It was posted by the self-described “An Angry American.”  He or she said:

There are so many products in THIS country that need to be recycled, that I cannot understand why you would not want to give jobs to the unemployed here…This disgusts me….

I do not wish you well with this venture….

This barbed comment was in response to our story about a young company that is recycling food and rice bags in Cambodia into durable and interesting bags.

We tend to get one of these “Made in USA” fan objections anytime we talk about an international product.  I don’t mind them–these are people expressing their values and they are normally respectfully delivered. (Here’s a good example in the discussion about a very popular Grommet, GripStics.)  But this Torrain bags comment was so unbalanced that it made me think more deeply about how we manage our discussion board, and to share some examples and lessons learned.

When one of these “tough” comments comes in, the team at Daily Grommet often waits with bated breath for our colleague Katherine Klinger to respond.  Why?  Because she is so skillful and continually surprising. In the case of answering “Angry American,”  Katherine wrote:

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you used your passion to start a product line that employs Americans? We’d be the first to want to hear about it! You’d be especially interested in Grommet stories such as American MoJo or Blue Moon Bottles.

Given our 800+ Grommet partners and 20 product categories, we have a difficult remit when we initiate a discussion. We cover stories about ground-breaking innovations ranging from mushroom growing kits, to alternative funerals, to feminine hygiene.  That’s practically asking for complexity, if not trouble.

The nature of any given website is going to be fairly predictive of its particular difficult dialogue.  If Daily Grommet only covered “sustainable/green” products, we would have activists in that space carefully watching us and contributing daily.  (And we do have a nice representation of those people everyday anyway.)

If we were a fashion site we would have people commenting more breezily about the Grommets, and probably just giving opinions rather than asking a lot of penetrating questions.

If we were a deal site, we would have community members monitoring pricing very carefully  This is exactly why you do not see open discussion boards on the deal sites (like Groupon, Fab.com, Gilt Groupe).  A CEO at one of the leading sites told me,

Yeah, we [deal sites] all pulled our discussion boards.  People just post complaints about the prices and share links about where to get things cheaper.  I’m amazed you guys [at Grommet] keep such a positive tone going every day.

I think we have such a positive tone because we are celebrating inspiring stories.  You might not groove on a given company or product, but it is hard to beat up on a Grommet creator for pursuing their passion. Yet the other reason for the tone of our discussion boards is skillful management by Katherine Klinger, who sets a high bar for all of us who contribute.

I asked Katherine how she approaches the more difficult cases.  She said,

I feel that we bring our commenters [Grommet creators] here as a special guest and as such try to stop conversations that are going down an unproductive road. We owe it to them to keep the conversation focused on their products and mission. If this were a discussion board with no special guest, I might instead explore what people think about some of these topics. When I write a reply, I try to not be defensive and I try not to give them any hooks to latch on to to come back with another similar post.

I also asked Katherine which recent responses were particularly challenging for her or the team.  In the screen shot case below, we had a rare instance of a person on a vendetta against the Grommet creator. The screen shot is hard to read, but basically we deployed the VERY rare nuclear option of deleting a community comment.  We hesitate to do that and always indicate that we have done so.  Generally we welcome negative comments as they might reflect some general concerns, and it is great to have a chance for us and our partners to address them.  But when a person just attacks another person for some matter outside of Daily Grommet, we don’t let it stand.  (It is our digital equivalent of “take it outside, kids.”)

Katherine also cited the difficult tenor of the conversation around Spirit Hoods, which are playful faux fur hats.  This story brought out the wrath of a couple of animal rights activists.  Complicating matters,one of our very loyal Grommet fans came back at the animal rights person a bit too zealously.  It would have gotten ugly quickly, if Katherine did not tip in. Here is the strand.

To try to summarize, here’s what works at Grommet in creating a productive discussion board:

• Think “sideways” when a tough comment comes in. Katherine is the master at looking at things differently, rather than frontally.  When we have a difficult email to write, we often consult her.  For instance, we like to check directly with a customer if we see an unusual order come in (like one for 20 pair of work overalls).  Katherine advised, “Don’t send an email asking if the order is a mistake.  Just thank the person for the order, while clearly calling out the order contents.  If it is a mistake they will be the first to tell us.”  (The 20 pair of work overalls were ordered by a drama teacher–they were costumes for a student play.)
• If you are CEO or a senior leader in your company, pay close attention to the discussion board. I personally read every comment every day.  I answer many.  These comments are not “optional” to me.  They tell me what people are thinking and feeling, and I can also help set a tone in how we respond by taking on some of the dialogue myself.  I make it clear that it is worth my time to do this, and it is highly valuable work for anyone in the company.
• Know the difference between an ordinary negative comment and one that is going to lead to a death spiral. Ordinary comments generally represent a criticism based on a different point of view, or a bad experience with the product or service.  NEVER delete those.  But comments that get personal, or are just an extended rant, need to be reigned in.  Make sure your posting guidelines are clear about that, as you do not want to create unique policy on the fly.
• Understand the value of negative comments. Studies have shown that negative comments mixed in with positive ones actually increase the purchase rate for products.  Why?  People trust what is on the discussion board better, as being unedited and true.  This trust can be extended to any kind of discussion board that lets negative comments stand.  And in the case of product reviews and comments, people may not be concerned with the negative aspects that are raised, in regards to their own use of the product.  They understand that no product is perfect for absolutely everyone.

