RYBLAB

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”

- Lao Tzu

Ordinarily, I think of myself as someone who is quite adept at change.  After all, for the first 20 years of my working career, I worked in 7 different states for over 15 companies and God only knows how many different assignments / departments as a mechanical designer.

It’s a little bit different when you’re the one running the show or, in my case, the company.

We’ve had our challenges, to be sure.  Buy we’ve had way more blessings from the people we work for and with from our customers to our community.  Still, we’ve had to make some changes and the time has come to finally ‘shoot the engineers and go into production’ as we used to say.

We’re changing our hours (yes, again) to be open only from Thu, Fri, and Sat to better serve our retail customers.  Really?

I can already hear the collective groans …

“Why are they changing their hours … again?”

“I never know when they’re open!”

“Can’t they make up their mind?”

And so on.

Perhaps I should explain.

Michael Gerber, in his book ‘The E-Myth’ writes about three personalities every business owner must deal with.  First, it’s the entrepreneur: “Gee, it wouldn’t be fun to open a bakery, especially on Main Street in Menomonie?  We really need a bakery in this town.”  Second, it’s the technician “We bake world-class, hand-made breads using the best local / organic ingredients that we can find.  Our quality is second to none.”  Finally, it’s the manager “A business must make a profit.  How can we possibly make a profit under these conditions?  Something has to change!”

And, like many a business owner, these three personalities have lively discussions about what is and what should be.  The problem is, how to create an amicable solution that provides the proverbial Win / Win / Win for all?  Good luck with that one.

A successful entrepreneur I know taught me the value of the following maxim, known as RYBLAB:  Run Your Business Like A Business.  The bottom line may be where it belongs (at the bottom), but a business is still a business.  We have to make the best product that we can.  We have to delight our customers.  We have to make a profit.

We had to make some decisions, and implement some changes.  Fast.

To satisfy the entrepreneur in me, we have to have a downtown, retail location (in addition to our steadily growing commercial business).  To appease the technician, we can’t compromise on quality or selection.  To quiet the manager, we have to make a profit.  After a great deal of deliberation, we have come to what I feel is a unique, even workable, solution.

Here’s the dilemma.  We bake the best quality breads / scones / cookies / bars / etc. that we can using local and organic ingredients whenever we can.  Great.  What that means, however, is that we can’t simply let our baked goods sit on the shelf for days (weeks?) on end like those infamous yellow snack cakes because we use ABSOLUTEY no fillers / extenders / modifiers or preservatives.  Our products are best for a few days once they’re baked (but they do freeze well) but that’s the nature of our baking process.  We won’t let anything sit on the shelf for more than two days max, otherwise they’re donations to Food Pantry.  While the Food Pantry is a GREAT organization and we love helping them, we can’t build a successful business that way.  What to do?  Streamline operations to offer the maximum variety that we can, as fresh as we can, over a shorter period of time.

Our best sales are always on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  So, we decided to change our hours to be Thursday and Friday from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM, and Saturday from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.  That makes everyone happy: we can produce a good variety of fresh baked goods, put our heart and soul into our work, spend time with our customers, and keep our costs under control.

Will we ever be open Mon, Tue or Wed again?  Short answer:  that depends.  Once demand grows (and we predict that it will) we will be open more days / hours.

In the meantime, stop by and see us any Thu – Sat, other hours we are always available by appointment.  Until we change our hours … again … but that will be to ADD hours, not change them.

In the meantime, my inner entrepreneur has some GREAT ideas for new products, my technician is ready to perfect these new recipes, and my manager is negotiating with a new flour supplier.

Ah, the joys of entrepreneurship!

