What Do You Do When You Can't Get In Touch Of A Customer
Business By luelue1971 Updated 4 Jun 2009 , 1:03pm by alvarezmom
I have a carved guitar cake due on Friday (its now Wednesday). The customer order the cake about 2 weeks ago. During our initial discussions, by email, she offered to meet me on Friday. She told me to let her know what time I needed to meet with her so she could take off work early if she needs to.
When I received her payment I emailed to let her know and told her I would be in touch.
I have sent her 3 emails since then and called her house and left 4 voice messages. I have gotten NO RESPONSE.
I don't know what to do as we decided on the design but she never told me her flavor choices.
What should I do?
There's always the chance that her cable service is down, happened to me this weekend. I had no phone, tv, or internet service for three days.
True, but I can't imagine it is down at home and at work. Her phone answering is a machine not a phone voicemail service. And we are both in small towns so its generally not all on the same network.
It sounds like you have been paid, so what I would do is just make it in plain vanilla with vanilla buttercream. If she balks, just say, I am sorry, but I could not get a hold of you everywhere I tried, so I went for something everyone typically enjoys.
I would shoot her off an e-mail stating that unless you have an e-mail or phone call from her by 2:00 (or whatever time you decide) TODAY you are going to consider the order cancelled, as you can not bake the cake without knowing what flavor she wants. That should get the point across.
I was paid in full. I'm happy to make the cake of course but if its going to be in vain I have many other things to do.
If I do give her a time limit to respond and she doesn't do I refund her payment, partial or in full?
You've already been paid for the cake, so I would make it & if nobody picks it up, that's her fault. If it comes down to the last minute & you still haven't heard from her, I would just bake the cake in plain old vanilla or white. Make sure to leave her another message that you will be doing this though. That way, if she does happen to show up for her cake even though she hasn't been in contact with you, at least you will have something for her. If she doesn't show up on Friday, put it in the freezer & send her a certified letter that you have the cake & will be holding on to it for "xx" amount of days. Whenever you do hear from her, just explain why you had to freeze it & pick the flavors for her (although it should be obvious). Iif she calls you later & says she forget, etc. etc. by no means offer any refund!
Has she ever ordered from you before? If she has, maybe she had a flavor she typically went with?
If you've been paid in full, I agree that you could make it with basic flavors and have it ready for her when she does contact you. I don't sell cakes, but I think the average person would be looking for the wow factor of the shape/decoration, not as concerned with the flavor.
She has never ordered from before. I am supposed to meet her on Friday on my way to a craft show. There is really no way I could freeze the cake.
My freezer won't hold it and I won't be able to come home after the supposed delivery.
I haven't left details on her voicemail for fear that it is supposed to be a surprise for her daughter. I did find the daughter on facebook so should I try to send her a meesage that way.
I had a very bad experience with a customer a couple weeks ago and they are from the same town though they contacted me by different avenues.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-632831.html
I just don't want to go through that again.
If I do give her a time limit to respond and she doesn't do I refund her payment, partial or in full?
Me, personally, I would keep it! lol If the client pressed the issue I would maybe refund part of the cake. Have you already bought supplies? You've already exhasted time and energy trying to track her down just to find out the flavor of her cake! That alone IMHO entitiles you to keep atleast enough to cover the amount you spent on the supplies/ingrediants.
At this point I would go ahead and leave a message on the answering machine. It's not going to be much of a surprise to ruin, if there is no cake! You also need to find out where to meet her. I wouldn't message the daughter- it's really nothing to with her- unless you want to find out what her favorite flavor of cake is! But she might be wondering why the crazy lady is stalking her on facebook asking her about cake! lol
I don't want to be morbid here, but it's possible something's happened - like maybe she's been in some kind of accident or ended up in the hospital or something. Can you call her office switchboard and ask for her to see if they can at least tell you whether she's still there? And if she is, I'd ask the receptionist to please give her an URGENT message to contact you.
If you find out she's fine and simply didn't return your calls or e-mails, then that's a different story and I'd probably do a 50% refund, but certainly not all of it. That money partly paid to hold the date for her so you didn't accept other orders and that's worth something, not to mention the supplies you've undoubtedly already purchased.
Keep us posted!
I only have her home number I don't know where she works. It never occured to me to get that info.
I have wondered if something happened. I did a google search to see if any of her family members showed up on any news pages.
Ok, how about this? Call her home phone and leave a message that goes like this " Ms. X, since I haven't been able to get in touch with you about the flavor of cake you need for this friday, I am going to go ahead and bake a white cake in the design we previously discussed. Unless you call me and tell me otherwise, I'm going to assume this is a-ok. We still need to discuss the matter of cake pick up. Please call me ASAP about cake pick up, or I am going to leave the cake on my front porch, and hope you find it, and not one of my neighbors roaming dogs."
Ok, how about this? Call her home phone and leave a message that goes like this " Ms. X, since I haven't been able to get in touch with you about the flavor of cake you need for this friday, I am going to go ahead and bake a white cake in the design we previously discussed. Unless you call me and tell me otherwise, I'm going to assume this is a-ok. We still need to discuss the matter of cake pick up. Please call me ASAP about cake pick up, or I am going to leave the cake on my front porch, and hope you find it, and not one of my neighbors roaming dogs."
