Customer Service is very important to me!

Greetings! I'm Cristiana, the owner and creative force behind Aromaleigh, established in 1998. I conceptualize, formulate and artisan formulate all products, package and label them and also ship your orders. 

As of August of 2019, I handle all customer service on my own. After years of having other people handle customer service for me, I realized that the best person for the job is ME- the person who cares the most about every aspect of this business.

If you have a question? I'm here to answer it via contact form. Your order didn't arrive? I'll fix that. An item is missing? I'll fix that. You got the wrong size or shade? I'll fix that. You're unsure of application? I can help. Customers getting what they paid for has always been top priority. 

Handling my own customer service wasn't always a thing. From 2011-July 2019, I had a customer service representative many of you remember as Carol. Prior to that my now ex-husband did all customer service from 2005-2010, and prior to that, Amy did customer service from about 2001-2005. 

Handling my customer service on my own has been one of the best business decisions I've made. In the past, my time was much more scarce because I was raising a younger child and trying to balance motherhood with my work schedule. Once my son was older and I'd achieved a healthier work/life balance (as well as improved personal health), I was ready to take on the additional task. This has improved my business in so many ways. While in the past occasional customer service issues did occur, the last 7 years have been incredibly smooth sailing! The reality is that having other people handle a core aspect of your business isn't always optimal. There can be miscommunication, misinterpretation, or someone not handling a situation in the manner in which you personally would. No one will ever care about your small business in the way that you do!

In the past I'd work to correct mishaps made by customer service representatives (as well as myself! No one is perfect and small businesses are always learning and growing with every experience), but sometimes the damage is already done and taking on the case to offer apology and reassurance can also backfire. As a small indie business, providing good customer service can make or break you and it's statistically impossible that every single customer will be happy with your products or services. Every business owner in this day and age knows that the reach of an unhappy customer has grown exponentially due to social media. On average, a single unhappy customer will tell 9-15 other people. On social media, this can expand into thousands. Negative word of mouth is amplified on social media and discussion sites such as reddit, because users are anonymous and can post whatever they want in communities that are user moderated. 

There have been comments about my personality in the past, with some people not liking my personality or posting "tone". Fair enough, I am straightforward in my communications, operate my business like a business, strive to treat all customers equally, maintain systems in how I do things so that I can be efficient, and am minimally online repping my business. I'm introverted, quiet, and focused on getting my work done. I'm not extroverted, warm and fuzzy- all qualities that our society equates with someone being "nice" and good at public relations. Unfortunately, there can be a lot of reading in between the lines with written words. To counteract this over the years, I've made occasional videos (example) where I'm speaking on certain topics or engaging customers, so that they can see me and hear my spoken tone of voice, as well as see me as a person who's there to assist them. A peek behind the scenes at the artist and person crafting their products and shipping their orders, if you will!

My store policies don't allow things like combining shipments together, or changing/adding on to orders after they are placed, and in the past some customers have felt this was "bad service" because other indie shops did do these things. Quite simply, doing those things creates chaos within my process. Larger businesses don't allow them and I've always felt that just because I'm a small indie shop, I shouldn't be considered to be a mean owner simply because I maintain stricter policies. The indie community wants small indie shops to be more professional, but then when they act more businesslike and professional and maintain boundaries, they don't like that either, because they decide you have a bad personality. You can't please everyone, simply. I have tried and it was to my own detriment- very stressful.

I've always maintained strong transparency about my turnaround times, devoted my time to processing customer orders in times of high order volume, at times even closed my shop down in order to finish up all orders. There has simply never been issues with customers receiving the product they paid for from me. Because for me, the ultimate customer service is devoting my time to getting customer orders out the door, with no excuses. No matter what has happened throughout the years in my personal life, I never stole money from customers through not shipping orders, or lied to customers about their orders shipping out, or made a long litany of excuses to explain why orders were delayed- things that have been all too common in the indie beauty world. 

Aromaleigh isn't a part time or "hobby" business. It's how I primarily support myself, so I take my day to day operations of Aromaleigh very seriously.  I fully intend to be operating Aromaleigh for as long into the future as I possibly can, so personally assisting you in any way possible is a top priority. 

Thank you so much for your appreciation of my products, your purchases and loyalty to my brand. It means so much to me!

Learn more about how customer satisfaction in my brand is reflected in my store metrics:

Check out this recent blog post about Aromaleigh's returning customer rate. I have a very high customer return rate, 2-3x the industry average for online cosmetics stores.

When customers are satisfied with a shop's products and customer service, they'll continue to shop there. This metric is an excellent way to measure what I refer to as the "silent majority"- customers that are loyal and supportive of a brand, but are not online or participating in any brand or community spaces where beauty products are discussed.

In a world where brand presence on social media and in influencer content is a gauge of success and brand reliability, this becomes even more of a crucial metric. My shop is small, I don't work with influencers, and the beauty forums and blogs where my brand used to be discussed are no longer around, or they are seen as old forms of media and are dormant. I promote my own shop on my social media channels, through my blog, newsletter, Facebook private group and Aromaleigh reddit sub.