Published in: on November 27, 2012 at 9:44 pm  Comments (2)  
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Finding Our Way

“Not all who wander are lost.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien

It’s quiet and rather cold outside as I write this, the bakery has been quiet a lot lately as well.  That’s to be expected, of course, some days are just like that, others it’s so busy we can’t seem to get a break, which is just fine with us … really …

It’s also been a LONG time since I’ve posted on the Vagablog (sorry about that), but now I have a LOT of material to work with and there are many, many more posts to come so stay tuned.  But first, some news …

We will be changing the way we work, including our hours, to better serve our market.  As we have been told by other entrepreneurs and have also observed ourselves, it’s difficult to run a profitable bakery on retail alone.  That’s fine with us, we already have several commercial accounts and we love working with them.  The challenge is: how can we consistently give our retail customers the best variety and freshness every week?  The answer: by limiting our hours.

Here’s the scenario.

We have been changing our hours a few times in order to best serve our customers.  The problem is, since we use absolutely NO fillers / stabilizers / preservatives in our baked goods, our products have a rather short shelf life.  That’s beneficial you have high ‘food velocity’ (more on that in a future post), but not so good if the food doesn’t move, so to speak.

You see, having grown up on the east coast, I learned a lot about fresh food, specifically seafood.  You can freeze fish just fine, but let’s face it, it just isn’t the same as if you were on the water that morning and your catch is on the grill that night.  Freshness matters.  So, when looking to buy seafood, I learned that you always wanted to shop at the busiest markets, ones that were guaranteed to have a high turnover.  I was also not a bad thing to get to know your fishmonger; they could tell you exactly when your favorite variety was likely to be as fresh as possible.

Baking, especially our kind of baking, is much the same.  We can’t keep our products on the shelf for more than a day or the quality, albeit still better than most, isn’t good enough for us.  So, a good portion of our baked goods goes to the food pantry.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing (another future post, I promise), but still it doesn’t help our bottom line much.  So, what’s the solution?  Limit the hours, bring out the best variety / quantity that you can over fewer days.

So, starting next week (Thanksgiving week), our hours will be:

Thu, Fri:  10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Sat:  8:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Sun:  CLOSED

Mon – Wed: By Appointment Only

Of course, we’ll be closed for Thanksgiving Day … :-)

Does this mean that we won’t ever be open more days?  Of course not!  As our retail business picks up (and we’re pretty confident it will) we’ll adjust accordingly.  And, we accept special orders for pick up anytime, just call and let us know.

I also wanted to add a short note of thanks to ALL of you who have given us so many great suggestions / ideas – we’re continuing to grow and improve every day!

Published in: on November 13, 2012 at 7:34 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Leading By Example

“A leader leads by example, whether they intend to or not.”

– Unknown

It’s Father’s Day and the occasion has made me consider just how important my own Dad, 91 years young, has been in my own life, especially of late.

It was just about a year ago that we were starting to consider where the Vagabond Bakery would officially set up operations, and we still didn’t even have a name for the venture.  The original name, as undistinguished as it was for discussion purposes, was the ‘Dunn County Bakery’.  Personally, I like The Vagabond a lot better … :-)

When we were first discussing setting up this venture, I can still remember many phone conversations with my Dad about how we were going to select products to sell, conduct operations, even select vendors and manage our supply chain.  My Dad should know, he spent a good part of his career in a little department in Grumman Aerospace called Operations Analysis.  Without going into too much detail, let’s just say that he is extremely well versed in understanding what it takes to make a system operational.  Although his expertise was (and still is) aerospace, the principles are universal.  I had to answer such questions as:

  • Who will buy our products?
  • How will you price them?
  • Where will you get your ingredients?
  • Where will you store them?
  • Will you have 2nd and 3rd alternative  suppliers?
  • How will you store your finished baked goods?
  • What is your shelf life?
  • How long will it take you to break even?
  • Who is your competition?
  • Have you written a business plan?
  • How will you distinguish yourself?

And so on …

Growing up, on occasion, questions such as these that he would ask about any project / career / venture that I showed interest in were irritating to me, until I finally realized many years later that Dad was just plain more wise and experienced and that he was simply asking the right questions long before I ever had to deal with them.  There is also the fact that such questions are, of course, his way of showing me just how much he really loves me.

