Final Destination

Your Guy @ EY:
Hey, Mike! Um, Is it okay if I call you Mike?

Michael Rubino:
Of course!

Your Guy @ EY:
So, Mike, start off by telling us a little about your company, Final Destination. What led you to starting your own Yahoo! Store?

Michael Rubino:
Final Destination has been selling Comics and Collectibles online for about 5 years now. We started out as a very small Ebay business and we grew pretty fast. Last year we deiced to take the leap to selling our items on our own website. It was a long and hard transition but now that it is done we have never looked back. Our company is owned and operated by My brother and myself. We grew up together and as the best of friends and have grown to be great business partners. There is nothing like going to work in the morning and knowing that I will be working with my brother, someone I respect and trust.

Because it is just the two of us working together, I like to think that we form relationships with our customers, not just sell them products. Our customers love the attention to detail we have when it comes to shipping out their items, taking care of issues, and just customer service in general. We know most of our customers on a first name basis and even play videogames online with a lot of them.

We love what we do and it shows in our work.

Your Guy @ EY:
It sure does! So tell us-- how'd you find EYStudios?

Michael Rubino:
EYStudios was recommended to us my Solid Cactus. We had hired Solid Cactus to create our website, and since we did sell comic and cartoon related items, they told us to contact Eric at EYStudios to do some illustration work to get the look and feel that we wanted. After out first phone conversation with Eric we were convinced that they were the people to get this job done right. Eric's art work speaks for itself, but the time and effort he put in to find out about us and our business so he could really capture the feel of what we wanted was amazing. We were hooked on day one and have never looked anywhere else for any other artwork or advice we need.

Your Guy @ EY:
Sweet! Eric is talented, but I just wish he paid me more to do these interviews. But, I digress. So, you're coming from the world of comic books and sci-fi. How did that influence what you were looking for in the store design?

Michael Rubino:
This was our first website and to be honest we went in to this not knowing what we wanted. We knew some of the functionality that we needed to give our customer what they have come to expect from us, but as far as the look and feel of the site, we were clueless. It was not until out first phone conversation with Eric that things started to take shape. He has so many good ideas for us and I think we spent about an hour on the phone with him that day just trying figure our what direction we wanted to go in. Eric took input from us and molded it into something that I guess we knew we wanted from the start, but were just not aware of it yet.

Your Guy @ EY:
Okay, so tell us about the actual grind of working on this site design?

Michael Rubino:
We spoke to Eric on a daily basis through out the entire process. We had given then a really difficult job as we had asked for six characters to be created and a logo.

Your Guy @ EY:
You wanted the six characters to represent different product lines you carried, right?

Michael Rubino:
Right, so then from there we needed these characters to be placed in a header for our site. Every single day we either spoke to Eric via email or phone, proofs were sent on time and if something was not exactly what we envisioned the corrections were made the next day.

Your Guy @ EY:
What was the hardest part?

Michael Rubino:
The Logo design was hard for all of us because we really had no idea what we wanted. I think we made Eric do about 12 different designs until we finally got what we wanted, and these were all done in a very speedy fashion. Eric really listened to us. I know some other artists that this their vision is the only vision, but Eric was really just the talent behind our vision. Every logo that was sent our way looked at, we told him what we liked and what we did not like and the next logo was even better until we finally got the perfect one. There was never a push to go with a particular style or feel. And we never felt that maybe we should stop asking for more. Eric was determined to get this right for us and give us exactly what we wanted, even though we had no clue what we wanted when we started.

Your Guy @ EY:
Aside from Eric, what'd you think of the rest of the crew at EYStudios?

Michael Rubino:
EYStudios has the best customer service I have ever had the pleasure dealing with. They are very easy to get in contact with and always polite and ready to fix your problem. Eric has even taken the time out just to call us and see how we are doing and has even called us with ideas he has for our site over a year after the original design. This is how business and customer service should be done. This is how we treat our customers and it is awesome to get that same respect back. I will never go anywhere else for anything I need done. The Artwork is amazing, the Sales Team really pinpoints what you need, but if you can not back that up with customer service it means nothing. EYStudios is the total package in this regard and we could not have asked for a better experience.

Your Guy @ EY:
Glad to hear it, but let's talk results for a second. How has this had an impact on your sales and customer base?

Michael Rubino:
The Header and Logo that EYStudios created for us receives compliments on a daily basis. Our customers love it. I really think that it has impacted sales a lot due to the fact that when a customer sees out home page they get an idea right away of what we sell as well as how we sell it. The illustration really lets people know that we enjoy this and that is why we spent the time and money to make our site look and feel like this. It is fun and exciting right from the start and that is a great way to get a customer to stay and look around.

Your Guy @ EY:
Mike, thanks for doing this interview with us. Anything else you want to add?

Michael Rubino:
We only met Eric about a year ago, but since then he has become a valued friend in business and in our life in general. Our job was completed a year ago, but we still speak to Eric at least once a week. He is always there to give advice and help us. And just to talk about what is going on in the Comic Universe. I know I already said this, but EYStudios is the Total Package. I have never dealt with a company before that I feel so confident in. We know they will be there for me if we need anything and we know that we can recommend there service to anyone and that person will have the same experience we had.

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