“If we’re not happy how can we expect to make our customers happy?” asks John Fischer, founder of StickerGiant. This simple principle is a driving force behind the 10-year-old online sticker business based in Hygiene (a section of Longmont), Colorado. Fischer began the business selling political stickers in the wake of the Bush-Gore election, but soon broadened his horizons to other types of stickers to escape the extreme cyclicality caused by elections. “A lot of places sold stickers for a specific topic but no one had really consolidated,” comments Fischer on the founding of his company. The retail store element of StickerGiant’s business has grown to include over 20,000 SKUs which customers can order online or by phone. The more recent addition to StickerGiant’s business – added about two and half years ago – is the custom sticker business where consumers and companies can design their own stickers to be printed. Fischer estimates the custom business represents about 80% of the company’s revenues and profits. The two business units combined to make StickerGiant the largest sticker sales organization in the country.
The company’s largest custom customer is Fender Guitars, which orders thousands of stickers per year, but Fischer seeks to provide the same quality service to companies of all sizes from the Fortune 500 to the mom-and-pop shop down the street. Other notable clients include WordPress and many of the TechStars teams, but the company serves hundreds of traditional brick and mortar businesses in addition to the tech crowd. StickerGiant offers online tools for companies that want to self-serve but also provides the support of a variety of professionals if needed. “We never want to turn to someone and say we can’t print that [sticker] because the graphic is not high enough resolution. If the owner of a muffler shop only has a digital picture of a matchbook that has his logo, we’ll work with that.”
Fischer believes providing a positive customer experience is the most essential element to a sustained business. As part of this effort the company continuously seeks feedback from customers including providing a link on every outgoing email where customers can provide feedback – and may view feedback provided by others. Through providing superior service, Fischer sees many benefits accruing to the company: “Customers are willing to pay a reasonable price for a great experience.” Customers also benefit marketing, as word of mouth referrals are an important driver of new business along with strategic use of online media including Twitter and blogs.
Beyond delivering a positive experience to his customers and employees, Fischer perhaps takes the most pride in the fact that his company has been bootstrapped since its inception. In the beginning, this approach meant lots of time cobbling together different software tools to meet the technology needs of the growing company. Fischer brings a different attitude toward the business than entrepreneurs who may seek to raise funding and look for an exit: “I went into this to create a profitable business.” Now that he has achieved that goal Fischer seeks to keep growing and employing more people in the area. Fischer still sees plenty of growth opportunities within the sticker world – the company has managed to maintain a healthy growth trajectory over the last year despite a challenging economy – and is pursuing strategic opportunities in complementary product lines including embroidered patches.
Having started the company in his basement, the former Whole Foods executive has expanded to inhabit a miniature compound in downtown Hygiene, a friendly locale where visitors are offered tomatoes from the company garden. After meeting his team of a dozen employees and poking through his personal office brimming with product examples, the CEO returns to the subject of the client relationship: “Delighting our customers is mission #1 around here, and it’s my job to make sure that this happens. If we lose sight of that ethic, we lose everything.”
