The importance of feedback

The importance of feedback

This week I got a call from a customer saying that she'd had a problem burning some of our candles. The candles had left a burn mark on her tablecloth and the tealights billowed soot in her ceramic oil burner. To be honest, I was a little flummoxed. Having burned thousands of the candles myself and done really thorough wick testing, it just didn't make sense to me. Having said that, when you make a natural product, you learn that Mother Nature is full of surprises, so I always keep my mind open. I asked her if she could take some photographs of the candle burning so that I could better understand what was going on. The photographs of the offending candles arrived overnight... my first reaction was one of relief. Turns out they are not Queen B candles. My second reaction was disappointment... that she had thought they were Queen B candles in the first place. My third reaction was one of determination... to try to educate people that there are beeswax candles, and then there are Queen B candles.
So, what do I think makes Queen B candles different from other beeswax candles?:
  1. Our wick testing... we have over 1,000 pure cotton wicks in our range to select from. Whilst there are huge differences between the wrong wick and the right wick, there are minute differences between a good wick and the perfect wick. We go for the perfect wick every time. Often that involves months of wick testing. [Just for reference, Queen B wick testing involves wicking up individual samples and labelling the candles. Then testing burning in both controlled and uncontrolled environments. We film the burning for reference, and also have an alarm that goes off hourly so that we can do a visual check and make notes (the eye captures many things that a camera doesn't).Whilst being a perfectionist has some drawbacks in life, none of them are applicable to our candles who are always beneficiaries of that pursuit of the sublime beeswax candle experience (be that online, in the way we package the candles, how we ship or the candles themselves). Can't say its been of much benefit for my love life! The particular tealight candles burned in the photograph sent through to me is from a WA manufacturer. If only our customer had watched our video of comparison test burning of tealights, she would have known to take care. In seven comparison burns, their 9 hour tealight caught fire in every single one.
  2. Our beeswax... you can read more in my post "Why the White Wax Queenie?".
  3. Our integrity - I know that I am a little cynical myself about companies and their promises of great products and great customer service etc. In this day of "delivering for our shareholders" (where everything else is secondary), I am often appalled by how companies behave. Having said that, I am the sole shareholder in Queen B which means that the only person I need to deliver to is myself, and seeing as I am more interested in making a difference than making a profit, I don't have to compromise. Yay.
  4. Our expertise - Our sole focus is on making the world's finest beeswax candles. Unlike beekeepers who make beeswax candles with left over wax, we aren't focused on honey production (and with 10kg's of honey for 1kg of beeswax, there's a lot of honey!). Unlike typical candle companies, we aren't focused on soy or paraffin or blending or fragrancing... we just solely focus on making beautiful Australian beeswax candles.
I can't promise that a Queen B candle will burn perfectly every, single time. That is simply not possible when you are making a natural product, and also difficult when your product is individually hand-made by humans (who are human). Having said that I can promise that we ALWAYS strive to make candles that are worthy of your money, your time and of lighting up your space. We also genuinely appreciate your feedback and stories. Love and light Cate
Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.

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