Most businesses have a guiding philosophy that governs how they do business. This guiding philosophy (the mission statement) governs how they view their business transactions as well as how they react to customers, both when things go well and when things go badly.
How these philosophies are communicated to customers varies. Some do it with advertising, some do it with employee training, and some only communicate their true philosophies by accident… especially when there’s a problem.
Ozark Arts & Crafts decided to take a direct approach and just tell anyone who wants to read what our guiding philosophies are when it comes to our business. Hopefully, you’ll find it helpful when determining whether you want to buy from us, or if you run into a problem you’re asking us to solve. Either way, these philosophies will give our customers a framework within which we can find common ground, and hopefully make you an Ozark Arts & Crafts friend for life.
Our philosophy is actually a little off-the-wall and unconventional. But you know what? Those are adjectives we like to use when we talk about Ozark Arts & Crafts.
Denny Nolan
The Ozark Arts & Crafts Approach
Much of what makes us who we are has to do with our location. You see, Missourians are a bit of a unique lot. We tend to be a little laid back, very friendly, and delight in marching to our own drum while letting other people march to their own. There is a lot of tolerance for divergent views of our State, as well as a lot of creativity. But one thing for certain: Missouri is a very good place to live!
It could be said that Missourians enjoy being unique, but we don’t do things just because it makes us unique. We’d be just as happy if the rest of the world acted the same way we did. On the other hand, at Ozark Arts & Crafts we’re pretty proud of our unique approach. In an age where the trend is all about faceless website transactions where personal interactions are kept at a minimum, we like to engage with our customers so we can best impart our experience and knowledge into your purchasing equation. We like to get to know you and have you get to know us.
We also try and do that with a very friendly and humorous attitude. We remind ourselves regularly to:
1) Not take life too seriously in any situation
2) Don’t sweat the small stuff
3) Care. Care. And keep caring… about all our fellow human beings
4) Have a sense of humor
5) Enjoy life and Stop often to Smell the roses
6) Make sure to only expend that extra energy on what’s really important, like relationships, good communication.
In Missouri, that probably means sitting in the rain and imagining the beauty of things in general but we don’t mind that at all. We do like to tell it like it is. We like to offer a huge variety of choices, with both price and unique one-of-a-kind items. And we offer it all with a smile, hopefully, a laugh or two, and just good-old-fashioned customer service.
We invite you to experience the Ozark Arts & Crafts difference, mostly just by giving us a chance. We hope you enjoy your visit with us and want you as a valued customer.
Policies
At Ozark Arts & Crafts, we refuse to operate based on policy alone. You should never hear the words: “You are right, but it’s against our policy”. We view the word “policy” to be a lazy way of doing business. When there is a complication in resolving a problem, real people hear the facts and make a decision, as opposed to reading a Policy Manual. Sure, we have guidelines and basic rules, but they’re mostly in place to give us a starting point. We would like nothing more than to make people happy, but any resolution to a problem has to consider both the customer’s and Ozark Arts & Crafts’s sides of the equation. We remain flexible to make sure that we do our best to balance both sides. Everyone has a different situation and problem, and we do everything we can to make things right with our customers. You can take a look at our Shipping Policy by clicking HERE.
Does this mean we’ll take a product back well after it’s allowable return time? Probably not. As we stated, we do have rules and guidelines. But frankly, every manufacturer is a bit different as well. So we don’t plop our policies on top of everyone else’s and make you live with that. But mostly, we treat you as a valued customer with respect. And that’s where it all begins.
Problems & Resolutions
No one, or especially no group of people, is ever perfect. We make mistakes. When we do, our guiding philosophy is to make sure the customer doesn’t suffer from those mistakes. If we ship the wrong thing, and it’s really our fault, we’ll pay to return it up and replace it. There’s no reason the customer should have to pay extra shipping because we messed up. At the same time, we expect our customers to treat us the same way. We believe if people are honest, they can expect honesty in return. We don’t believe honesty and truth are situational prerogatives. The bottom line is that if you have a problem, we’ll do everything we can to reasonably solve it based on your personal situation. Please, just Contact Us if you have a problem.
