It seems that we are all having difficulties in communicating with customers when they request a custom order and I beleive that it is due to a couple of obvious factors.
 
1) Most of us are very cautious to not open any email coming from an unknown sender and  
2) Many of us have Spam filters, so the emails we artists send to the customer is coming from our private email whereas they expect to get an email from GCU.
 
I strongly suggest that GCU adapt some way, like LinkedIn or Facebook, where an email communication can occur onsite in a safe and secure manner.  The artist should be able to click on a reply link at the customers request and send a message through GCU.  We are spending hard earned money making phone calls all over the land to try and communicate with customers who do not respond to our personal emails.

I  have suggested this before.  on the business card site where we also have custom designs... the first contact comes by way of the business.  they never allow a customer to directly contact us first.  after they "introduce" the buyer, then we are free to communicate through our own email if we work together.  
 
all initial emails include the buyers request and we can choose to try it or let them know we would rather pass it along to another artist.  much more comfortable and secure that way.  

Exactly...the problem with the way things are right now is we artists have no idea whether the customer is actually receiving our inquiries.  My requests from last Thursday are still out in limbo.  I used Corrie's initial contact email with my modifications, waited 24-hours heard nothing.  Since the request was just adding names to wedding invitations, combined with their desired quantity of 300 (and for me adding names to an invitation is about 10 minutes), I went ahead and made the custom order and put the cards in my private gallery.  I contacted the customer with a link and still no communication.  
 
A customer sends a request to a GCU email, then they hear back from an unknown email address which many probably don't open IF the email even makes it through a spam filter.  This is a very unprofessional way to do business and the reputation at stake here is GCU not the artists.
 

Greetings!
 
Excellent points about the unknown email addresses, Doreen and Linda.  I've thought about that, too, and will put something like "Your Greeting Card Universe Card Request" in the subject line.  But who knows if they are even reading the subject line?  And if they are, they might be wondering why they're getting an email from someone who has an aol, gmail, hotmail, etc., email address that has nothing to do with GCU, and decide not to open it.  Then a few days later, they could be feeling miffed because they think that they didn't get an answer back from the artist.
 
And I know that very few people want to hear this, but, I'm going to write it anyway...
 
I can't think of anywhere in 'the real world' where a person can get something 'custom' without paying anything extra for it.  It just doesn't happen.  
 
I like the idea of the custom request, but I think that the way the requests are processed needs to looked at and worked on, to make the experience better for both the artist and the customer.
 
My 2-cents.
 
Penny