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. . @ Charles K . . you have every right to your own opinion as we all do . as this is a discussion list . . a thread for members to post suggestions .
. . So . . I feel no one would be placed in a defensive posture for making your suggestions . . . . wishing you a good day . .
. . @ Diane T . . 'ae . yes . . I understand what you are saying . . what you are suggesting about commenting without being registered to FAA is similar to how we post on forums on msn and other websites and pages . . . often perhaps through our link through facebook or a blog or some other platform . . Yet . . If someone were not required to be logged in or registered with Fine Art America to post a comment on our work it would probably open it up for discussion forums and everywhere else we communicate in text and comments on this site so I wonder however if that would not open us up for all kinds of problems and security issues without a way for Sean (our owner) to track someone who spammed us through comments or some other such negative impact . . . . Also on another note personally I believe perhaps that is why sometimes we don't have a comment on our work from our buyer perhaps because the customer is shopping and making a purchase yet is not a member of Fine Art America . . just a thought . .
. . @ Lynn P . . perhaps we are not able to upload an image from our computer into a discussion thread on the forum because it would take up too much space on the bandwidth . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth_(computing) . . don't know if I am right about this but that's my guess . . .
. . @ Ron J . . . on the subject of of a customer list . . again . I feel it is a good idea and I second your suggestion . . as I stated above I've always wanted this so we may create a customer base hopefully for repeat sales . . . it would be nice if it was a confidential list included in our "Behind the Scenes" stats . There are several pro photographers here on Maui who have asked me if we have this capability of a customer contact list for generating a customer base intended for targeting repeat sales and customer loyalty yet have not set up a portfolio here because we do not . . So I will expand on my thoughts on this subject . .
begin quote
"The customer base is the group of customers and/or consumers that a business serves. In the most situations, a large part of this group is made up of repeat customers with a high ratio of purchase over time. These customers are the main source of consumer spending. In many cases, the customer base is considered the business's target market, where customer behaviors are well understood through market research or past experience. All actions the company takes would be through consideration of its customer base. . . All businesses begin with no customers. These start-ups begin with an abstract idea that slowly evolves into something someone will buy. As these products evolve from abstract ideas into primitive objects that are then further refined, the business that created the product begins to gain customers. The satisfied customers become the repeat buyers and core customer of the company. This is the process that creates the customer base. The main buyers of a company are rarely set in stone. Most often, successful start-ups begin with low-end or downmarket customers with low income and low costs. As the products or services that are being bought are polished and remade, a company gains higher-end customers who gain interest in the product as it reaches higher levels of functionality, use, and/or value of some kind. As the shift to these higher priority customers continue, they begin to be a larger source of income for the company, and slowly become the main base whom the business lends the most importance. This process, of moving from low-end customers to more expensive and more profitable customers, is known as upstreaming, and is an integral part of the theory of disruptive innovation. Businesses work very competitively to keep their core market intact. The sellers will research their buyers to increase customer awareness. Keeping products customer oriented has become so huge a priority, in fact, that it has become a large focus of business schools to teach all types of business administrators, from manager to marketer, to keeping the customer in mind for the improvement and creation of sellable products" end quote . . reference source Wikipedia . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_base
From this reference the most important aspects of creating a customer base are clearly beneficial for those of us who are trying to build and develop our business . . Most important points for me on this subject are:
quote
1) The satisfied customers become the repeat buyers and core customer of the company [ie. . the company is me, or the company is you, whoever the member is that the buyer is purchasing from in this case is the "company"]
2) The sellers will research their buyers to increase customer awareness. Keeping products customer oriented has become so huge a priority, in fact, that it has become a large focus of business schools to teach all types of business administrators, from manager to marketer, to keeping the customer in mind for the improvement and creation of sellable products.
"Throughout the lifespan of one company, the people that are being sold to are studied so that they can be provided with more attractive products or services. The main market doing the buying is, of course, that company’s consumer base. Analyzing and understanding such customers is the main method of keeping them, and is why most assets are poured into Research and Development (R&D)." end quote by Wikipedia .
. There are many valid resources for referencing and defining this subject yet there is no better way of saying it . . I would like to have a customer base .
I propose in our Behind the Scenes stats where we currently view our
Balance, Sales, Purchases, Payment Information, Tax Information
Perhaps along with the sale under the Sales tab where we see subcategories for
Date: Image: Configuration: Customer Location: Price: x Total:
. . there would be added a reference or a link for contacting the customer who purchased it .
We don't need to see their Name, Address, Phone Number or any other identifying personal information . that information could be held securely for the buyer as absolutely confidential .
Where we currently see Customer Location as only the name of the city and state or borough or country, we may have a new link similar to the hyperlink we have on our portfolio homepage near our biography . . where we see, such as on mine,
Sharon Mau - Fine Artist
Member Since: 04/03/2010
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Contact
The Contact link is what I am referring to . . it could be a confidential Contact link (meaning one where the sender cannot see the private email address of the recipient . . it is private, one that we could utilize which would arrive in the customer's personal email inbox where we could send a thank you note or other professional message and the customer would then have the option and choice to respond to us or not . .
Just as we have with our Contact link . . (when messages arrive in our personal email inbox it reveals the senders email address to us . . We may choose to ignore it thereby preserving and protecting our privacy and our confidential email address by not revealing it in a reply, or we may respond to the message with a reply thereby revealing our confidential email address for the purpose of developing a more personal connection with our buyer thereby establishing a professional customer base. . (It is an option)
For the same reason our buyer could choose whether or not to respond to our contact, if they choose to remain anonymous they would not respond. If they choose to respond and establish a connection they would reply. . . If we wish, for this purpose, we could set up a personal business email account for this site that would be separate from our personal private email account . . such as gmail, etc. . . Yet the most important point is that there would be a method established here on Fine Art America enabling us (the members) to contact our customers for an opportunity to establish an affinity/rapport with our customers for an opportunity to establish a customer base for the purpose of general feedback, special requests, customer satisfaction, suggestions for new material, etc. and repeat sales . . .
