I wanted to take a moment and update you on some of the many things we are doing at Professional Estate Sales this year. For example, we are now offering a web based receipt system for our clients so they may more easily and quickly have access to their sales histories, including items sold and the amount an item sold for at a sale on any given day. We also have some amazing sales coming up the in January and February, which is filling up quickly to give everyone a chance to find their treasures.. We are also very proud to announce that we completed 117 estate sales in 2019 making us number one estate sale company for the third year in a row in the state of Georgia based on the most viewed estate liquidation company in the state on the world's largest subscription-based website www.Estatesales.net. We also have continued to maintain an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau as well as on Google Reviews. We look forward to seeing everybody in 2020 and are excited to roll out some additional new features at our sales. In the meantime I wanted share a great read with all of you who have a passion for Estate Sales. Secondhand is my first choice Estate sales, flea markets, and the art of haggling By Mercedes Kraus Jan 21, 2020,
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As we come to the end of 2019 I wanted to take a moment and say Happy Holidays to all of our clients, customers, and friends. I also wanted to thank the crews here at Professional Estate Sales for their dedication and hard work this past year. In such a short period of time, we have grown to be one of the largest estate sales companies serving Metro Atlanta. When I started the company, I could not foresee the many people we would be able to help during many different types of life transitions. It has been both an amazing and humbling experience. This coming week, December 19-22nd will be our final two sales of the year and I hope to see as many of you as I can in the coming days and next year too. Wishing you all the best for a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
Best, Jonathan Professional Estate Sales has had an amazing year to date with over 100 sales completed or planned and in the spirit of giving which comes with the holidays now fastly approaching I am pleased to announce on this, Veteran's Day that for the remainder this year, we’ll be honoring the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. All Veterans with a military ID will receive a 10% discount on the total cost of any purchase, at any sale from now until December 31, 2019.
I would also like to mention we have several upcoming sales I am sure our customers will love. Please check out our upcoming sales to see them all. In particular, in December we have a massive sale scheduled off Regency Drive near the governor's mansion on West Paces ferry to be held 5 December 2019. Best regards, Jonathan What an amazing October we are having! I am very proud to announce we are completely booked through the middle of November. I am also happy to announce we still have at least 2 more VIP sales in 2019!
Please take a look at our upcoming sales and always remember that you can pre-purchase almost any items from our sales. You can call or email me at any time regarding pre-purchase items. I would like to thank our many regular customers for giving us the wonderful opportunity to serve you over the years. It is our desire to keep you satisfied with our services and ongoing improvements in our staffing and pricing models. I am pleased to say, we will be presenting 4 sales every weekend through the end of October 2019. We will also be announcing 3 VIP sales coming up in the next 2 months. If you are not familiar with the VIP program, VIP Cards And Membership cost $10 initial fee and provide you with: VIP Mailing List, Special Pre-estate sale invites and events, 10% off final negotiation price up to $100 a day in savings
The card must be presented to cashier at time of check out. You, our customers, are our inspiration in doing our very best. Thank you and remember; we value you! We had another fantastic weekend in Marietta and Woodstock. It is always great to see our regular customers. We are looking forward to seeing everybody in Suwannee this weekend for our Labor Day Sale. I am also pleased to announce we have brought on to new full time employees and look forward to to introducing them to our customers.
As I previously posted in my blog, yes, now that all the kids are back in school the estate sale season will start to slow down. Although some other companies will slow down we at Professional Estate Sales will continue to have at least one sale every weekend and in fact, on most weekends we will still have two sales. I am also happy to say that we are booked solid until late September and have many high-end sales I know our VIP customer will enjoy, coming just around the corner.
As I also mentioned we are also refining our customer service model. Some of the regular customers may have noticed some staffing changes have been made, Sadly, some of our crew have moved on to new opportunities and we are adding new people to the crew as appropriate. I have also implemented very stringent controls around documentation for all sales, to protect both the sellers and the buyers we work with each week. Although some small accidents do happen, it is my goal with these new controls to ensure they happen minimally if at all. I am also partnering with several new specialty appraiser services to ensure our pricing remains in line with current market conditions. Like the stock market, the antiques and collectibles market changes with time, our new pricing approach is designed to ensure we remain competitive in the ever-changing landscape. As always, your feedback is always welcome Best regards, Jonathan As a follow up to my blog entry entitled “Is the customer/client always right?” I wanted to take a moment and share some additional changes I am planning to make to Professional Estate Sales. For some time now our sales volumes have been increasing; normally a good thing for a business owner, however, it has also presented some unique challenges to my vision for the company. With volumes growing, running numerous sales per week and in multiple locations, my desire to ensure we are providing the best service possible to our clients and customers has been straining, leading to small but still unacceptable mistakes.
