Whether you’ve been running a bakery for 10 days or for 10 years, there’s always room for learning and improvements when it comes to running a business. Don’t panic, we’re not here to point out the things you’ve been doing wrong, but to help you figure out what you can do better.
While running a bakery, it’s always important to keep an open mind and keep your eyes open to all the changes that are taking place around the industry, and in the process your business will most certainly evolve as well. So these are some things you can do to embrace the changes and yet make your customers feel the same way about you!
A Simple Smile Makes Their Day Better
Whether your customers are in a hurry to get to work on time or they’re enjoying their time at your bakery, being nice to them is always an important thing. How you serve your customers directly affects their liking or disliking towards your business. If you welcome them with a smile, they might just return the favor with a long lasting commitment to your brand. So always be nice to your customers, regardless of the number of times they visit you, and regardless of what they purchase.
Your Degree Doesn’t Define Your Skills
It doesn’t matter whether you have studied culinary arts, or have completed a degree from a certified institute, your skills are something that you will develop only through your experiences. Running a business is hard without a degree but with that being said, it’s harder keeping your customers satisfied if you’re not skilled in what you are selling. Cooking is certainly an art, and serving your customers what they desire is a skill. You have to be patient with your learning process and you will get there just in time.
Caring Helps In The Long Run
Caring for your customers will bring them further close to you. While running any business, being loyal to your customers will make your customers remain loyal to you. The same goes with care, it’ll keep them around for a long time.
With the rise in the demand of vegan and vegetarian food, it has become a necessity that you keep the diets of your customers in mind while serving them. You can use colored labels or sections to differentiate between different foods for different diets such as vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, diabetes-friendly and so on.
Keeping a small bench outside your bakery will help your customers relax and enjoy their cookies while enjoying the view outside.
Placing bike racks for your customers will help them park their bikes hassle free and they will certainly feel motivated about using bikes which further promotes healthy ways of transportation.
Having a ramp at the entrance will help your customers wheel into your bakery or enter with their baby strollers without any difficulty. Ramps are a part of your customers’ rights and it will make it easier for everyone to enter and exit easily.
We all loved to be cared for, don’t we? These are the simplest things you can do for your customers as well as your business, so why don’t take the efforts?
Now it’s time for some useful marketing tips for your business, so read on!
The Bad Day For The Bread
It’s certainly not possible that all your goodies will get sold out everyday. The same goes with your bread and cakes that couldn’t get sold on the first day. Maybe a newly-launched product isn’t moving off the shelves as quickly as you’d like it to. You can sell these out without needing to throw them away or discontinuing them altogether. To do this, you should come up with creative solutions such as pairing them up with another product or using the good old “Buy that and get this free” or “Buy two get one free” tactic. You should just pair them up with another product that gets sold more frequently or perhaps is one of your best sellers.
Different Customers, Different Diets
Different kinds of customers require different kinds of foods. There’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to serving food. Including trending diets into your menu will make everyone feel included. To sell your products efficiently and make them customer friendly, you can always design a menu which is inclusive of different types of diets such as vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, diabetes-friendly and the latest trends in the market.
Toss In The Dozens
The more the merrier. Similarly, your customers will certainly appreciate the attractive discounts on the purchase of “a dozen of” whatever products you can sell in dozens. Besides, “Buy a dozen and get two free!” sounds better than “Buy 12 and get two free!”
The Big Biters And The Small Biters
Adding portion sizes to your menu will make it easier for your customers to order food without hesitating about the leftovers. Most of the customers either bring their kids along when they are visiting the bakery or have kids at home; for whom they want to buy food. Kids have a smaller appetite than adults and serving food items that are made with keeping kids or different portion sizes in mind will get your business flourished. So start selling different portion sizes for different costs and your customers will love you even more.
Everyone Is Thirsty!
If you aren’t selling beverages already, go update your menu immediately! Beverages bring in sales! Oftentimes, more sales than other food items combined. Everyone is thirsty! So make it your strength and sell those beverages.
Keep Up With The Trends
With the rise in the usage of social media, food trends keep coming and going everyday. Some of these trends stay for a longer time than others. You can always learn to capitalize off of the newest trends and demands of your customers.
Email Sign-up Lists
With email sign-up lists you can always keep your customers in touch with your latest products, events, food sales and discount offers. This is a good way to always keep your customers updated about your brand.
Social Media Is The New Game
Nowadays people validate things and form opinions on the basis of social media. Having an attractive social media presence is only going to help you in the long run. Investing in a good team to handle your social media accounts is always the wiser choice and even if you’re doing it yourself, there are a number of platforms that provide free as well as paid online courses to study social media marketing.
We hope you loved this article, and we could help you understand the simplest ways to improve your baking business. All the best for your endeavors!
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