Simple for the customer. In a market as mature as bakeries, the barriers to entry aren’t real high. To be great you have to be different. And better. To be better you have to take care of your customers.
I know that is all obvious but the execution is not. When you are baking fresh from scratch by hand every day, which should be the starting point for any great bakery, communicating what you have for sale and when is no easy task.
To fix the problem, I think the key is put ourselves in the shoes of a customer. I travel the country visiting bakeries of all shapes, sizes and kinds. I'm still searching for the perfect solution and it's hard to find. But the bakeries that come closest are the ones that have the strongest commitment to making it easy for their customers.
Over and over again I ask, and I am mainly talking about competitor bakeries, how do you do this and when I get an answer of “don’t worry. Customers figure it out,” I know I am in business with either a limited up side or short life span. Sure, some customers figure everything out. But for each one that does, there are many, many more that just don’t come back.
If you operate in a business that has a universally complex issue, the one that makes it easiest for the customer is the one most likely to be great and not just good. Do I know the answer to this? No. Am I all over figuring it out? You bet!
And I'd love your help. How do you think a bakery should tell you that certain breads are only available on certain days and out of the oven after a specific time?
