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Cottage Food Law questions and concerns. - Page 7

post #91 of 116
4/23/12 at 1:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cakelady2266

If you say something like this to a customer " the cake pictured will serve 30 people and will cost $75 but if you add something it will be __, or it will be __less if you take off the whatever. And if you want that to be a non basic flavor that will be __ and if you want a non basic icing that will be ___. But if you want a basic flavor with a non basic icing it will be __." Hell by this time, my eyes have glazed over.


You can do something like this:

30 servings, $75 ($2.50/serving) <picture of basic cake>
30 servings: $150 ($5/serving) <picture of more elaborate cake>
30 servings, $300 ($10/serving) <picture of very elaborate cake>

You don't need to outline every single specific detail, general examples are enough for your first contact with the customer.
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post #92 of 116
4/23/12 at 1:18pm
Jason, I think that you assume that people are logical and follow intsructions, when in reality everyone is too important to follow rules that are there obviously for other people but not for them. I only get about 5% of my inquiries from the contact form on my website, while the rest are either phoners or they use the email address on the other pages. Regardless of where they come from, they have the same questions. I could leave the contact page completely blank and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference, they'd still have the same questions. I could write a step by step form to fill out and they'd still have the same questions. As long as people aren't robots they're going to do whatever they want regardless of how stylish and well-designed using the most scientific web design methods the instructions are.
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post #93 of 116
4/23/12 at 2:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Jason, I think that you assume that people are logical and follow intsructions, when in reality everyone is too important to follow rules that are there obviously for other people but not for them. I only get about 5% of my inquiries from the contact form on my website, while the rest are either phoners or they use the email address on the other pages. Regardless of where they come from, they have the same questions. I could leave the contact page completely blank and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference, they'd still have the same questions. I could write a step by step form to fill out and they'd still have the same questions. As long as people aren't robots they're going to do whatever they want regardless of how stylish and well-designed using the most scientific web design methods the instructions are.


You have a lot more control than you think. During our first year most of our inquiries were by phone, and I spent a lot of time talking with potential customers about their orders.

So I decided to stop answering the phone.

I redirected all incoming calls on our Google Voice number to voice mail, and removed our email address entirely from the site. The voice mail message had the same instructions as the contact form, so the only two ways of placing an order gave potential customers the information they needed. After we made this change, the vast majority of customer contact was by email, and I spent much less time holding customers' hands.
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post #94 of 116
4/23/12 at 3:19pm
The only thing I can say about this is how many custom cakes and wedding cakes do you do versus your predone cakes? I can't see doing someone's wedding cake or 30th birthday cake just through e-mail. I think you fail to realize that some of us are strictly custom and do not have a standard cake that people can just order on line. It is one thing to say "I want your 8" cake with pink roses that says Happy Birthday whoever" in an e-mail as opposed to "My 30th birthday is coming and I want a Diva theme". We all have a different thought on what Diva means.
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post #95 of 116
4/23/12 at 3:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by QTCakes1

The only thing I can say about this is how many custom cakes and wedding cakes do you do versus your predone cakes? I can't see doing someone's wedding cake or 30th birthday cake just through e-mail. I think you fail to realize that some of us are strictly custom and do not have a standard cake that people can just order on line. It is one thing to say "I want your 8" cake with pink roses that says Happy Birthday whoever" in an e-mail as opposed to "My 30th birthday is coming and I want a Diva theme". We all have a different thought on what Diva means.


For us at least email conversations have worked better than in-person or phone consults (even for our more elaborate cakes, which were about 10% of our business), because the customer can send pictures and we have time to process, create mockups if necessary, and send thoughtful replies. Plus everything is in writing, and if you use an email tool with conversation threading (like Gmail) it is quite scalable.

There have been some customers that have preferred talking things out on the phone, but most are just fine with email. Being located in Silicon Valley may have something to do with this, or it may just be a generational thing. I'm not saying everything has to be done exclusively over email, just that we find email is preferable for the initial contact, especially if you getting a high volume of inquiries.
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post #96 of 116
4/23/12 at 5:11pm
Although its tempting to just stop answering the phone, it's a really bad idea for a custom wedding cake business. If I don't return phone calls within a day brides get mad. Not answering the phone at all would be less than excellent.
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post #97 of 116
4/23/12 at 5:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Although its tempting to just stop answering the phone, it's a really bad idea for a custom wedding cake business. If I don't return phone calls within a day brides get mad. Not answering the phone at all would be less than excellent.


We would always get back to customers who left messages right away (during business hours at least), either by email or by phone. Google Voice automatically sends you email when you have a new message, and it even transcribes it for you.
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post #98 of 116
4/23/12 at 5:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft

Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Although its tempting to just stop answering the phone, it's a really bad idea for a custom wedding cake business. If I don't return phone calls within a day brides get mad. Not answering the phone at all would be less than excellent.


We would always get back to customers who left messages right away (during business hours at least), either by email or by phone. Google Voice automatically sends you email when you have a new message, and it even transcribes it for you.



