The "First Rule" of fish taxidermy.....

Unless you're dead from not wearing PPE. Then, customers happy or not do not matter - lol!

Trick question. IMO wearing PPE is a given but also a good reminder for those that are living on the edge...

 

so very true Dougp. So many time i go get something done at a shop (not taxi) and they did not listen to a damn thing i said right from the getgo. The company or person seems to get lost in their own doings or ideas and forgot completely what the customer wanted in the first place.

 

X2 What BrianW said.

 

Fishart...I never wear gloves or as you call PPE. Been cruising like that for 65 years in the business and still kicking at ripe old age of 80. Hope you make it as long...lol JL

 

JL - I know lots of people who smoke cigs like a chimney and have lived into their 90's, but maybe they could have made it to 110!

I didn't even know what PPE meant until I saw it in this thread and had to Google it. Again, IMO like the Grainger commercial, safety is a given in my mind and shouldn't be at the top of this list. One's health always trumps everything else so it should be a given like eating, drinking H2O and paying taxes - lol!

Perceptions are the biggest thing in ALL businesses IMO. Perceptions are reality and a good impression leads to customers and repeat customers (and everything else). That's why understanding marketing AND understanding your impression by your potential customers is critical. AND, why so many fail at business...

 

I would tweak the first rule to:

"The first rule is to recognize and accomplish the needs and expectations of ourselves."

Happy customers anf impressed judges could be goals under that.

In my opinion, unhappy customers are the result of a business owner not setting their expectations, as they should. Don't let the tail wag the dog. It's your job as a business owner to tell them how you do business and what is expected from them as a customer and what they can expect from you.

 

Can you be more specific and list some examples?

I.E. you brought in a fish that you wanted done angling up and going right with an open mouth and when you came to pick it up it was going left and down closed mouth. Or a pheasant you wanting flying was done standing.

I've decided I'm going to start doing taxidermy again soon professionally, part time on the side for starters. I'll be writing up a word doc listing all the guidelines for how I do business given to every customer and gone over quickly and signed and dated by them before taking their work, accepting their deposit, and stapling a copy of it to their receipt. I'll also have it on my website to be printed off and signed in the event their animal is being shipped or they're not dropping it off.

One thing that will be listed is the basis for the relationship; them commissioning me to do a mount of their specimen and creating a piece of wildlife art. They can choose to give me full artistic freedom or their own rough concept allowing taxidermist discretion to adjust slightly in order to enhance the piece based off the qualities of the specimen.

It's a fancy way of saying,

Even if I nail it and do the best one I've ever done...it's not going to look exactly like what you see in your head. I can't see what you're mentally picturing just like you can't do taxidermy.

 

I have always felt that the first rule of any type of mount is to treat it as though it was your own mount going on the wall and transfer that pride into the workmanship that you turn out for your customer.

 

Less is more! Rule number one!