Are You Giving Your Clients Tailored Experiences?

I want to tell you a story about tailored experiences and why they are integral to your business. It all starts with our Handsart Key Rug.

When I originally designed this rug, it was for a bespoke client. I knew their home and the office space I was designing for inside and out. I had a very definitive idea of what I wanted this rug to look like—I wanted it to be a very loose, almost random free key.

I didn’t want the pattern to be repetitive or symmetrical—I wanted to add a little more whimsy to it. The clients’ personal style is very Art Deco and I wanted the rug to reflect their style and their space. The rug needed to be sophisticated, subtle, and overall, stunning. I brought in silk highlights to the wool rug and, if I am being honest, it was everything I hoped it would be, and looks stunning in our client's home!

When it came time to design our collection, I knew that it needed to be a part of the collection. But I also knew I would need to simplify it to make it fit into our collection.

I knew we would need to hit a different price point than the wool and silk rug that we had created for our clients. Luckily, I am always up for a challenge!

By switching to 100% New Zealand wool and a square knot, we were able to keep the integrity and class of the rug and produce it at a more affordable price that would handle high traffic areas of the home. We also produced it in different color options—we have tone-on-tone and some higher contrast.

But it still has a similar feel to the original rug. Taking a rug that we designed for our bespoke clients and finding ways to make them more affordable, more accessible, and more universal is one of the many ways we provide a tailored experience at Meredith Heron Collection. This includes changing out the fibres, creating multiple colorways, and offering the rug in a variety of sizes.

So why am I telling you this story? Because creating a tailored experience doesn’t mean you need to redesign the wheel. In our case, we can make subtle changes to an existing rug design that will enable you to take that rug to the next level that you’ve envisioned for your client’s space.

By providing tailored or bespoke experiences to your clients means they can’t shop you—only you do what you do. If your work, as well as their project, looks like everything else we see on Pinterest or Instagram, it’s shoppable. It is not showing your experience and it is not showcasing your talents.

Pro Tip: Providing tailored experiences makes your clients dependent on you —you become their design guru. You will set the foundation for a long-term relationship where they keep calling you and projects keep coming.

Tailored experiences that only you offer are the best way to keep making your work work for you!