Hobby Ceramicraft

"I thought that as a long-standing customer
of the supplier, we would be rewarded for
our loyalty but when I spoke to their customer service I was shocked."

• Location: Hampshire
• Sector: Retail Training & Wholesale
• Saving: £1K

If you have a mug or plate with your childs fingerprints on it, the chances are that Hobby Ceramicraft, Jane Stennings Hook-based business, supplied it. Jane and her brother Matthew run the family business which supplies stock and kilns to Paint Your Own Pottery cafes and home-based pottery-painting businesses.

They also run workshops on how to set up and manage a pottery-painting business and know that keeping an eye on costs is critical. We get such a range of people on our courses, says Jane. It might be a mum who is interested in starting up a pottery-painting business for childrens birthday parties or someone whos looking for a change in direction from their old corporate life.

At our last workshop, three of the attendees had recently been made redundant and decided that now was the time for them to do something they really believed in. Janes aim is to help all her customers achieve their dream of running a successful creative business and a profitable one.

As someone who believes passionately in good customer service, she was left fuming when she looked at her business electricity bill. I thought that as a long-standing customer of the supplier, we would be rewarded for our loyalty but when I spoke to their customer service I was shocked. We were locked in at a high rate and they didnt seem interested in trying to help me. Jane turned to Make It Cheaper. They found us a much better rate and helped us to switch the rate has come down from 14.8p to 9p with another of the big suppliers and well save over £1,000 this year.

Janes advice to other independent businesses: Look after your customers its better to spend £200 worth of your time with existing customers who will spread the word about you than spending it on marketing for new ones and dont forget to check your electricity bill as well!