Such is a quality of a real leader: something we now call ‘visioning’.  As a matter of fact, the entire process that we use to create our signature artisan breads, commonly known as the ‘no knead’ method, was introduced to me by my Dad almost two years ago (still have the original newspaper clipping).  Did my Dad see something before I did?  Wouldn’t be the first time.

Great leaders lead by example, and my Dad is no exception.

I understand that not everyone has had a great Dad in their life, and that’s OK.  But, as we all know, leaders come from all walks of life and they can be Moms, too.  You can even ‘adopt’ a Dad (or a Mom) at any age too.

So, whenever you read this, take a few moments out to think about the Dad(s) and Mom(s) in your life and how they’ve helped you to see where you can go.  And, while you’re at it, take a moment to thank them for all they’ve done.

In the meantime, especially for my own Dad, Happy Fathers’ Day, and THANK YOU for all the conversations, all the questions, all the ideas, even when I didn’t want to hear them, over all those years.

I love you too.

Published in: on June 17, 2012 at 9:53 pm  Comments (2)  
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Win / Win

“Win/ Win is a frame of mind and heart that consistently seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions … one person’s success is not achieved at the expense of the exclusion of the success of others.”

    – Stephen R. Covey

Undoubtedly, you recognize the ‘habit’ of Win/Win as being one of Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit 4 to be exact.  As we have experienced lately, sometimes this just doesn’t work out.

The thing about a cute little quote like ‘think win/ win’ is that its simplicity belies the depth of the lesson, and this is one is no exception.

There are two very important caveats that people either don’t know about, or simply have forgotten  when it comes to this pithy little quote.

The first is another quote, deeper into the chapter that says ‘In the long run, if it isn’t a win for both of us, we both lose.’  Or, to put it into the form of the original quote, as I’m fond of saying: ‘anything other than Win/ Win ultimately and always becomes Lose/Lose.’

Now, this is all well and good, but what if two parties can’t come to an agreement?  Well, here’s the real best alternative:  it’s either Win/ Win or No Deal.

It took me a long time to realize just how powerful, and how true, this concept is.  I’ll be the first to admit we’ve made, and continue to make, a lot of mistakes.  As Theresa mentioned to me just the other night, if we’re not making mistakes, we’re not working hard enough.  Made me feel at least a tad bit better … :-)

Permit me to just take a moment to examine this philosophy.  We’ve been considering partnering with another food business that we might supply baked goods for.  They are really interested, but have to keep costs to a minimum (sound familiar?)  We couldn’t meet the price, so according to Win/ Win or No Deal, we were clearly headed for No Deal.  But both of us weren’t ready to give up … yet.

The really clever solution ( it was theirs, not mine) was to cross-promote.  We supply the products, they promote our business.  They get the product for less than cost, we benefit from their marketing (and they’re very, very good at what they do).  Everybody wins.  Wow.

Were we both playing for Win/Win?  Absolutely.  Were we both ready to walk away from the deal, no hard feelings?  You bet.  In the end, we both got better than I think either one of us expected … and both won.  What a way to do business!

So, as you read this, I ask you to examine this idea, to ‘see how it fits’ and let me know how it works for you.  In a nutshell:

  1. Think Win/Win or No Deal, right from the outset
  2. Be creative – this is not as easy as it sounds
  3. Remember that anything other than Win/Win ultimately, and always, becomes Lose/Lose

It works for us, it can work for you!

Published in: on May 20, 2012 at 11:29 pm  Comments (2)  
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Milestones

“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.”

- Rose Kennedy

As they say, time flies when you’re having fun.

