Starlet of Customer Appreciation: beeczarcardsandgifts

2008-07-28T15:30:00-05:00

As a shopper on Etsy, Mari-Claire aka beeczarcardsandgifts has become well known for her dedication to the "Customer Appreciation" photo — that photo a buyer can upload to accompany feedback on a purchase. In honor of an enhancement we're making to the feature, we invited her to share her thoughts on some of her Customer Appreciation photos. We know she had a tough time picking which of her favorite shops to highlight — she is a loyal return customer to many!

I truly feel that Customer Appreciation is the best way to support and encourage fellow artists. It physically shows just how valuable and important the work is to the customer who now owns it. It's more than just a positive feedback or a thank you, but a visual acknowledgment to the seller of just how much the work means to the buyers themselves. It's a morale booster for everyone involved. Also, showing that work in the feedback column may encourage future buyers to look further at a shop they have recently come across. They will be impressed that someone took the time to take a picture of the item as an extra thank you.

More than anyone else from whom I have been fortunate enough to buy, none compares to DownToTheWireDesigns and the number of purchases I've made from his shop. There is an excellent reason for this, too. His work is exceptional. Each piece is a real treasure: well crafted and well designed. So right from my earliest purchases, I was compelled to post Customer Appreciation pictures to display the beauty of that work. I try to capture the essence of each piece and its intricacies.

I sometimes use natural lighting in my pictures to best highlight the items I'm wearing. Perhaps the most dramatic of these is this photo, which also suits the grand nature of the necklace itself.

Another seller I've shopped with several times is SarahsSky. Her shop has a unique style of stained glass jewelry that I'm personally drawn to and truly admire for its exciting designs and colors as well as its craftsmanship.
This particular piece grabbed my eye and I was thrilled to get it along with a lovely special heart pendant during one of her sales — an extra bonus I was only too happy to also display in my photo for her feedback.

As for the photo itself, I decided to have a bit of fun and be more playful, using bright colors and designs to collage the images together and match the joy of the pieces themselves.

Extra tip: beeczarcardsandgifts suggests that customers experiment with Photoshop (or Gimp — a free online photo application) to get creative with their Customer Appreciation photos.

Another seller from whom I've bought several items is Experimetal. In this case, it was for an excellent cause — protesting the harp seal cull (read more about Experimetal's work for this cause here). This is a cause that many people, including myself, feel strongly about. This photo was an opportunity to shine a light on a serious cause as well as the piece itself, both of which I was thrilled to take part in displaying and sharing.

I was initially motivated to take Customer Appreciation pictures because I wanted to thank sellers I had come to know on a more personal and friendly level through the Etsy Forums, chat rooms and convos; people that had taken the time to be helpful, thoughtful and genuinely kind to me. The Etsy community has always been very special in that way. It's a community that supports its fellow artisans and their work.

As soon as I began to take photos for those items, I felt I wanted to honor each and every seller I shopped with. Thus began a long tradition of Customer Appreciation pictures dating back to January of 2007. Another really big motivating factor was my involvement with the online photo sharing site Flickr. In fact, my very first Customer Appreciation picture was also part one of my self portraits for an ongoing Etsy Forum weekly tradition called Self Portrait Thursday (read more about this Community Project here). This tradition now dates back to November of 2007, and I've been with this Flickr group since its inception. Also, I started a project on Flickr with a few other Etsy sellers called 365 Days. The idea behind it being to post a self-portrait each day of the year. This gave me an excellent opportunity to show off all the items I've bought on Etsy and use those photos for my Customer Appreciation pictures. That way, they served a dual purpose and gave extra exposure to the items, sellers and to Etsy as well.

Many of the the sellers have asked me if they could use the photos in their own promotions in their shops and on their personal blogs and websites. That has made it even more personally rewarding. I feel I've helped fellow artists get their work seen by a larger audience that might not have seen it before. That alone is worth it to me.

Want to learn more about photography? Check out our how-tos, as well as this profile on Self Portrait Thursday!

Tech Updates: Batch Feedback

2008-07-28T13:00:00-05:00

Dear Etsians,

We are happy to announce that you can now leave feedback for multiple items at once. In order to use the new Batch Feedback tool, you will need to log into your account, then go to Your Etsy > Feedback > Items Awaiting Feedback. Click the text link that says try our batch feedback tool. You may rate and add comments for multiple items, then submit them all at once by clicking the submit batch feedback button at the bottom of the page.

Above is a screen shot of the new Batch Feedback text link you will find on your feedback page. Below is a shot of Batch Feedback in action. You can rate up to 10 items at a time, with a single submit batch feedback button below the transaction list. If you want to wait until later to rate a transaction, you can select the clear all button to remove all in-progress entries. You cannot submit Appreciation Photos when using the Batch Feedback tool.

In addition to being able to leave feedback in batches, you can now upload an Appreciation Photo even after you have left feedback for the transaction. This means, you can leave feedback now and submit a photo at a later date if you wish. What is an Appreciation Photo? This is an optional feature that allows a customer to upload a photo of the item they purchased in its new home or a seller to add a special visual thank you (to get a sense of it, see this post about prolific Appreciation Photographer beeczarcardsandgifts).

If you want to upload a photo and leave feedback at the same time, you can do so via the individual feedback option.

To add an Appreciation Photo for a transaction after you've submitted feedback, go to Your Etsy > Feedback > Completed Feedback and choose the Left for others option (as illustrated in the graphic below). Click the Add Image text link to proceed from there. Images must be in .jpg, .gif or .png file format.

FAQs:

Q. Can I upload an Appreciation Photo for any kind of feedback?
A. You will only have the ability to add a photo on positive feedback entries.

Q. How many feedback entries can I leave at one time with the Batch Feedback tool?
A. You will be able to submit up to 10 feedback entries per page, the same way individual feedback is paginated.

Q. What is the new Appreciation Photos tab in my feedback panel?
A. This new tab houses a list of all the Appreciation Photos that you have left and received.

Q. Can I upload batch Appreciation Photos along with the Batch Feedback?
A. At this time, you will need to add Appreciation Photos individually.

Q. Can I upload an Appreciation Photo for transactions that I left feedback for prior to this feature launch?
A. Yes, you can do so by going to Your Etsy > Feedback > Completed Feedback and choosing the Left for others option. Then click the add image text link next to the item for which you wish to add an image.

Q. Do I have to use Batch Feedback if I like the old way better?
A. No, the individual feedback tool is still available for use if you prefer this method.

Q. Why not just scrap the old way and replace it with this new feature?
A. At this time, we have decided to keep the individual feedback option as a way to submit feedback and an Appreciation Photo similtaneously. Also, once you have caught up with your feedback, you might not need to use the Batch Feedback tool on a regular basis.

Q. Where can I learn more about how Feedback works on Etsy?
A. Please check out our Feedback Help Guide, as well as the DOs & DON'Ts of Etsy for Feedback.

As always, we welcome your discussions, constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement with this new Batch Feedback feature. Please use this forum thread for the discussion.

Search results (tags) for: "customer appreciation photos"

Starlet of Customer Appreciation: beeczarcardsandgifts

Tech Updates: Batch Feedback