The biggest piece of advice about discussion boards I could give is:  hire a Katherine!  When I read the comments at some of my favorite e-commerce sites I often see robotic responses to customer complaints.  These replies look like someone pressed the “send that canned [fill-in-the-blank] response” button.  It’s admittedly a very labor-intensive effort to manage a discussion board (and not everyone at Daily Grommet itself agrees with our emphasis on this!), but I would not initiate one if you are not prepared to follow through with it in a real and human way.

This post is part of our Staff Picks series — we hope you enjoy discovering our favorites!

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 Grommets that make life easier or do things better are my picks. Here’s a few home problem solvers I would recommend. – Joanne, Discovery Team

  

I get amazing results grilling on the Cookina mat. I will never grill salmon again without it.

Pills age perfectly good clothes prematurely. Gleener refreshes and rescues my knits from those awful fuzz balls.

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Coverflex lids are a smart, green alternative to plastic wrap. The silicone material grips surprisingly well and keeps an airtight seal.

We hope you’ve enjoyed Joanne’s favorite Grommet finds, do you have a favorite? We’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below!

This post is part of our Staff Picks series — we hope you enjoy discovering our favorites! 

                            –
  I’m a very picky shopper but these Grommets are things I really love. I like to keep things minimalist yet offbeat and these Grommets are right on the money. - Ray, Supplier Support Team

  

Too many electronics look like jet engines. Tivoli’s wood finish and knob controls make it really stand out.   

Who says exposed lighting can’t be sexy? No need to dress a Plumen since it’s awesome to look at bare.

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The less I have in my pockets the better. ZerOZ is a nice slim wallet that helps me do just that.

We hope you’ve enjoyed Ray’s favorite Grommet finds, do you have a favorite? We’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below!

above: pink lemonade & sweet tea below: iced coffee & hot coffee

Since Cuppow seems to be such a hit, we thought it’d be fun to give some away! Enter to win your own Cuppow lid. Simply leave a comment here letting us know what you would fill up your mason jar with and we will choose three winners at random. Good luck! General contest rules: To enter, you must be a U.S. resident and at least 18 years of age. You must leave a comment on this post.  No purchase necessary. Winners will be randomly selected and notified by email.  Employees, contractors, and the families of employees and contractors of Daily Grommet, Inc. are not eligible to enter. Void where prohibited. Contest will end May 9, 2012 at 9 am PST.

I suspect that these home improvements stimulate the production of the natural “contentment” chemical substance–oxytocin–for me. There is something about taking good care of my house (and my family by extension) that is mood-enhancing.  And I believe that the enormous numbers of women who report the calming, mood-lifting effect of Pinterest to be experiencing some version of the same oxytocin effect.

Why?  Take a look at a tiny snippet of my “Gardening” board on Pinterest, below, and an amateur deconstruction of my oxytocin theory, which depends on three key components of oxytocin production:  generosity, trust, and optimism:

Generosity: sharing a project doubles its pleasure. In the first two photos I am pinning my spring garden.  Coincidentally, I do almost all my gardening in my front yard because I enjoy sharing it.  I am away from home most of the week and I like the notion that people are passing by appreciating it in my absence.  I feel generous and oddly connected to strangers, which is a documented oxytocin benefit. But now Pinterest enables me to share my garden with, literally, anyone with an internet connection, in a context that makes more sense than, say, Flickr, Facebook, or Instagram.   And I get a slice of that same enjoyment in looking at garden pins from other people.

Trust: Pinterest enables people to help each other. In the third pin above, (the purple balls) I am sharing a photo of a garden sculpture I want to make.  I am having a little trouble copying what I found in this French garden, so I pinned the photo and asked for suggestions.  According to the neuroeconomist and TED talk-giver Paul J. Zak, I just produced an oxytocin moment for the people who follow me on Pinterest.  Apparently, one of the central ways to stimulate oxytocin is to give a sign of trust to another person.  Zak is publishing a book about it called The Trust Molecule.  It’s very low-demand, but putting this project up and asking for help enables other people to have that feeling of being trusted.  Odds are, I will follow their advice and probably even report back.  According to Zak, the mere act of sharing trust is a tiny step to creating a more stable society.

Pinterest is entirely optimistic. Pinboards roughly divide into two categories.  One is “here is who I am.”  (Or at least the parts I am proud of, like my garden.)  The second is “here is who I am going to be.”  This second category is very interesting.  It is optimistic and future-facing. Pinning is like losing weight, cooking fabulous food, dressing beautifully, travelling to exotic places, and displaying great taste…with none of the actual effort.  This is who I will BE, and no one can argue with that.  In my case, I created an “Easter Projects” board full of the charming and obsessive things I would make IF I had time.  I am telling the world:

I am really am like THIS person, even though I don’t, um, actually have that life right now. But I would if I could, and I will some day.