Yesterday was our first day at the Menomonie Farmer’s Market and, although it was not exactly the most professional setup we’ve done, it did go over well.  This after a week of:

  • Baking and shipping 200 cookies for my nephew’s wedding (see next Blog post)
  • Doing an interview for Wisconsin Dairy News
  • Participating in Eau Claire’s Just Local Food’s 8th birthday party
  • Ripping out the old counter and installing new (!) ‘real’ bakery display cases
  • And hiring our second ‘real’ employee to help at the Farmer’s Market

I almost missed it.

Yes, we’ve been busy.

Yes, we’ve been sleep-deprived.

Yes, we still love what we do.

Still, I almost missed it, a very important milestone.

Seriously, you’d think I would be paying more attention to these things.

What milestone, you ask?

Every once in a while, we get the following question in one form or another:

“How long have you been in open?”

The answer is:  “Since January 12, 2012.”

A funny thing happened to me yesterday at the Farmer’s Market.  After the second person that morning asked some form of that question, I actually had to check the calendar on my smart phone to see that yesterday was May 12:  four months to the day since we opened.

And I almost missed it.

Months, for us, are milestones.  Each month I take a moment out to reflect upon our progress.  Have we progressed since last month?  How much?  Are we moving in the right direction?  Are we still true to our mission?  Are we living our values?

Also, it’s important to celebrate milestones.  When I used to teach Leadership Skills for WWBIC, this was one of the ’10 Commitments of Leadership’.  So, how could I have missed it?

The short answer is, ‘well, we’ve been pretty busy …’

We now have one commercial account; three others are in the works.  We have ‘real’ bakery display cabinets.  We have a new (actually, it is new) dual-convection oven.   We have over 210 ‘likes’ on Facebook.  We’re expanding our product line into new flavors, new products, and new markets.  And we’ve only been in business for 4 months.

From my Executive Coaching days, I used to continually drill it into my clients to ‘drive a stake in the ground!’ so that they could measure progress towards their goals … no matter how small.  Any progress, no matter how small, can fuel a sense of accomplishment and help keep one going, especially when times get tough.  This last month I’ve noticed that not only have we made progress, but that the rate of our progress is accelerating.  This also explains that fact that I’ve completely ignored this Blog for a month.  No longer.

It is time for us to work with you, our clients, friends, and followers, to take this Blog, as Emeril would say, up ‘notches unknown’.  The reasons are two.

The first, strictly business reason is: it’s good PR / marketing.

The second, more personal reason is: I want to document our success and inspire others (that would be you) to follow your own dreams.

And, of course, it’s fun.  Gives me a chance to pause and reflect and teach.  After all, I have two adult education degrees; I kind of miss teaching sometimes.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one to notice what day it was.

When we got back to the Bakery both Theresa and Beth informed me that we’d be going out to celebrate this day in our usual way: margaritas at Los Cabos … :-)  Man, they looked good (I’m the Designated Driver) … :-(

I’d like to take this opportunity, again, to thank ALL of you who have been so supportive of this venture.  I am blessed and humbled by so many people who have been so helpful to us in so many ways.

But, as has been said, it’s not really the milestones that matter.  It’s the moments.  And I personally am looking to sharing many, many more moments with all of you in the months and years to come!

Published in: on May 14, 2012 at 2:20 am  Leave a Comment  
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The First 90 Days

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

     - Will Rogers

Today marks exactly three months to the day since we opened the Vagabond Bakery.

As any new CEO will tell you, the first 90 days of any venture (and that includes ours) are critical.  So, instead of reviewing what goals we did (or did not) achieve, I thought it might be nice to go back over the highlights of our first 90 days.

