A grocer who has the lowest prices in town may get away with a surly disposition because his customers need food. The home ceramics studio owner is selling a nonessential product, a hobby, and people must enjoy it or they will not come back. Even if yours is the only studio in a very small town, the dissatisfied customer can always take up needlepoint or music lessons. Keeping the customer happy is so important it cannot be stressed too much; sometimes the little things mean a lot.

Provide pleasant conditions

Your studio should be clean, well-lighted, and spacious. Your own personal appearance should be neat and professional. (They will treat you in accordance with the way you appear to them; a careless appearance invites customers to afford you less respect and consideration.)
Students working on fragile items and engaging in intricate procedures (requiring great concentration) are sometimes annoyed by children - yours or those of your students. Be polite but firm about establishing studio policy. To spare "nerves," always plan children's classes for slower periods of the day, and let your customers know when these classes are held.
Maintain a colorful, visually interesting array of displays and color charts; avoid a cluttered look, and change displays often. Provide a fertile ground for ideas and imagination. Display finished ware and magazines, provide stencils and patterns, and do encourage those students with little originality to try projects with their own ideas and color preferences. As an example, tell your students you have a beautiful new lamp base in stock and suggest that they look through home decorating magazines for new colors that will enhance their home color schemes. Give your students "pats on the back" and praise their extra efforts.
From such small beginnings, students develop the desire and ability to plan projects that please them more because they reflect their own ideas. This is more important than you might think; customers who develop their own interests tend to stay in ceramics much longer than others - and you are playing for keeps!
Try your best to make all students feel welcome and important. Call them by name and express genuine interest in their projects and ideas. If they have perfectly awful taste and insist on making something you dislike, be as diplomatic as you can; offer gentle guidance but do not impose your ideas on them. Always explain why something will or will not work, so your customers will feel satisfied. Treat customers with respect and make the time they spend with you so pleasant they will want to come back again.
Many successful studios have developed a loyal group of devoted customers who continue for years, taking classes and making gifts for everyone they know. These groups can be a source of social fun as well as a hobby outlet; when they run out of uses for their creations, they sell or give them away. A danger with these little social units is that a new student can feel shut out because everyone else is so "chummy." It is your responsibility, should this happen, to draw the new person into the conversation and enlist the aid of the old-timers in extending a sincere welcome.
You can also encourage new students to "Bring a Friend." Offer a small premium - a free piece of greenware or a brush - to the student who brings a friend in to sign up for class, and another bonus - perhaps the first lesson free - to the friend. This not only adds to a friendly "mix" of people in your studio; it is a way of actively growing your business.
Properly handled, the regular social club type of class can be a source of continuing income and new leads for you. It is important to recognize this kind of group and capitalize on it if you can. Provide coffee and tea, perhaps a soft drink machine, and snacks if you can. (Sometimes the students themselves will contribute goodies if you provide beverages.) Remember to keep these small "socials" to periods before or after class - ceramics are best done with clean hands free of oils and salt! More than one successful studio has a small TV set so that customers can watch their favorite soaps while working on ceramics.
During holiday seasons, be aware of the atmosphere that can be created with decorations, color, music, the aroma of pine boughs or spiced cider. Creating the proper holiday mood does two things: it makes customers feel good, and it puts them in the spirit to make something beautiful.

Sell success, self-image, satisfaction

Even though it is possible to save money by making ceramic gifts, the real reason most people do it is for that moment when someone admires the finished product and they get to say, "I made it myself." The pride and sense of accomplishment some get from their ceramics hobby is unequalled anywhere else in their lives; even the most secure person gets a big kick out of

creating something others will admire. If the only thing standing between your student and this great feeling is a difficult task (the eyes on a small figurine, for example), don't be afraid to offer whatever help you can to make it happen. Perhaps you can spend some time later on this task in a class or lesson, but even if it means painting the eyes on a few figurines yourself, don't be a stickler for making the student do it all. A dissatisfied student may never come back to take your class on "How to Paint Eyes." The investment of your time will pay off handsomely with satisfied students.
Accidents will happen, particularly in firing, and it is important to realize that most students will blame you for the failure (even if they are too polite to say so aloud).
The best cure for accidents, of course, is prevention. If you point out proper techniques in your training and make students aware of the consequences, they will be more careful about cleaning greenware and the application of glazes and colors. Still, the firing produces the biggest change they have seen in the piece and it is hard for some to accept that you did not "do something to it" to cause the undesirable effect.
Make sure you understand the operation of your kiln thoroughly and use caution in loading and firing. Know which color families may not be fired together, and use witness cones to ensure proper and even firing. If you have doubts in this area, read your kiln manual or consider a seminar to bring you up to speed on the fine points of firing.
If it truly was your fault that something failed in the firing process, be gracious and generous in making restitution. If it was clearly the student's fault and the student acknowledges it, there is no harm in having a duplicate piece of greenware already cleaned and ready to begin the next time he or she comes in. You can contribute a few minutes of your time to make sure the student completes the project and ends up with something pleasing.
Some of your students will be talented and creative, but others might be hopelessly inept, though sincere. Even the clumsy person deserves to feel satisfaction through self-expression, and you can help if you recognize this. For these students, teach all the shortcuts, use decals and novelty glazes, such as Crystaltones and Arts, and try to concentrate on those processes which depend on the materials for effect rather than the skill of the ceramist. You can be an artistic purist, if you want, with your very talented students; do not ignore or afford less respect to those who are all thumbs. By gently guiding the less coordinated into the use of their skills (good sense of color, feel for design, etc.) you can sometimes achieve the greatest feeling of satisfaction for them - and for yourself.

