AR Friends,

Happy new year to all of you and may 2012 be full of great and safe
adventures!

I would just like to thank the guys at Safari Classics for the great job
they do for us of getting our name out there on Tracks and Hornadys Africa. When
you compare our sponsorship of the TV shows to our print media advertising
and all the other marketting we do (at significant expense) I will say its
the TV that seems to work the best. They reach the viewers that are our kind
of customers and each week we have positive feedback and new leads as a
result of the shows and their efforts.

The extra work that they do in the field getting our logo out there, doing
tips, and making sure our name is associated with ethical hunting is a very
valuable asset to us.

I look forward to seeing you at the show in Dallas this week...

Thanks Again,

Dan Catlin, GM

Dan,

I am glad it works for you. But as you point out, all that advertising costs money, and at the end of the day, we pay for it. That is why I have never considered doing business with you - you must cost a lot more than my local guy. But here is your chance to dispel that perception!

Taxidermy is one discipline in which you can find some guys doing really great work at very reasonable prices. But they don't advertise. And they never get "too big." The best taxidermists still do the final touches themselves.

The other issue is shipping. I just enjoy visiting my local taxidermist, discussing poses in person, etc. I would rather pay for their artistic talent than shipping charges.

I am a business owner myself. You can spend all kinds of money on advertising, but talking to your customers is the best way to find out how well you are doing. I am amazed I have never had a single taxidermist call me to see how happy I am, how my business is going, etc. That conversation would reveal how many hunts I have planned and what I am planning on having mounted. Multiply that by 100 and you have a pretty good idea how business is going.

Thanks for supporting TAA and AR.

AnotherAZwriter - I do understand your comments and respect the face to face time with your Artist. We do everything we can to bridge this gap with my customer service people carrying I-phones and being available at all hour with calls, emails, and photos of the work when needed. In addition, we do a personal web page for your project with weekly updates of photos as the projects are in process. Not always as nice as stopping in the shop personally, but does keep the client informed. On the business side, customers that stop and just want to talk slows down the production of our work, and hurts every customers turn around time. So it can be a benefit to our productivity to not have every client coming through the shop on a daily or weekly basis...

In regards to our prices, we are definitely not the cheapest, but we are not the most expensive either. I would be more than happy to send you a price list. The old saying you get what you pay for is true in taxidermy most of the time. I feel my staff is more than qualified for any project, but there is the rare occasion that a local guy or gal does it just as well and keeps their prices way down because they do it as a second job, or their spouse is the real bread winner so they are only a supplemental income. The shipping part of it is certainly an added expense when your trophies are not handled locally. I do have my own delivery people that make runs across the country every month with multiple customers trophies. This allows me to keep the charges tolerable by splitting up the fee's with multiple customers at one time. I'm also just trying to break even on my delivery costs and not make profit like freight companies, UPS and the like...

One thing I have always tried to keep at the front of my mind when building our business, and developing trust with a client that may live a thousand miles away, is customer service. Communication, timeliness, and doing what we say we are going to do, is the most important thing. We are very systematic in our approach to every aspect of our business, and even with all the checks and balances something will inevitably get missed. We are far from perfect, but I feel we will be defined by how we handle mistakes rather than success. When we make a mistake, because we all do, it's VERY important for me and my staff to "Do the right thing" even if it cost us in the short term. By being honest and taking accountability we will most often retain future business rather than lose that client for the future, and be "bad mouthed" for eternity.

In regards to the "finishing touches", all of our work is critiqued by multiple Master Taxidermists. Which is very uncomfortable at times and the "egos" (including mine SMILE) has to be checked at the door. Before I became part of a big Team like The Wildlife Gallery, some of the mounts I was producing I felt were perfect. Well, when you have a forum of experts you work with and around, you can't slide anything under the carpet or past the uninformed customer. The final inspection process that I have implemented at our studio, prior to any mount loading in the trailer for delivery, often hurts one of my guys or gals feelings at some point. The bottom line that all my staff has bought in to is a happy customer is a repeat customer, and a repeat customer equals job security...

Thanks for the comments and the opportunity for me to explain more about our business and business practices. And thanks again to Safari Classics for believing in our business and branding us in the hunting and outdoor world!!!

Dan Caltin, GM