Personalised Towels and Gifts

I got a call on Saturday from Andrew Rowdon who has become the new head of the Felixstowe Chamber of Commerce. He wanted their brand new logo put on a towel. They are exhibiting at the Suffolk Show today.

It is not something I have done before as you normally need a very expensive embroidery machine to do this.

I called on a local business colleague who kindly stepped in to help and after some frantic calls/emails and running up the A14 this was the result. I hope it goes down well Andrew!

Felixstowe - Great days by the Sea

Personalised towels

Towel Day http://www.towelday.org/ is an annual celebration on the 25th of May and as a tribute to the late author Douglas Adams (1952-2001). On that day, fans around the universe proudly carry a towel in his honour. I won’t be organising an event or wearing my towel but I will be observing Towel day by …………….

…….. offering everyone who orders on line today on my website a FREE flannel with every order submitted on line today!

Personalised gift

I saw a tweet this week about terrible service received on an e-commerce site which made my blood boil.

Good service is something I feel passionately about at Jane Hamerton Ltd – probably stemming back from my years at Marks and Spencer in the 80 s where the customer (used) to be KING.

I simply would not have a business if I did not look after my customers. My extensive client list is based upon referrals and customers who come back many times to buy my personalised gifts.

If something goes wrong (and it does) I sort it out instantly and give something extra as a ‘sorry .

On occasion a client gives me a misspelling of a name for a personalised towel gift for a newborn and the embarrassed recipient rings me up. I always replace the towel free of charge and never tell the original customer.

If a parcel goes astray in the post, I replace it PDQ and if something goes wrong on the shopping end of my site, I usually pick it up and inform the customer and arrange a refund etc.

I want my customers to tell me they are not happy about an aspect of my product or business so I can improve it. Luckily I hardly ever get those calls.

Jamie David, Rachael, Jasper and I made our way last week over to the beautiful Old Rectory in Campsea Ashe. Sally Ball kindly lent us a bathroom and we set to work.

Organic hooded baby towel

These are the new samples for personalised wedding gifts.

Hand towels Bride & Groom

Sally’s son was the model for the dressing gowns, how we laughed.

Bride & Groom dressing gowns

You could always give someone getting married a Mr and Mrs!

Mr & Mrs personalised towels

Jamie David took this of me among the daffodils

Jamie took some gorgeous pictures of Sally’s dogs, this is his passion….

Trevor

and Hector

A big thanks to Jamie David Photography http://www.jamiedavidphotography.co.uk/ and to Sally at The Old Rectory

Midge

The joy of what I do means that I have customers asking me to do hysterical things.

As each towel is hand personalised you can have whatever you want. Some things are not printable here and I would never betray confidence! So your secrets are safe with me!

A gift your mother will treasure – how about a hand made personalised towel and flannel? You get 10% off and free gift wrap.

Send me an email of what you want jane@janehamerton.com or order on the website www.janehamerton.com and input survey11 at the check out.

Mother’s Day present sorted.

Hooded organic baby towel

At last I have found a high quality organic hooded baby towel. When my new website is ready I can show it to you all in all its glory. If the name is longer I will applique the fabric letters on the opposite end.

My customers have been asking me for a long time if I do this towel. Customers could also have the child’s date of birth embroidered on the towel.

This object will last for years and probably end up in that ‘special box’.

Daddy with babe

An interesting thing has happened over the last month. Lots more men are ordering my personalised towels which is brilliant. Over the last 20 years it has been women who have ordered.

One of my tweeter friends Henry Matter ordered a set for a friend. He kindly took some lovely photographs for me. They will be on my new website.

His cool website is http://www.henrymatter.com/

Thanks Henry

Ted

Easy Living Magazine February Issue

I was thrilled to feature in the February issue of Easy Living magazine. This was a first piece I’d ever had in a publication. Setting up a business isn’t easy so it’s great to get a boost. I now feel confident to move forward & grow my little venture.

I have been personalising towels for 20 years while bringing up a family and since I set up Jane Hamerton Ltd 18 months ago, I’ve been having a ball. I have never worked so hard in my life and it is definitely the most difficult thing I have ever done. It is one step forward and several back.

My aim this year is to get the website right, pump up the volume of sales and set up a pop up shop locally to get basic sewing skills back on the agenda for anyone who wants to learn or ‘brush up’ skills.

The offer of free gift wrap was popular this Christmas. One customer ordered 16 bath sheets for members of her family.

I wrapped, ribboned and wrote personal messages for each one & sent them all over the country. All she’d done was to make a ‘phone call.

The feedback was fantastic. One recipient ordered one straight away for his god child.