Keep promises

The easiest way to keep promises is to avoid making unreasonable ones in the first place. Customers who come to a Tuesday night class really do not care that you had a hectic week and an impossible firing schedule; they know only that the project started last Tuesday night is not ready for them to work on this Tuesday night, and you've had a whole week to fire it! As a rule of thumb, try to have things fired for class members by the next class. If it looks as if you will not be able to do this, tell them in advance so they can choose something else to work on.
Do not underestimate the frustration students feel when the items they want to work on are not ready. It is worth your while to fire even small items sometimes, whether you have a full kiln or not, just to maintain customer satisfaction. Disappointed customers not only take their business elsewhere, but they may also give you some bad word-of-mouth publicity among their friends.
By making realistic promises, you can avoid most problems with firings; if you cannot get something done in the desired time, say so and promise to do your best - then do it. Do not slip into the trap of thinking that, because someone is a long-time customer, he or she will understand and will not be annoyed by delays.
In all the books and lectures on pursuing and searching for excellence in business these days, one observation stands out: If you just do what you promise, when you promise, and do it well, you will stand out from the rest.

Offer something new

If all your customers had vivid imaginations, your job would be easier. In reality, you must be forever thinking up new things and putting them in front of customers, allowing them to "think of them" themselves. Displays of finished ware in seasonal arrangements provide one effective way of stirring up interest. There is nothing quite like seeing finished samples. Even the most unimaginative person can see something and say, "I want to make one just like this."
Pictures are also good for giving people ideas - keep a generous supply of magazines around so that customers can find design patterns and decorating suggestions. Stock stencils, tracing patterns and decals for those who prefer more design help. Check gift shops, boutiques, department stores, craft fairs - the world is full of ideas you can use and adapt for your customers. Keep your eyes open for ideas everywhere; the most unlikely places can sometimes produce great design ideas or gift suggestions. Plant stores, sporting goods shops, and men's clothing stores are some of the places where you might be struck by a money-making idea. And don't overlook your Duncan Distributor as an ideal source for literature with great ideas and information.
Use your own imagination to change and adapt. the greenware you have; put a light in it, add a music box, drill a hole, hang it, apply a decal, attach a rose or other stick-ons. Sometimes a small change can provide a whole new personality (and produce many sales) for an old standby item.

Never stop learning

In a continuing effort to help you succeed, Duncan Ceramics offers the Certified Duncan Teacher (CDT) Program. This series is made up of four two-day seminars covering the latest in teaching methods, motivating ideas for your students, and general business tips (pricing greenware, setting firing charges, and selling). A test-review is given at the end of the fourth session; each person who passes is given a handsome Certified Duncan Teacher certificate to display in his or her studio or classroom.
The Certified Duncan Teacher Program is an excellent way to make sure your ceramics education is up to date while getting support and ideas from experienced professionals. The certificate shows you are a serious ceramist with formal training and enhances your credibility with students. The cost of the Certified Duncan Teacher Seminars is reasonable and deductible as a business expense on your income tax.
Once you are a Certified Duncan Teacher, you can enroll in the valuable Teachers' Seminars. These are more advanced than the Certification Seminars and are updated yearly to keep new ideas flowing.
Duncan Educational Services also offers a series of Product Orientation Sessions. Each session deals with a major new product or decorating technique. Duncan Distributors have information about Certified Duncan Teacher Seminars, Teachers' Seminars, and Product Orientation Sessions.
As much as you may know about the world of ceramics, there is always more to learn. Stay on top of current trends and fight the urge to settle into a comfortable little rut. New decorating techniques always give students something to reach for; you should stay ahead of them, providing an unending source of ideas and resources.
Attend shows and find out what others are doing; learn about new products; take product orientation sessions and teachers' seminars; study new techniques. If students ask you about something you haven't learned yet, admit it and make a note to find out about it. Do not try to play down the unfamiliar technique or product just because you don't know anything about it. Look into the things your students ask about, and you may discover a whole new source of interesting and profitable possibilities!