I Tried to Turn My Customers in to a Math Problem
Unfortunately for me, they aren’t that predictable.
The first year at markets was honestly disappointing, but I didn’t know that until currently (my third year). I had estimated that around 30% of my customers would naturally find me at the farmers markets. It seemed like a reasonable guess. Thirty percent of my customers were in person only (never ordered) and picked up one or two items from the case a week. About 30% were order only people and got one birthday cake a year for someone, and maybe a pie at Thanksgiving. Ten percent of people never ordered or came in the shop but grabbed stuff conveniently at a wholesale partner near them. The last 30% were my half and half customers. They shopped in person frequently and placed online orders frequently. I had to keep them. Not everyone would want to shop at a market, but surely a third of them would make the transition. Especially those that lived in or near the zip code for the market I chose based on all of their pre-orders. I went from being a trek to them to just down the street every week.
Instead, many people had only half-read my retail closing announcement and somehow came away believing I was disappearing forever. Never mind that I had written I would immediately begin selling at farmers markets and spent months posting about them on social media. They remembered the words "closing the shop" and not much after that.
I also had to change the Google listing to “permanently closed” so that the next business at that address could claim the listing for the address. Honestly, I never bothered to go in and fix it with a market or other address because I prefer word of mouth as the way to find me and review me. Even this, my third year of markets, I’ve had people stop by my Sunday market as they were shopping at Rainbow Blossom and be shocked to see me there.
As you know, if you follow me on social media, one lady though I was “dead” and told me that to my face. And I said, “Still alive” to her disappointed face. She was not happy that she was proven wrong in my death. I’M ALIVE and she was mad about it. Honestly, hilarious. I live for nonsense like that.
What I never accounted for was the other side of the equation. While I was waiting for old customers to find me, entirely new customers were discovering me for the first time. They had never walked into the retail bakery. They didn't know the old shop even existed. To them, I was simply "the gluten-free baker at the market." Some of those people became regulars almost immediately. They started ordering birthday cakes, learned which cookies were their favorites, and showed up week after week just like customers had at the retail shop. How did I forget to put new customers into my math equation?
But, back to my Google listing. If someone is willing to jump through three extra steps or listen to their friend talk about their favorite oatmeal cream pie and THEN come and find me, now that’s a loyal customer. I’ve been in business long enough to know that some customers are a flash in the pan, and they aren’t the ones you want to get. You want someone who cannot stop thinking about your stuff and craves it. You want someone who will tell everyone they know about your products. It takes SO MUCH LONGER than social media, advertising, or gimmicks for new customers, but those people will stay. New customers help you grow. Loyal customers keep you in business.
Loyal, repeat customers help you pay the mortgage and the ingredients and the packaging costs. Loyal customers learn about your life and you know their spouse and kids and holiday favorites. You know what they want before they make it to your table at the market. You know what they are ordering for their birthday and their Thanksgiving celebrations. You know that they finally got their driver’s license or that they are leaving for college or that they just got married. Somewhere along the way, they stopped being names on an order form and became part of the story of the bakery. That's not a math problem to solve. That's a community you've built.
