CustomMade's Maker Professional Standards are a code that represents the commitment to excellence the company was founded upon. These Standards reflect how our most successful makers do business, and for 99.9% of our maker community, these guidelines will come as no surprise. You won’t find CustomMade staff watching like hawks, actively searching for violations of these Standards, and we’ll always start from the assumption that violations were unintentional.
However, makers found to be repeatedly straying from these Standards will risk removal from CustomMade. Because when one maker does lousy work, it hurts all makers. Dissatisfied customers are the loudest customers, and that leads to lost business for the entire maker community. So please, follow these Standards, use your head, and we can all help usher in a new age of custom together.
Our Maker Professional Standards outline the dedication to quality craftsmanship and outstanding customer service that we all, as a community, continually uphold.
- Put your best foot forward
- Be responsive and keep the customer informed
- Provide an outstanding customer experience
- Respect the community of makers
Put your best foot forward
- Make a good first impression with a clear profile photo: either a headshot of yourself, or an image of your company logo.
- Provide a clear, concise “About” section that describes your own unique style and details your unique abilities.
- Show your work with pride by creating a cover photo that clearly displays the entire item (watermarks are discouraged, but acceptable so long as they do not obscure the item).
- Don’t include off-site contact information in any photos or text you display on CustomMade.
- Show your commitment to quality by ensuring every piece of your profile has been proofread and is free of typos.
Be responsive and keep the customer informed
- Quick responses are more likely to result in sales and positive reviews, so all replies to customers must be sent within 24 hours.
- Set realistic expectations with delivery dates; don’t promise things more quickly than you can deliver.
- Quality matters, so take the time to proofread messages for spelling and grammatical errors.
- Always communicate by sending messages on CustomMade.com, never by email.
- Don’t confuse the customer by providing off-site contact information like your phone number, website, email, or postal address.
- You can provide off-site contact information if you and the customer agree a phone or video call is needed, but be sure to follow up by sending the customer your notes summarizing the call via the CustomMade messaging system.
Provide an outstanding customer experience
- Don’t try to win jobs that are outside of your skill set or that you don’t have adequate time to complete.
- When submitting a proposal, include as many details as possible so customers know exactly what they’re getting.
- The project proposal is a binding legal document. If you and the customer agree to changes after the fact, it’s your responsibility to submit a revised proposal with the changes.
- Complete the project by the delivery date specified in your proposal. If the project will take longer than anticipated, ask the customer to approve a revised proposal with a later delivery date.
- Keep the customer updated on the project’s progress on a weekly basis until a job is done.
- If you’re going to be away or otherwise unable to communicate, let the customer know in advance.
- Deliver a product that you’re proud of and that matches the proposal you and the customer agreed on.
- When marking a job complete, provide at least one clear, well-lit photo of the finished product.
- Ship the finished item within two business days of receiving payment. Log in to CustomMade and enter the shipping company and tracking number (where applicable) so we can tell the customer the item is on its way.
- Insure any shipped item for 100% of the item’s value.
Respect our community of makers
- Always treat customers, fellow makers, and CustomMade staff with respect, courtesy, and professionalism.
- CustomMade exists for the benefit of the entire community, so only accept payment from customers directly through the CustomMade platform.
- Don’t steal other makers’ designs by making exact copies. Inspiration is fine; imitation is not.
These are awesome. Good thing I was doing all these things already. Thank you for improving the Custommade site immensely since a couple of years ago.