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bad craft neighbors (2)

40 Question Craft Artist Blog Series - Question 18 - How do you Deal with Negative Booth Neighbors and Negative Customers?

Posted by Michelle Sholund on May 11, 2010 at 10:30am


40 Questions Blog Series: Question #18 How Do You Deal with Negative Booth Neighbors and Negative Customers?


Those of you who don't know, I do actively sell at art fairs. I had my first show this year this past Mother's Day and have first hand experience with this topic. Despite high winds and some profits being made I was pretty annoyed by one negative craft neighbor. I will spare you all the details on the experience, however will not
skimp on the on the tips I want to share with you regarding how to deal with negativity in your booth – albeit from a customer or a neighboring craft artist.


Question #18 How do you deal with negative booth neighbors and negative customers?


People just have bad days – upset about paying to enter a show, parking was bad, slow sales, etc. While we are not therapists people do expect us to listen to their good and bad times, simply because you are at the right place at the right time. The acronym SAD – Smile, Acknowledge, and Distract helps when encountering unhappy people. A smile is the first thing people see when they see you – if you smile at them, they will smile back. Acknowledge that you understand or recognize their horrible experience was awful is all people want
in order to turn their mood around. Lastly, distracting a person from whatever it is that makes them unhappy will aid in putting themon the right track to forgetting what made them upset and make them look forward to something that will make them happy.


Don't let them get to you. The main objective to spew how upset a person is, is to let all those around know how miserable they are for sympathy. Misery loves company – and it is true! Yet, if you give into the anger, your whole mood changes and so does your booth. People don't realize they are doing this however it is like a
billboard sign telling all “keep away” if you take a step back from the situation. Nip it in the bud or else it will spread and kill the happy aura that should be in your booth. How do you deal with this? Make a conscience choice to not let it enter your booth or affect your mood. You might have to excuse people from your booth
or do your best to distract them with a different, happier topic. Try, “I am so sorry to hear you're having a bad day, but the good news is you are here now and that incident is in the past...” then pick out something in your booth that would instantly make them forget about their troubles. If it is a neighbor, you need to either
ignore them or be frank and state, “I am busy (with customers, setting up, organizing my booth, etc.) and I cannot help you, please leave so I can finish my work.”


Dealing with “shrieking customers”. Shriekers are those who shriek about the cost of something or argue with you in how something isn't handmade. When you have a shrieker try, “Yes, my hand knit scarves are $125, but what you might not know is they are made from wool from my own sheep on my farm in Kentucky. I personally sheer the sheep, spin and dye the wool, and make all the scarves you see here. Granted, they are NOT for everyone, but I wouldn't be here if people weren't coming back time and time again buying them because their
friends and family want one due to how warm they are and they go with anything!” The idea is to twist it around, showing them there are many reasons why people buy it despite the “sticker shock”.


While each situation is different, I have used these tips to help diffuse negative situations. Try it at your next show and report back how effective the advice is. Don't worry be happy, have a good week all!
- Michelle Sholund, www.quickcraftartisttips.blogspot.com


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Small show with high winds - my two cents.

Posted by Michelle Sholund on May 9, 2010 at 1:05pm
I finished up a show yesterday, early. Saying those words pains me, because only if a show chose to end early, I leave early. However, here in Maryland, during a small Main St. "Flower and Art Mart" Mother's Day festival we had AWFUL winds gusting to 40 miles an hour with steady winds of 25 miles an hour. I have truly counted my blessing for the show. I did use my Trimline and still can't say enough good things about it, however the others used cheap canopies - one read First Up which I can only assume is from a sporting goods store. No one weighted their canopy saying "I had no idea you should weigh them down". And as you guess nearly all of them went air borne. I do believe there was one or two EZups, but by the time I left only 3-4 blue canopies were still standing but only because people were hanging onto them for dear life, the rest were in a pile in a dumpster. With flying canopies came MAJOR damage to displays falling over. Two of three of my shelving units even fell. The good news is NOTHING broke - the display nor my products. It could have been worse as I upgraded my product packaging using more durable plastic products where if I were still using the old packaging I would have had broken reed diffusers (yes filled with oil) all over the place as well as potpourri all over the place too (I do have insurance, but the clean up and the loss isn't something I want to think about). It was at that point I decided it wasn't worth it - I'm going home and I was probably number 10 out of the 25 who were there at that point who packed up and went. Those who left before me suffered the most damage - people who sold painted glass, pottery, and framed artwork suffered horrible damage. Not to mention the flying canopies that crashed into other peoples displays. I am not new to high wind shows, but when everyone around you has everything falling and threatening your work and preventing customers to come into your booth - you have to use common sense and think about yourself. Not to mention as the day went on the winds got worse. When all was said and done I left 1 hour early and hand carried it to my car, parked 1/2 block away. All wasn't lost - I easily paid for my space and had some profit to boot with my "be-backers" actually coming back and buying from me.

