Do You Want My Money?

I just received the most wonderful commission done by of her naga character Vismaya and my OC character Martin. But I will share that later.

THIS post is written in response to a fellow deviant who has been repeatedly disappointed by commissioners.

Thankfully she did not lose any money. But her window of time was lost. The funds she did have had to relocate to other things. The problem was she heard nothing from her commissioners for weeks on anything beyond the first concept sketch.

The result? One unhappy customer going on social media.

IF YOU DO COMMISSIONS you are entering a business agreement. That means holding up your end of the bargain to commit what you promised to do.

Real life happens. We can be besieged by things we cannot plan for. But if you're taking on art you should by now have a clear idea of how much you can take on.

I know how long it takes me to do a plush. I cannot take on more than I can comfortably say I will deliver. I will over estimate the time rather than underestimate since I work full time.

What I am emphasizing is that in this day and age of fast communication there ought to be NO EXCUSE for not telling your customer that something has hit a glitch.

OK, your customer might not care about your personal woes, but you told them it might be delayed. And that is what you ought to do. Can there be repercussions?

Of course, you're dealing with people.

And that is what I need to emphasize here, since we are all a generation of the electronic communication. Forgive the caps, but

NO MATTER HOW YOU SEND A COMMUNICATION BE PROFESSIONAL! TALK TO ANYONE HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE TALKED TO!  It is as simple as that. Be polite!

You can control that and if you give your best service possible and someone still is not happy, then you were not meant to work together.

I know this gal and she would not have been upset to be told anything. She is upset because she was left in the dark. She feels AS IF SHE DIDN'T MATTER AS A CUSTOMER.

Never do that to anyone. You're shooting yourself in the foot. Here she was, money in hand (and a student no less, so you can imagine she saved up for this) ready to pay someone. And she got passed by because  the artist could not even give her a heads up.

My point is this: if you're offering commissions, understand what you're getting into. If you're planning on being a full time artist, the thing that's going to go hand in hand with your skills is your ability to deal with people.

No matter in this day and age PERSONAL SERVICE is KEY. I want to know that I'm not a number, a face, I am your CUSTOMER with MONEY and I want to know I am going to get served properly even if I never met you.

Sorry to burst your bubble if you feel you can hide on the internet. You are going to have to learn how to interact properly. Or be prepared for a tirade on some part of social media.

If you did your best and were beyond courteous and professional: more power to you. If your customer was not happy again, you were not meant to work together. But I'm talking about people who feel that they can treat potential customers like it means they can get back to them later or to casually because you're on DA.

NO.

This is a selling platform. Like Amazon. Like Ebay. Treat it accordingly.

Starting early by building good custom rapport is paramount for you being successful later on.

I have been very happy with 4 particular artists. I return to them because regardless of style EVERY ONE  of them communicates, sends notes and gets to know my boys. Even if they have drawn them before, they still work at improving them. Make no mistake, some of them do this for a living and I can tell you they are not bargain basement prices. BUT I am willing to pay that because of the level of service I have received.

I am so sad that this gal has been burned twice when it wasn't necessary. A few emails is all it would have taken.

So commissioners, : Do you want my money or not?