Kevin Price, Host of the Price of Business on Business Talk 1110 AM KTEK (on Bloomberg’s home in Houston) recently interviewed Craig Wolfe.
About the interviewee:
Craig Wolfe was the largest publisher in the country of artwork from television commercials having created the first ever animation art lines for Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, M&M/Mars, Pillsbury, etc. I then he went on to sell that company to create CelebriDucks. With this company he created a whole new art form of celebrity rubber ducks of the greatest icons of film, music history, and athletics selling over a million ducks and voted one of the top 100 gifts by Entertainment Weekly while being featured on hundreds of TV shows, magazines, and newspapers including The Tonight Show.
He then addressed the importance of bringing jobs and industries back to America.
The rubber duck was invented in America. Now all are made overseas. We brought the whole industry back to the USA to be the only one making them in America once again! We’re currently doing them for everyone from Harley-Davidson to The Future Farmers of America.
This past year we launched our Cocoa Canard chocolate business beginning with our dairy free and gluten free Spooning Chocolate which is one of the only hot chocolates to instantly mix in a cup of hot water without ever missing the milk!
Tell me about your firm (number of employees, location, type of companies you work with, etc.).
We are outsourced all over the world with around 100 people. Our headquarters are in San Rafael, California with our warehouse in Akron, Ohio. Our US factory is in New York. Our other factory is in Asia. Our art department is in Cincinnati. We work with numerous Fortune 500 companies from SeaWorld to Amazon to Harley-Davidson. We also work with the NCAA, NHL, NBA, MLB, and NASCAR. We are considered the top custom duck manufacturer in the world.
What it means to “put customers first”
Our philosophy is that we treat our smallest customer the same as our largest. In other words, a person selling our products in a small internet on-line store will get the same customer service as say The House of Blues or The New York Yankees!!
Not only that, but our philosophy is immediate response to every customer so there is no delay at all to handling any inquiry.
Our other core philosophy is that anyone can get to a live person almost immediately including the president of the company. In fact, with our animation company, Name That Toon where we were the largest publisher of artwork from television commercials creating the first ever animation art lines for Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Bush, M&M/Mars, etc., I got a call one day from one of our advertisers. He asked why if we were the largest publisher in the country of commercial animation artwork, how come every time he called he got me..the president of the company!!! I love telling that story….it’s humbling, but it also speaks to how I run this business.
What mistake do businesses make when it comes to taking care of customers?
They do not make themselves accessible and treat clients differently giving priority customer service to their largest customers. People are forced to endure endless wait times on hold and you cannot easily get to a live person. Someone has an issue and it takes forever to resolve it. In this day and age, it is important to provide immediate customer service to everyone. And that means everyone…not just your largest customers! Everyone is valued and treated equally and immediately here.
What is your firm doing to demonstrate your beliefs in this principle?
Anyone writing or calling will see the difference. We blow people’s minds. This is what builds brand loyalty not just for our retail customers, our wholesale customers, but also for all the brands who use us to create products for them. People cannot believe how dedicated we are to helping them immediately and how responsive we are to their needs. We take the frustration out of dealing with a business where you cannot get help, answers, problems solved, or even get to a live person. This is what makes us so unique!
Contact information:
www.CelebriDucks.com
www.CocoaCanard.com