Some of those highlights are:

  • The average temperature when we started (Jan 12, 2012) was 13 – 22° F
    • The average temperature today is 38 – 56° F
  • Our original hours were: Tue and Thu 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM, Sat 8:00 AM – 3:00PM
    • Our hours now are Tue – Fri 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Sat 800 AM – 3:00 PM
  • We started with only scones, muffins and chocolate cheesecake brownie bars
    • We now have scones, muffins, cookies, and breads (bars and other treats will be back starting next month)
  • We started with only three of us working here
    • We still have only three full-time team members, a fourth part-time team member will be starting this week
  • We had virtually no presence on Facebook
    • We now have 200 ‘likes’ on Facebook (THANK YOU!)
  • Our biggest order when we started was 4 dozen scones
    • Our biggest order to date was last weekend for 1000 (yes, that’s right, 1000) mini-muffins.  I hear they went fast … :-)
  • Our sales have more than doubled
  • Our window was broken three times in two weeks
    • First was most likely accidental, second and third time was definitely intentional.  Window is now fixed (and looks great!)
  • We originally had no commercial / wholesale business
    • We now sell our scones at Just Local Foods in Eau Claire (we deliver Tuesday and Thursday afternoons) and are working on setting up many more commercial accounts
  • We started with just a small counter and no display cabinet
    • We still have just a small counter, but have two display cabinets that will be installed by the end of the month (I hope).

And, best of all, we have met so many great people who are also our customers.  Thank you for your stories, your laughter, your kind words, and your patronage.

We truly could not have done this without you!

Published in: on April 12, 2012 at 3:18 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Fussy, Fussy, Fussy

“There are people who claim to be instinctive cooks, who never follow recipes or weigh anything at all. All I can say is they’re not very fussy about what they eat. For me, cooking is an exact art and not some casual game.”

 - Delia Smith

It has been said the cooking is an art, baking is a science.  I suppose I’d have to agree with that, I’m a lot better at baking (at least I hope) than I am at cooking, but I’m not too bad at that either.

On the other side of the plate, so to speak, people can be VERY fussy about what they eat.

Some are low-carb, some are vegan, some are raw foods only, and so on.  Some people can’t have something due to allergies and the like, others because they choose to avoid some things.  And then there are the raisins wars.  By the way, the raisin wars are over … the raisins won… :-)

Today, however, my focus is more on style than substance.  To illustrate, look at the following picture (these are our new peanut butter cookies):

Now, on the left we see what some people believe are the ‘right’ way to make an impression upon a peanut butter cookie with a fork going in only one direction, which I call ‘stripes’.  On the right is the famous ‘crisscross’ pattern which I (and others) grew up with.

The question is, which one do you prefer?  Or, maybe I should be asking: does it really matter?  Or, do you just sprinkle with sugar?

Oh, the choices …

This whole dilemma came about when Theresa was making a batch of peanut butter cookies and I decided to ‘help’ finish the cookies.  BIG mistake.  Apparently this is NOT the way WE do cookies around here.  Beth agreed with me, so we speculate that it’s an East Coast thing, such as if you grew up there that’s how you do your peanut-butter cookies.  Or, maybe it’s a ‘Big City’ vs. ‘Small Town’ thing.  Who knows?

The question is, how do YOU want YOUR cookies made?  Stop by sometime and let us know, or sample ours and let us know how you like them.  Either way, give us a good cookie and a glass of milk and we’re all set.

Really, who can be fussy about that?

Published in: on March 29, 2012 at 8:25 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Good Times, Bad Times

“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won. “

- Winston Churchill 

Last Friday, March 23, was our best day ever. We put in a long day as usual, working hard to get out as many breads, cookies, scones, etc. as possible.  At the end of yet another 14+ hour day, I was very tired (and happy), and was looking forward to sleeping in for an extra hour before we opened the next day.  I was also planning to take everyone out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate yet another milestone.  Life was good.

I was awakened at 3:00 AM by a phone call by the Menomonie Police Department that our front window had been broken.  With about 3 hours of sleep and not knowing what to expect, we went down to the bakery, cleaned up the broken glass, and then it looked like this (sorry the image isn’t too great, but you get the idea):

Vagabond Bakery, 3 AM

Here are the facts.  One, the window was broken sometime after 2:00 AM Saturday morning.  Two, our OPEN sign had been turned on (why?  who knows …)  Three, a woman called the MPD to report that that our window had been broken (THANK YOU!)