Yes, here's an actual transcript of one of my Google Voice calls:

Hi, My name is Arun and I'm looking for bills, the cake from a bill the reselling sorry you're having a party on Sunday and we have a little monkey seem. Can you please give me a call back and let me know if that's something that you can sit in your skill. My number is 936. False False 6361. Thank you.

icon_biggrin.gif
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post #99 of 116
4/23/12 at 5:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft

Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Although its tempting to just stop answering the phone, it's a really bad idea for a custom wedding cake business. If I don't return phone calls within a day brides get mad. Not answering the phone at all would be less than excellent.


We would always get back to customers who left messages right away (during business hours at least), either by email or by phone. Google Voice automatically sends you email when you have a new message, and it even transcribes it for you.



Yeah, I don't use google voice, which is a pity seeing that excellent translation they provided! I have a newfangled dee-vice called an answering machine that I use.
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post #100 of 116
4/23/12 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft

Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar

Although its tempting to just stop answering the phone, it's a really bad idea for a custom wedding cake business. If I don't return phone calls within a day brides get mad. Not answering the phone at all would be less than excellent.


We would always get back to customers who left messages right away (during business hours at least), either by email or by phone. Google Voice automatically sends you email when you have a new message, and it even transcribes it for you.



Yeah, I don't use google voice, which is a pity seeing that excellent translation they provided! I have a newfangled dee-vice called an answering machine that I use.


Don't get me wrong, Google Voice has some good features. I like the ability to essentially create a business phone number for free. But its translation feature is not what I'd call its strongest selling point.
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post #101 of 116
4/23/12 at 6:38pm
The GV transcription feature can be hit or miss, but we got the gist of the message roughly a third of the time (unless the caller had an accent, then forget about it). Luckily it's super-easy to play the message, a play button is embedded if you use Gmail.

The big draw for us was a separate business number, since I ran the business side of the bakery out of our home. We first tried using our home number with multiple mailboxes on our answering machine, but people would call late at night asking if we were still open (we don't have a storefront). When we got a GV number I set calls to go right to voice mail after 5pm (this was before I switched it to permanent voice mail).

The other great feature is that you can easily access your messages from anywhere, so when I was out of town on business or visiting family I could still follow up with customers. You can also set GV to ring multiple numbers and have different contacts or groups of contacts handled in different ways.

When we sold our business last year it took 5 minutes to transfer the GV number to the new owner and set it up to ring her phone.
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post #102 of 116
4/23/12 at 7:09pm
Thread Starter 
Custom cakes really means custom. QTCakes1 is completely on the money. There is no #8 and change the colors, in my world. A seemingly simply cake turns into something else when they want this cakes border, that cakes shape combination, this other cakes dots, another cakes stripes with the fondant animals to match the invitations.

Now in theory picture examples with prices would be fine except most folks brains don't work that way. Their brains seem to overload easily. They don't know pan sizes and how many servings the industry standard say that size should feed. Why can't they have a 4 tier cake to serve 10 for $25? They can have a 4 tier cake to serve 10, but it will be priced by the number of servings it actually feeds which is 140.

My website is a template from Bludomain. And I don't find it hard to navigate. But I try to use what little of my brain that does work. The problem with customers understanding pricing, sizes and what not isn't just because they can't navigate my website.

I don't mean to place blame on anybody but this has only been an PITA issue for me since Ace of Cakes and Buddy the Cake Boss came on T.V. There are cakes with everything but the kitchen sink on them and not an actual price for those cakes to be seen anywhere. The customers that come to us for similar cakes don't know that those cakes cost thousands of dollars, but they want them replicated for Wal-Mart prices. Plus there seems to be a whole new group of folks that want what they want and want it given to them because they want it, they have people to impress.

Brides seem to do some research and have an rough idea of what a wedding cake would cost. Bigger cake, more ingredients and for the most part not a ton of extravagant designs and colors. Weddings are my target market and I don't plan on giving that up.

I've paid my dues more than once and I don't plan on taking a step backward with these elaborate birthday cakes that yield more headaches than income. I don't want to be the baker who gets passed around like a joint at a frat party, by these birthday mama's and their friends. I really don't care if they become another decorators problem.
If you can't find time it do it right..how will you find time to do it over?
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If you can't find time it do it right..how will you find time to do it over?
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post #103 of 116
4/24/12 at 3:49am
Hahahahaha, cakelady! I didn't sleep all night, im exhausted, but that comment about being passed around like a joint at a frat party made my morning, ahhahahahahaha!
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post #104 of 116
4/24/12 at 6:09am
[quote="cakelady2266"]

I don't mean to place blame on anybody but this has only been an PITA issue for me since Ace of Cakes and Buddy the came on T.V. There are cakes with everything but the kitchen sink on them and not an actual price for those cakes to be seen anywhere.

I don't want to be the baker who gets passed around like a joint at a frat party, by these birthday mama's and their friends.


I agreee with the first statement. I WISH they would show their cake prices!

And as for the second, all I can say is that one is even better then "swinging the dead cake"! icon_lol.gificon_lol.gificon_lol.gif
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post #105 of 116
4/24/12 at 10:56am
Wouldn't it be nice if cake decorators could send in a signed petition to each of these shows asking them to include pricing information on the super cakes they make in order to FULLY inform customers.
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