Satisfying our customers remains my highest concern. Ensuring we contract only the sales we feel we can truly support to our highest standards has led me to conclude in some cases we must say no. However, in keeping with my desire to ensure no client or customer is left without recourse I am working with my peers in the business to build a referral network where in if Professional Estate Sales is not your ideal match we can ensure you are directed to a well-vetted and reliable resource which can fit your needs. With school starting soon, estate sales generally start to decrease. This is normal and natural ebb and flow in the business. This year as the peak season winds down, we are planning to take time to utilize the lull and lessen our weekly sales to a maximum of two sales per week. This will give us time to give every client the VIP treatment we are used to giving while also refining our customer service model. I will post more on the improvements we are making shortly. Until then, we look forward to seeing all our regular customers and meeting new ones. Best regards, Jonathan We are having a record July so far and we are looking to continue the momentum this weekend with 3 more high quality sales! Come out and see us in Dahlonaga and then go check out historic downtown, it is worth the trip. Additionally we have a sale off Briarcliff with a ton of rare signed memorabilia you don't want to miss. You can also find us in Acworth with another high end sale with something for everyone.
We look forward to seeing each of you at the sales this weekend. You are also invited to check out our updated website. We have made changes to the website to make it easier to navigate on your mobile device. As always, your feedback is always welcome. Best regards, Jonathan In my blog, I try to offer interesting observations about the Estate Sale Business. Professional Estate Sales has grown so quickly and I and the team have learned a lot about customers and clients in the past few years which leads me to the title of this blog, So when we say, “The customer is always right,” what does that mean?
In the days before I was a business owner, it meant that no matter what they, the customer, asked for or how they asked for it, the people who were paying for something got their way. Now as a business owner, I’ve come to understand that this phrase means something slightly different. Yes, the customer is always right, but not because they get all their demands met or they get to be dictators about timelines or processes or fees. The customer is right because ultimately the customer is the only one who can say if they’re happy or not. For the purposes of this post, I will use the term customer interchangeably to reference both the clients who engage Professional Estate Sales to manage their sale as well as the end customer who come to our sales and make purchases. Customer satisfaction can only be judged by one person: the customer. Some customer will be unhappy. It doesn't matter how good I and my team perform or how hard I have tried to understand my customer's desires for an estate sales outcome. It won't matter that just about every other customer I’ve ever had has been not just happy but thrilled with the work my team and I have done for them nor that every weekend we hold sales where we have many repeat customers whom we now regard as friends. As the customer, only they can be right about their level of satisfaction. I nor my team can make everyone happy, this has been a tough lesson to learn as both I and my team make it our mission to ensure every customer is satisfied and treated fairly. Over the years I’ve encountered some customers who I have not been able to please. A customer who insists that they are dissatisfied will remain dissatisfied. This is something that is rarely changeable. And let me tell you, I have no problem letting them be right and therefore, letting them go. I have come to understand, reluctantly, I nor my team can satisfy everyone, every time. Slamming your head against the wall trying to make someone happy after you’ve given them your best doesn’t help either you or your customer. You’re keeping your customer from seeking help from someone who might actually be able to help them on terms they are willing to accept. And you’re keeping yourself from being of service to people who want what you have to offer in the way you have to offer it. The customer may be right, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It may just not be a good fit. And in life, I have come to learn not every situation is a good fit. I will never please everyone, although a utopian dream, it is one I now understand I can not deliver on. The question I have had come to terms with is, how long are you going to beat yourself up about it before you set yourself and your customer free? In our digitally empowered world, these lessons become all the more important. In a time when one can simply type a bad review based on a perceived injustice they feel without factual evidence, it leaves business owners at a disadvantage. Try as we might, to provide the best services possible and the best pricing possible, we can not please everyone. What we can do is encourage everyone to do your research. A simple fly-by review on any website may not tell the whole story. Before engaging an estate sale company, ask for references, make phone calls, make sure you are comfortable with everything that is about to happen. And if you a customer at a sale make yourself known. More often than not a simple conversation will settle any issues that may have arisen. The keys, I have learned, are transparency and open lines of communication. Best Regards, Jon |
Jonathan's CornerJonathan Savoy is an entrepreneur at heart and currently the Managing Partner for Professional Estate Sales, LLC based in the Atlanta Metro Area. In my blog I will share weekly updates about the company, the estate sale industry and other information I hope you will find useful and entertaining. Archives
December 2020
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