The officer who met us there was VERY understanding, and gave us the paperwork for our records.  We had a discussion about what might have happened, but all agreed we’ll probably never know.  It could have been accidental (probably), it could have been intentional (not likely), it could have been alcohol-influenced (very likely), but whatever the cause, the effect is that it just plain hurts.  It hurts our business, it hurts our Main Street, and it hurts Menomonie.

We’ve had our share of setbacks lately, both personal and professional.  Starting a business is never easy, but we really didn’t count on this.  Ouch.

Almost every day (even before our window was broken) people ask us ‘how’s business’, which really asks ‘are you going to make it?’

Our answer is, and always be: ‘of course!’

These times remind me of a story from Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.  The book talks about a man who decided to dig for gold, investing all he had to buy the tools and equipment, convinced he had found the right spot to mine for riches, only to give up when he found none.  He sold his mining equipment to a junk dealer, gave up, and went home dejected and defeated.  He had stopped, it turns out, literally three feet from the gold he was after.  Three feet.  Ironically that’s about the size of the hole in our front window about now.

It’s easy to complain, it’s easy to say it’s just too hard, it’s easy to give up.  Too easy.

This bakery never has been, and never will be just about us.  This is a COMMUNITY bakery.  And, WE HEAR YOU.

We know you wanted a bakery here in Menomonie.  We know you appreciate our products.  We know you want us to be here for a VERY long time.

Count on it.

We are continuing to add products that you’ve requested.  We will be publishing our bread schedule and menu this week (FINALLY!), and we’re continuing to add new products.  Did I mention that we will be installing not one, but two display cases within the next two weeks?

It is because of ALL of you that we’ll just take this in stride, and we’ll just keep on keeping on.

Thank for your support.  Thank you for your feedback (especially the negative feedback).  Thank you for liking us on Facebook.  Thank you for telling your friends and neighbors about us.  Thank you for sharing your stories (and recipes) with us.

Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!

It’s people like you that make the bad times not so bad, and the good times all that much better.  And, as I’m fond of saying … this will make a great story … someday … :-)

Published in: on March 26, 2012 at 2:49 am  Comments (1)  
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Day of the Eagle

“Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

- Neil Armstrong

We’ve been quite busy here at the Vagabond, so it’s been a while since I’ve been able to keep up with the blog.  If you haven’t been here yet, or haven’t been here in a while, we have a new arrival (sort of). Last year we heard (like many of you) about a nesting pair of eagles in Decorah, Iowa that we could watch via Webcam.

Well, they’re back.

If you want the link, you can find it here.

Of course, since we spend more time here than at home, we set up the laptop here to watch Mama Eagle with her three (!) eggs while we’re here. The first egg arrived Feb 17, the second on Feb 20, the third on Feb 24. So, you can expect the first hatch to occur sometime around Mar 23 – 25.

And, of course, you’re invited to watch them here too. The neat thing is, we occasionally see eagles (real, live ones) here as well, circling above Menomonie, since we’re basically located on the edge of Lake Menomin.

You never know … :-)

I usually try to use the laptop to work here when I can, but I’m sure that once those chicks hatch, eaglet-watching will take precedence, and that’s just fine with me.

If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by for a cup of coffee or a scone and watch how the eagles are doing, and bring the kids too.

You’ll be glad you did!

Published in: on March 16, 2012 at 11:28 pm  Leave a Comment  

The Power of Negative Feedback

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

- Ken Blanchard

Status Report

First of all, THANK YOU to ALL of you who have supported us!  As you can tell, it’s been crazybusy but we’re VERY happy with how things have been going.  Look for some improvements this month to both our facilities and also to our menu.  And, speaking of menus, I promise I’ll have revised and up on the Web site (and also in print) this week.  We are still working out details in our processes, working with vendors, and looking for a good organic while flour supplier, but we’re making progress.

