J.D. Iles of Lincoln Sign Company: Small Business Blog Interview

The Lincoln Sign Company is located in Lincoln, New Hampshire. Their blog, Signs Never Sleep, is written by JD Iles. We reviewed them in March (but I forgot to send them interview questions until last week).

"We have gotten new customers who found us randomly from the blog, and that of course is great."

Pajama Market: How has the blog impacted your company?

J.D. Iles: Our blog has impacted our company in several unexpected ways in addition to helping us stay in touch with customers and finding new customers.

a) I think the blog keeps me motivated: As keeping the blog is kind of a "hobby" for me, I enjoy it and I am always looking for something fun or interesting to post. Since I feel this internal desire to post, I of course want to have interesting signs to do, and even though we always try to do the best possible jobs on our projects, knowing that "the world is looking over my shoulder" motivates me to give everything 110%.

b) The blog makes me think about my business: Since I write about my business every day, I am always focusing on what the business it, and that helps me really explore and think about the issues. For example, lately I have been really focusing on the customer service experience here at Lincoln Sign Company. I always talk about our "customers", but lately I have been wondering "do our customers always get 110% from us when it comes to customer service?"

To date, painfully, the answer to that question would have to be "no". For example, if you called us prior to this month, your chance of actually talking to a person would have been about 10%, but we just made some changes that will hopefully allow just about everyone who calls to get to talk to someone right off the bat, and that is just one of the things we are doing customer service-wise.

To be frank, I don't think I would have even taken the time to think about "the issue of customer service as it relates to Lincoln Sign Company" if I weren't blogging.

PJ: What has the response been from your customers/clients?

JD: We have gotten new customers who found us randomly from the blog, and that of course is great. I know that we have some customers who are regular blog readers, and I get occasional feedback from them.

PJ: What types of things about your work day inspire you to write a post on your blog?

JD: We usually post about projects we are working on or just completed, and we always have alot of photos.

One of the things we would eventually like to do is tell the story of every sign we create. Here is an excerpt from my blog:

One of the things that we end up doing on this weblog is telling stories about how a sign is made, why a sign is made, etc. We are a "custom signshop", which means that every action we take to make a sign is unique from the shape to the lettering to the color combination. The signs we make are not built on an assembly line or come whizzing out of some fast, sign-making machine. They live in our shop, for days or weeks, and we treat them like guests.

Why am I telling you this?....

I know that there are some people who have enjoyed watching their signs being created via this weblog. Allowing them to get a glimpse of the whole process. They end up getting something a little greater than just a sign at the end of the transaction. They end up with a few stories to tell...

Right now this pretty much happens by accident, but one day I want this to be a customer's intention. I want customers to seek us out, not only because we try our hardest to make great signs, but also because they get to watch the process as their sign is being created via this weblog, and this allows them to share the process with friends and family.

So, if you have ordered, or are getting ready to order a sign, feel free to tell me you want to watch it being made via the weblog, and I'll be happy to tell the story of your signs creation...

PJ: What have been the biggest surprises with your blog so far?

JD: Probably just the fact that I really enjoy doing it. There are many days when I sit down and blogging is the first thing I do in the morning.

PJ: What blogging program do you use for the blog? Did you create this blog yourself? How do you like the program?

JD: I use Typepad and I am very happy with it.

PJ: Is there anything else you would like to share about your blogging experience?

JD: It is an unfortunate fact that the nature of my business sometimes makes it a difficult task to show a customer what we do on a daily basis. We make signs, lots of signs, and the nature of a sign is that it goes away fairly quickly once it is finished as it is either picked up by the customer or installed by us. So that means, when a potential customer stops by to visit, usually either all the nice signs we made recently are gone and there is nothing interesting to show them in the shop, or we have just spilled a gallon of paint all over the floor and our woodshop is a disaster area. It is rare that a customer visits us on a day we have a beautiful Gold-Leafed sign sitting in the shop in all its glory, and of course, that is what we want a customer to see.

It occurred to me, if I had a way to show a customer a daily progression of jobs and events through our shop, a customer could get a good, overall view of what we do on a daily basis. In effect, they could get a "shop tour" whenever and wherever they were, and see us at our best and brightest.

That is the power of having a weblog.

Thank you very much J.D. for that great interview. Signs Never Sleep is an absolutely fantastic example of a company blog where the company makes handcrafted, unique products.

Tags: business signs | wood signs | wood business signs | business sign | signs never sleep | J.D. Iles | Lincoln New Hampshire | New Hampshire | New Hampshire signs