We were lucky to catch up with Tabatha Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tabatha, thanks for joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?
People will always remember how you make them feel. I own a creative retreat center where we host quilters, artists, paper-crafting, and scrapbooking groups on retreat. When people travel on retreat, they sometimes feel out of their element because they’re traveling to a place they’ve never been to before, they’re not sleeping in their bed, etc. So, we always want people to feel welcome and to let them know if they have any needs, our team is there to help.
We also do pop up “quilt shops” for retreats, where we bring in a selection of pre-cut quilt fabrics and various items. I’ve had 2 customers who asked, “Hey do you have any more of this specific fabric?” than what I have brought to the pop up shops, and I’ve gone back to my studio to pull the rest of that fabric and bring it back to them on retreat and they’ve told me, “Wow, we are so impressed with that level of customer service – most shops or businesses would have just said no or not even offered to bring us that item on retreat.” When you’re on retreat, you only have what you packed so if I know a guest needs something specific to finish their projects on retreat like a specific lime green fabric or they just need “fish fabric,” I’m happy to go that extra mile for them. Most of the time, we experience the bare minimum of customer service in our day to day; if you can simply personalize their experience, listen closely to their needs, and meet them, it’s not hard to go above and beyond and make people feel appreciated.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Tabatha Smith and I have been quilting for 25 years, but truthfully, I was never supposed to quilt. My mother tried to teach me to sew when I was young and declared me “un-teachable” so I almost never picked it up again. I gave quilting a try by accident when my best friend wanted to get into quilting in the 90s, and like a good friend I jumped in and did it with her.
I became completely obsessed with quilting, and now I’ve got 25+ years of quilting experience because I just couldn’t quit! I opened my first quilt retreat center, Camellia Palms Retreat Center, in 2019 in Florala, Alabama, and since then, we’ve hosted over 300 retreats and 3,000 women on quilting, sewing, crafting, and creative retreats. 2019 was also the year I started teaching quilting and I’ve had the absolute pleasure of teaching 1000+ women how to improve their quilting skills and find more confidence. My class portfolio includes beginner quilting, machine applique, foundation paper piecing, One Block Wonders, scrap quilts, collage quilting, orphan blocks, UFOs, quilt design and color theory.
Opportunities in the quilting industry have continued to grow for me as I’ve continued to grow my own business and build my network. In July 2023, I had the opportunity to buy out a local quilt shop that was closing, and I reopened it online as Nona Quilts. And then in August 2024, I also launched my online Quilt Queens membership + community for quilters all over the world. In my membership, quilters get access to my online courses, quilt coaching, weekly sit & sews, challenges, prizes, and deepen their connections with other quilters.
One of my favorite sayings is, “YOU are the queen of your own quilt” because I believe the most beautiful quilts are the ones that make you happy. Many quilters are afraid of making mistakes, they struggle with comparing their quilts to others’, and they are afraid of being criticized for doing things the “wrong way.” So in every area of my businesses, we really try to focus on how we help quilters and crafters feel more confident in themselves, feel more supported and connected to others, and learn to let go of the self doubt and the need for perfection. There are so many different ways to quilt; it’s all about practicing and embracing the process, not just the finished project. I am most proud of this part of our mission more than anything else – when a quilter is proud of herself for doing the thing, and that in itself feels like enough.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My co-founder and business partner for our creative retreat center is my daughter, Taylor. I had dreamed of opening a quilt retreat center for over 10 years, since the first retreat I ever attended, but it took that long for it to be the right time to go for it. When I initially proposed the idea to her, she thought the idea of starting a retreat center and buying real estate sounded too big, so she wanted to test the concept by organizing retreats at other people’s retreat centers. But at that time, we couldn’t actually find very many to hold retreats at, and so she came back and said, “Mom you were right, this is the business model we need!!” and we both laugh about that to this day. We searched for about 6 months for the right property and then bought our retreat center – a beautiful, historic home on the Gulf Coast – from 3,000 miles away (we both lived in Washington State at the time), completely sight unseen. We purchased it, loaded the car, and road-tripped across the US to set it up.
My daughter is a marketing strategist and business coach, so she oversees and creates all of our marketing and promotions, as well as our customer experiences, CRM, automations, and website. I manage all of our day-to-day operations, our team, maintenance, answering the phone, and coordinating with guests who are staying onsite. We have divided up the work in a way that makes us both happy and we both work in our zones of genius.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
Keeping in touch with our past clients and fostering brand loyalty is at the absolute top of the priority list for us! We re-post all of our guest photos that they share with us to our social media and we thank each and every set of guests with a shout out on our facebook page.
Crafters and creatives love to see other people’s works and projects, so when we share people’s photos they sent us of their quilts, scrapbook projects, or even their cookies (we’ve hosted cookie decorating retreats!!), the whole community kind of joins in and comments on how beautiful the projects are.
Our online presence has become its own community, which is so valuable for us and also we appreciate it so much. We are just often in awe of how strong our community is. We always advise other businesses that they need to prioritize this, and know that it takes time to grow. It is not an overnight process, but it pays dividends.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.camelliapalmsretreat.com www.tabathasmith.com skool.com/quilt-queens
- Instagram: @camelliapalms @quiltretreatqueen