LOVE IT
Well, did any of her family members come up when you googled? If so, and you still haven't heard from her. I would call them and ask them if they may know how to get a hold of her, but don't let them know you are calling about the cake, it may be for one of them.
Ok, how about this? Call her home phone and leave a message that goes like this " Ms. X, since I haven't been able to get in touch with you about the flavor of cake you need for this friday, I am going to go ahead and bake a white cake in the design we previously discussed. Unless you call me and tell me otherwise, I'm going to assume this is a-ok. We still need to discuss the matter of cake pick up. Please call me ASAP about cake pick up, or I am going to leave the cake on my front porch, and hope you find it, and not one of my neighbors roaming dogs."
HAHAHAHAHAHA That is Hilarious!!! THAT would probably make her contact you!. LMFAO How about contacting her daughter as if you were a friend of the mom's? "Hi! I've been trying to contact your mom for a while now and haven''t been able to. Is she okay? Please tell her to call me. I need to speak to her urgently. I'm very worried about her."
altho thinking about it...i still like spencersmom's message more.
If she lives in your town you could do a reverse phone number search and get her address. Just go to either google or whitepages.com and enter her phone # and her home address MAY show up.
If it's not too far from you I'd go by her house and leave a note if she doesn't answer the door.
Otherwise do as others have said. Bake a white/yellow cake and buttercream filling.
How did she pay the deposit? Was it check or paypal?
Boy, I really hope nothing bad happened to her...........I mean she paid for a cake and she doesn't have any firm details ironed out yet and it's Wednesday.
No her house is about an hour from me. I do have her address. She paid with a check about 2 weeks ago.
I am thinking maybe she went on vacation and is just incognito. However, she said she could ask to get off early Friday if I needed her to so I don't really see someone taking vacation early in the week and then going back to work on Friday. but who know.
I realize that some people don't realize what needs to be discussed when it comes to things like this.
I sent her another email telling her where I would be and at what time on Friday. I am going to leave it up to her ot get the message and be there.
I told her I was baking her a white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.
No her house is about an hour from me. I do have her address. She paid with a check about 2 weeks ago.
I am thinking maybe she went on vacation and is just incognito. However, she said she could ask to get off early Friday if I needed her to so I don't really see someone taking vacation early in the week and then going back to work on Friday. but who know.
I realize that some people don't realize what needs to be discussed when it comes to things like this.
I sent her another email telling her where I would be and at what time on Friday. I am going to leave it up to her ot get the message and be there.
I told her I was baking her a white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.
People who don't do cakes don't get it. lol I had to track down a girl this week to get her cake flavor, too. Not as much trouble as you are going through, but I still wanted to throttle her!
what you did is good! you should make the cake cuz she might have just gone on vacation and since you are paid in full she will be expecting a cake.
maybe she doesn't care what flavor is it *shrugs*
just be available to switch plans if she calls you the day she is suppose to pick the cake.
I have had this happen to me but wasn't paid at all. The customer was NOT happy with me...but I couldn't get in touch with her!
No her house is about an hour from me. I do have her address. She paid with a check about 2 weeks ago.
I am thinking maybe she went on vacation and is just incognito. However, she said she could ask to get off early Friday if I needed her to so I don't really see someone taking vacation early in the week and then going back to work on Friday. but who know.
I realize that some people don't realize what needs to be discussed when it comes to things like this.
I sent her another email telling her where I would be and at what time on Friday. I am going to leave it up to her ot get the message and be there.
I told her I was baking her a white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.
People who don't do cakes don't get it. lol I had to track down a girl this week to get her cake flavor, too. Not as much trouble as you are going through, but I still wanted to throttle her!
They really don't. Last week I had a woman come to order some cupcakes she was going to gift some people. She told me more or less how many she wanted, but when I asked for flavor and color...know the phrase "'deer in headlights"? I smiled and in my mind I'm going "she doesn''t know what flavors I offer, of course!". So i slip her the list. Again the deer. I finally suggested a special I was having where you can choose from 3 flavors. No reaction till like 5 minutes after that. Never mind color. She goes, anything except yellow. Thanks lady, make my job "easy". But, the whole nervousness of was I doing a color she may like made me decide to NEVER AGAIN let them leave like that.
You did good. Last week I had a lady call me about the baby rump cake in my pictures. We emailed for two days with no problem. Then on Thursday I didnt hear anything back when I had a question. Friday morning and afternoon nothing. I htought maybe she changed her mind. Friday night I get a call from her mother letting me know she still wanted the cake but that she was in the hospital. I felt so bad for her...... I would just called her letting her know what you have decided and send an email send two just in case! LOL I hope all turns out well. If she doesnt contact you by Saturday afternoon then just eat the cake or send it to the Fire Dept. I hear they always enjoy free cake! LOL
Yup, unless you make cakes- NOBODY understands how annoying and frustrating it is waiting to hear back from them.
I have called people before and their like" of course I still want the cake"
making me think and sound like i'm a borderline stalker!! lol
I just got an email from this customer. She's been in Florida. Her only question for me was "will the cake still be fresh?"
Isn't it funny that people think we back and decorate these cakes like the day we deliver them?
They'd flip if they knew how long grocery store cakes sit around wouldn't they?
Well atleast she finally responded. Yeah, it sounds like she thought you were going to do it all the day it was needed.
Good Luck!
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