And, of course, we’ve been featured in Stoutonia, Volume One, and soon we’ll be in The Country Today.  Also, since we’re on Facebook, it’s great to get your response to our efforts, so THANK YOU, again, for all of your feedback – it all makes us better!  Speaking of feedback …

 

You Never Know

I was born and raised in New York, Long Island to be exact, in the ‘60s and ‘70s.  During that time, New York City had a mayor by the name of Ed Koch.  Mayor Koch had habit of asking people on the street ‘How’m I doing?’ from time to time.

Now, you have to consider this.  Here’s the mayor of NYC asking just your everyday person on the street for a job evaluation.  Crazy, right?  Not for Ed.

At first, people were polite about it (yes, New Yorkers CAN be polite … trust me on this one …) and simply say “my, you’re doing a great job, your honor.”

But, after a time, people started to suggest things like “you know, crime is a big problem in our neighborhood, what are you going to do about that?” or “why do we have so much graffiti on the subways?” or “ the sanitation department is always sloppy about picking up our garbage and we have to clean up after them – what are you going to do about that?”  And so on.

Now, being the mayor of one of the largest cities in the country, it would be easy for Mayor Koch to simply say “ hey, it’s not my job” or “I’m doing the best I can” or something lame like that.

But he didn’t.

The Power of Positive Listening

He stood there and listened.  Right there on the street.  And then he took action.  Most importantly, he made people feel as if their opinion mattered, because it does.

Did he enjoy the negative feedback, especially from the press?  I doubt it.  He did the right thing and realized that feedback, especially negative feedback, is EXTREMELY VALUABLE.  That’s right, you WANT negative feedback.  And, at the Vagabond, so do we.

We have received well over 99% positive feedback from our customers, and we love it.  But, every once in a while, we get some negative feedback and, as much as I hate to admit it because it smarts a bit sometimes, I really do want it.  Perhaps I should explain.

We Love Feedback

Let’s say we bake a loaf of bread – oh, yeah, we do that a lot around here.  You buy the bread, it looks and smells great, but when you get home it’s not what you would call ‘ideal’.  Now what?  You could simply say ‘well, they had and off day, these things happen, we’ll try them again next week’.

So, next week comes, you buy another loaf of bread, and it’s still a bit ‘off’.  Now what?  Most people just wouldn’t come back.  Who could blame them?  But, what if you came back, even brought the bread, and said ‘excuse me, but …’ and told us why you didn’t like it?

Well, we haven’t had any specific instances like this, but we have had a few comments.  And, here’s what happened.

A woman told us that our Granola wasn’t ‘crunchy enough’.  She was right … and we adjusted our baking times and … now have a better product.

A comment was made that our Whole Wheat bread as a bit ‘dense’.  They were right … and we switched back to our old supplier … and now have a better product.

One loaf of bread (a new recipe in development) went out before I even had a chance to cut it open to test it.  I had mis-read the recipe and it was almost toast on the outside and doughy on the inside.  When the gentleman came back, I apologized profusely and gave him a replacement loaf for free.  His comment was that the outside was a bit burnt, the inside was underdone, but the middle portion was perfect!  And now … well you know …

What’s the moral of our stories?  That feedback, ESPECIALLY NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, is a GOOD THING.  Hey, we’ll screw up once in a while … sometimes a lot.  But, we ALWAYS learn from it, and that’s what counts.

So, What’s Next?

So, if it’s not to your liking, let us know!  And, of course, if there’s something else you’d like to see on our menu (still working on that, too), let us know that, too.  But … since you’ve stuck with us this long (almost 8 weeks as I write this), here are some of the new products that will be showing up at the Vagabond this month:

  • Traditional Irish Soda Bread
  • Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • Sticky Buns

… who knows what else …

And we THANK YOU for your feedback!

Published in: on March 4, 2012 at 10:28 pm  Leave a Comment  
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