And oddly, the mere act of pinning these projects, knowing full well I would never make them, gave me half the satisfaction of actually doing them.  And as proof (to myself) that these boards can someday be my reality, I used my “Need a new haircut” pinboard  to actually figure out a new hairdo. I made this board to show my hairdresser what I wanted, and to solicit input from a couple friends on my finalist choices.  So Pinterest can be concretely useful to organizing a project, which contributes to my optimism about the much more unrealistic boards I create.  (But for the life of me, I have no idea why 333 people decided to follow my haircut board.)

It’s a pretty rare and special thing for a bunch of pixels on a website to provide a consistently pleasant and personal experience.  The “oxytocin effect” of Pinterest is not dependent on delivering great new pins every day, or dumb humor, or exceptional stories.  I can look at my home page, find nothing of interest, but still wander over to fuss with  my own boards and feel…content.  I am tending my future.  (I have boards for trips I am actually planning, and trips I will never take.  Boards for house projects I am doing and houses I will never own. Boards for business ideas, meals, parties, inspirational people, gifts. Basically anything that I can capture online, visually, that I want to remember.)   And I probably spend a maximum of ten minutes a day on the site, so it is not as though it takes a lot of work.

Pinterest is the site that gives and does not take.  Clearly, being the fastest growing site in history, Pinterest is playing with more than pins and pixels.

The carrier was requiring that he present some written proof that he was authorized to pick these up so he asked me for a handwritten letter signed by someone with an attached business card proving that he was from Daily Grommet. I went over to Kate and June to see if either of them could write something up. Kate wrote something quickly and instead of scanning it she just told me to take a picture of her holding both and sent it over. It was all pretty funny on our end but then Steve called me 2 minutes later saying everyone was cracking up by the cargo bay as well.

We love that each day brings something new and somehow each Grommet we feature, ends up having it’s own unique behind the scenes story. It’s never boring around here!

What would you do with 8,000 pounds of coffee grounds? If you’re Nik Arora and Alex Velez, you recycle that amount every week to make soil for growing mushrooms. We featured these two young entrepreneurs and their company, Back to the Root last year and we’ve been cheering these guys on ever since.

Check out this great interview they recently did with CBS News.

Our relationships with our Grommet partners last well beyond their feature day, they become a part of our Grommet family. Nik and Alex, they’re like our little brothers — go got ‘em guys!

You can see our original video with Nik and Alex here.

One blogger we connected with was Aimee who shared that a group of craft and DIY bloggers were getting together for a real-life Pinterest Party.  Their mission: to make all those craft ideas they had been pinning on Pinterest.  Each woman brought a brunch item to share, $20 to cover materials and joined in for a day of crafting, connecting, and sharing.

Check out their supply set up.

And here’s the group crafting away.

Aimee, Jaime, Andrea, Maegan, and Rebecca — enjoying their Pinterest Party.

We thought this was such a fun idea that we sent along our favorite crafting tools by Slice for them to use.

This is Bev crafting some fabric earrings.

A fun shot of the group with their canvas craft.

You can read more about the groups Pinterest Party here. Also, we’ve listed all the craft and DIY bloggers’ links below if you’re feeling a bit crafty, check them out (and if you’ve gotten a sudden urge to hop on to Pinterest, you can connect with us here — we’re likely pinning right now too)!

Thank you for sharing Aimee, we can’t wait to see what you make at your next Pinterest Party!

Aimee – http://www.fancylittlethings.com

Bev – http://www.flamingotoes.com/

Jaime – http://polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com/

Andrea – http://www.thetraintocrazy.com/

Maegan – http://www.ilovechesterrific.com/

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“… professional food & lifestyle photographers & filmmakers, travelers and gardeners. Fueled by our love of local culture, people & rich heritage, we document powerful stories from around the world.”

A glimpse of Todd & Diane's blog, WhiteOnRiceCouple.com

Honestly, they had me at “stories.” As I listened to Todd and Diane share  their passion of capturing someone’s story and telling it through photographs and video,  I instantly wanted to get to know them better. Storytelling, now this is a topic that feels familiar and comforting. It’s what we do here at Daily Grommet, everyday. It’s what gets us going in the morning — capturing the story of a great product and the people who love it and sharing that story with the world. Surprisingly, the luncheon became less about food and more about the story of everyone in the room. Themes of community and connecting  seemed to fill the air (don’t get me wrong, there was some amazing food happening as well).

Here’s a peek at the food.

But it really was the stories of the people I met that made a lasting impression.

Like Alex Thomopoulos — a student, turned comedian, turned gluten free chef. She’s pretty funny and has a very interesting story.

And Joy, who has been baking with her father for as long as she can remember. She created a blog to share her baking journey with the world and has just released her first book — Joy the Baker. She also makes some amazing frosting (it’s dangerously good).

I also met up with long-time Daily Grommet friend Ciaran, creator of Francie Pants. Her story is ever-changing as entrepreneurs tend to shake things up in small and big ways. Looking forward to seeing what she does next!

And of course it wouldn’t be a successful outing without a little Grommet scouting. I discovered two possible Grommet ideas, both delicious I have to say. Stay tuned!

follow us on Instagram and check out more photos from this luncheon.