of the things I love best: working out what a customer really wants, so that they get exactly what they'd envisioned.. it's the whole reason I took up this profession. I've never before seen entertainers actively advertise another player's wares spontaneously.
Most of the combat folks have been fantastic, too; I've received some astonishing tips from folks who really wanted a specific outfit, and had been searching for it for weeks. The commissions for uniforms I've received from small guilds have almost always been handled so responsibly (I adore folks who'll email a list of desired items with the colours they'd like, too), and...
Eh, I've been lucky. Outside of a few outlandishly weird happenings (complaints about items being 'faulty', despite the fact that it was he who'd changed his mind three times in a row, and hadn't bought any of the items he'd changed his mind about, for instance), the vast majority of customers I've worked with have been very friendly.
I have a couple of really great, nice customers. One comes all the way from Rori to visit me on Naboo every time he wants clothes. He'll make the trip sometimes for just one item! He's told me that he knows he could find someone on Rori to make what he's looking for, but he loves travelling and wants to come see me because I was so nice to him when he was new. That's a really great feeling and gave me warm fuzzies for days.
I also have a regular who brings a friend almost every time she visits my shop. Since word of mouth advertising is the best way to get good customers, thiswomanis so helpful! The other day, I finally thanked her for bringing so manyreally cool peopleout to meet me. She laughed at me and said that most of the friends she brought to my store were the ones thanking her for showing them where my shop was. So apparently everyone loves her!
I know we all like to complain about the folks who give us problems, it's a good chance to blow off steam (and it is a little fun). But most of my customers (at least the regulars) are really nice people and the extra kindness of a few of them really make this profession rewarding.
A very cool guy I know wants to look -just- like a CorSec officer. I say, sure, this is different and I can dig it. So, I walk around Tyrena a bit, find a CorSec'er and throw together the outfit. I pass it along to the guy as a gift, because frankly, it was nice to make something so increbily cool for someone. He still insists on paying me, and tips me well.
So, when I hit master, the guy then asks for one of the CorSec flightsuit outfits. I say "sure" and craft away. Now I've been hanging around this guy a lot, so I can't bring myself to charge him for this outfit. The guy roleplays a CorSec officer to a T and he's totally cool. I want nothing more than for him to have the perfect CorSec outfit so he can keep this role up. So, I refuse payment.
Of course, he's an extremely nice guy, so he can't just take this flightsuit from me and not compensate me, right? So how does he pay me back?
Just a few hours ago, he gave me Encoded Rebel Disks 2, 3, 4 which completed the set for me. Bam. Story Arc Badge.
Now that's a customer.
Vert, you rule.
Great story Connrad. AND I thanked you at the time, but since there are so many threads concerning tailors not training other tailors, and I wanted this to be a positive thread... Let me thank you again for training me so long ago. I bet you don't even remember me, but you were kind enough to wait for me to get to you at the Cantina, can't even remember which city on Corellia, and waited for me when I crashed and had to wait to get back in. You had dancers asking you for items and you still took the time to give me training. Thanks a lot If you ever need anything while you're on Naboo give a /tell.
Javrie
Best one I've had was a Wookiee who caught me next to a mission terminal in Coronet and asked where the Tailor trainer was. I gave him the waypoint for Doaba's trainer, and he asked how a person could go from Coronet to Doaba. *blink* Turns out, he had been playing exactly one hour. I explained that he'd need to move up the Domestic Arts tree before seeking tailoring, and he confided, "Oh...I just wanted something different to wear. How long does it take to be able to make something that isn't this ugly color?"
Instant "awww" reflex on my side of the screen, so I fumbled through the evil pre-patch Wookiee customization screens of Doom to cobblea set ofblack and gold duds...nothing too complex since I was only at Novice Tailor...but when I put them in the trade window, he offered 250 credits.
All he had. Don't laugh, but that was the most touching thing I've experienced since I started. I told him the xp I got for making the clothes was enough, and handed the money back.
Little things like that make up for a lot of annoyances. =)
My best customer is actually three customers. They were out hunting one night about a month ago, stumbled across my shop while I was setting displays and I gave them my website. They spent over an hour in the shop alt tabbing back and forth between the color charts and the game asking questions and wanting to try things. They all left happy with a few items and promised to return. Boy did they ever! At the time my house was a lonely thing on the edge of a huge empty field outside Nashal. By the end of the week, two of them placed houses behind mine. The third placed hers last night. In the meantime, they've kept coming back, and we've gotten to know each other so well they have their own colors named after them. They send me mail, can I get this shirt in my red? They don't even need the color charts anymore - they know them as well as I do and never picked up a crafting tool.
The area that started as a huge empty field is slowly growing into a small city with new additions who've relocated from all of the other planets. I'm fortunate that I like all my neighbors, those three and the dozen who followed, who found that field by finding my shop, and it all started with three friends on a hunting trip...
This is the best post i have seen yet, thanks for bringing it up.
I am extremely lucky, for i have lots of best customers, but as for the cream of the crop a couple stand out. I am going to actaully name them, Spapa is absolutely the best type of customer a person could wish for. He is friendly, likes to spend time going over what he wants, and brings friends over constantly. He also brings me all his hides. I was just a novice tailor when we met, didn't have much selection at all, no shop or anything. He set me up with an architect he knew and got me a good deal. Next thing i know, he has brought at least 10 new customers to my new shop, because I gave him personal attention. The thing is, he as the customer was giving back that same personal attention...i think we have become good friends since, and allways look forward to his visits.
The other is, i am guessing a teenager who was using his brothers computer and game to play on a different server. His brother would delete his character every couple of days, and i would get a new email or in game tell from him asking for some basic clothing. After a couple times, i was fixing him up for free, figured i was going to make stuff to xp off of anyways. Well he finally got his own game, and a permanent character. Again, he comes to me, and exclusively to me...even if he had to wait 2 or 3 days for me to get to the skill i needed to fill his orders. He brings his friends by and keeps in contact every couple of days.
It really feels good to be able to interact with people who appreciate the time and effort we put into our craft. People like Spapa and Lil'Fizzle are why i am a tailor. They play thier characters rather than just grind. They are fun to be around. They prefer style over anything else. They just make it fun to be thier clothing supplier and friend.