If that sounded like the worse of it, I have more! I only wish I had my camera, however due to flying things - my receipt book, business cards and such weighted down I wouldn't have been able to take any good photos. I am going to break this down in sections...

"Space 14 man". I called him space 14 man, because I never got his name. Mind you this isn't a spectacular fine art fair - more like a community festival. Space are $25 and I do them once in a while just to get the word out about what I make to the locals and make some sales. This guy complained from the very beginning. "Someone should have told me I need to bring a canopy! Why didn't anyone tell me???" I and two others said it was visible on the application - "but no one told meeee!" Then he couldn't see space 14 clearly painted on the road (which was next to space 15 - couldn't miss it") and decided to set up in 15's space (which apparently he could see) - which was next to me, space 16. I on the other hand am in the midst of setting up my Trimline by myself (not complaining, just stating a fact) plus doing setting up my display. I couldn't help but notice he has a card board wall display to hang his 2D paintings - the work was actually nice, but card board? and expecting it to stand in no wind let alone WITH wind. So, now enters space 15 woman - late due to "Murphy's law" and clearly said to Space 14 man, "I think you are in my space." So the guy starts ranting and raving how "can't you just set up in my old space? It just isn't my day..." She said no, I specifically requested not to be next to other jewelry and I would be if I did." So then another 5-10 mins of ranting and raving how he has to move his WHOLE display - mind you it is just a card board wall - to the space "he couldn't find". I tell you this is just like a live soap opera happening all around me! He finally moves - within 5 mins. - and then his display constantly gets knocked down time and time again. The kindness of a merchant provided him with an antique table - set it up for him as he didn't seem interested in doing it himself - and helped display his work for him on the very nice table. In between this guys ranting and raving he just announces he just isn't a happy guy - this is not my day - and then starts complaining about the economy and trying to give me a lesson on the whole thing. I just ignored him, however still feel sorry for the poor guy. Which leads me to "Late Space 15 girl".

"Late Space 15 Girl". She wasn't all that bad - nice work, simple beaded stuff, and pleasant to talk to, however she just had to bring her dog. The dog, a mini fox terrier, and boy does this dog have lungs. Not only does he have lungs he didn't stop the whole day and it got worse when other dogs walked by with their owners. Side note - I have 3 dogs and am a HUGE dog lover. But it is just common sense to not bring a yappy dog with endless energy to a show and expect him to behave and devote time to selling to people. I think she loved her dog more than selling jewelry from what I was able to see. Again, my beef isn't with the lady, just with yappy dogs that scare people away.

The good news is despite all my "woes" I made money and thank Mr. credit card machine for that. The atms were down at the venue and no one had a whole lot of cash on them. People who were just going to buy one thing ended up buying double. I have been hyping up my new candle line and finally was able to start selling it at the show. The display was cool (and the one that didn't fall down) with the help of vintage luggage and old fishing nets. Everyone who saw the candles thought the jars were awesome and so different from the ones on the market - I let out a whew under my breath for that. And the prices $10 and $18 were "very reasonable" people said. What I liked a lot were the reactions people had after smelling the fragrances like "Amish Country" not expecting a creamy cinnamon fragrance, but wowed by how IT IS LIKE LANCASTER, PA or Annapolis Waterfront smelling like a watery spa fragrance. I do think if were able to stick around I would have sold more, but for me it only takes one two shelving units to fall over completely to realize it isn't worth it, especially if it can happen once it can happen again. All in all - the show had ups and downs, but at the end of the day - profit wise - worth it! They are doing more shows during the summer, and might entertain doing them - gotta check my schedule, but $25 isn't bad when you can easily triple it or more and have nothing else going on - especially if the locale is just 25 mins away from home.

My "tequila report?" I love mojitos and had an excellent one at Don Pablos - a chain around here, but freaking awesome!
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