I personally drove all the way to his house to retrieve the cake. Once there, he started screaming and yelling again. I tried to calm him down. Since his original picture he supplied was covered in fondant, I offered to redo the cake in fondant free of charge. He started ranting again. I offered to refund his money. He did not want that. So I picked up the cake to leave—he became aggressive and threatening and told me he did not want me to fix the cake because he wanted to show everyone how horrible it looked. He began to swear, threatened me, and started becoming aggressive. Fearing for my safety, I backed out of his porch and told him that I will refund his money and that he was fired as a customer, and I never want to see him in my store again. I drove back to the bakery got $85 and dropped it back to his house.
This customer experience was truly horrific. I will not, nor will I allow anyone to mistreat, threaten or abuse me and/or my staff over a cake. It’s just not worth it.
This guy did have choice on whether to serve the cake. He just simply needed to behave like an adult and allow us to make it right. He chose to be an over-the-top hothead. For him and his family’s sake I hope he can get some counseling to deal with his anger issues.
There will be a Public Meeting this coming week at the South Boston Lithuanian Club regarding the opening of a new chocolate café located at 366 Broadway–directly across the street from us. As one of the spearheads of the West Broadway development initiative, we uncovered a common community concern, the proliferation of like or same-type businesses in the area. This is not just a problem for Southie residents not having basic life-style businesses to patronize but also a problem for new and/or existing businesses to thrive. In order for us to recruit new businesses and change the landscape of West Broadway we will have to plan an environment that promotes growth opportunity.
We were told by several people in the community that this shop will offer some of the same exact products we sell here at Sweet Tooth. How many dessert shops can this community support? This will only split the dollar and directly impact our sales; and yes, we have been affected by the recession. We literally cannot afford to lose any more revenue and nor do we want to be casualty in a difficult economy. I am sure Arpeggio’s will be affected as well since this shop will be selling coffee. Please be sure to come out to this meeting and voice your opinion Wednesday, August 12th, 6:30PM at the South Boston Lithuanian Club.
Thank you,
Sweet Tooth Boston
]]>A regular customer, whom I affectionately call “the cookie monster”, came in for her usual. She walks with a cane due to knee problems but she always has a big wide smile on her face—I enjoy seeing her. Today, however, her usual smile was gone and she seemed to struggle a bit walking. I instinctively knew something was wrong so I asked, “What’s wrong?” She looked at me in a trusting way, seemingly grateful for the question, and informed me she just left her doctor’s office for a routine visit and was diagnosed with a serious illness.
“Is that all,” I said, matter of factly. She was a little shocked at my response but I knew she needed a dose of strength-not sympathy. I told her that my mother survived the same illness, a couple of close friends and a few Sweet Tooth customers have as well. In addition, I explained her early diagnosis is a “God-send” and she is lucky to live in Massachusetts since we are well-known to have the best medical facilities in the world.
“I believe in God,” she said. She then went on to explain the divine events of the day and how she thought it was meant for her to come into my bakery and speak with me.
I slowly packaged her cookies, listening about her day, and feeling honored to be able to help someone in need of hope. Little did she know, just seeing the familiar smile return helped me too? There are days when I wonder why I ever left my high-paying corporate job to open a bakery. A day and an experience like this remind me exactly why—to be a positive influence in someone’s life and be positively influenced in return. I gave her a big hug; we both smiled and thanked each other. She walked away carrying our little pink bag of cookie(s)—unbeknownst to her, I slipped in an extra cookie for goodluck.
]]>“Small businesses represent the backbone of our economy. Every community benefits
when the work force is strong.”
Small Business Discussion with John Kerry,
Former Presidential Candidate and Chairman of Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee
From corner stores and retail shops to fine restaurants and internet start-up companies, small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. In the last 10 to 12 years, small business has created more jobs that were lost during the restructuring of the larger businesses of our country. They also provide the added value of beautifying our neighborhoods and adding convenience to our daily lives. Further, small businesses keep money in the neighborhood and directly impact property values and decrease crime.
Before opening Sweet Tooth Boston, we had the challenge of “cleaning up that corner,” as the residents put it. The bakery cafe immediately before us catered to an unsavory clientele and was an eyesore to the neighborhood. As West Broadway pioneers, we successfully turned this area around and we are thanked daily by the local residents for operating a business that brings pride to the neighborhood. In addition, Realtors often bring by prospective clients as a sales incentive to attract more diverse home buyers for many available properties.
Like most small businesses, we donate to numerous local charities, church groups, mommy groups, and support events to help the community. We play psychiatrist to customers in crisis, discuss world events with lonely old-timers, counselors to the broken-hearted, give treats to the kid with the good report card, etc. For example, a woman came into the bakery for a treat after getting breast cancer diagnosis hours ago. She confided in me but she was scared to tell her family. This woman thanked me days later for my counsel. As you can see, the daily grind of a small business owner goes far beyond selling goods and services; we provide life-style convenience and added value to your community.
So where am I going with this? I had a meeting this afternoon with a few business owners discussing growth opportunities in our community. As usual, first, we all started commiserating over the “challenging customer” and shared insights on the “triumphs and tribulations” of owning a small business in a recession before getting down to the business at hand. How do we inspire our customers and other business owners to speak out and act in support of the local economy? Not Massachusetts, not Boston, but right here on Broadway. Take it a step forward, imagine your neighborhood without the local sandwich shop, corner store, bakery or trendy restaurant, law offices, boutique stores, barbershops, cafes, dry cleaners and many other establishments. Envision, walking by an empty boarded up space with young thugs standing in front of it up to no good and pointing out to your child, “that store used to be the best bakery in town but…”
You are the only thing standing between a vibrant downtown Southie and the other alternative. Stay tuned for information about how you can help in our revitalization efforts.
]]>The purpose of this blog will be to give our clients and fans insights into our business and to share the highs and lows of being a small business owner today.
This segment’s lesson: You Can’t Please Everyone
As you may know, we make our products fresh on a daily basis. Led by Glenn, our talented team of bakers carefully creates our various delicious products, including custom cakes, cinnamon buns, cookies, brownies and our amazing lemon squares. This daily routine results in the best products we can possible offer and we feel that the majority of our clients appreciate this hand-crafted scratch-baked approach.
An unexpected result of this approach, though, is that we’ve actually had clients express their disappointment in the fact that we cannot accommodate their every need instantly—like other larger McBakeries. To do this we would have to compromise our product integrity by not offering custom desserts and freezing generic products loaded with chemicals and preservatives so that they are readily available. This small percentage of patrons is often the most vocal as well. They are more likely to go online to various web sites and post – anonymously – their displeasure with our product.
I struggle to reconcile why these people would patronize a small business and yet expect the homogenous products they would find in a large, chain business. What did they think they would find? It’s too counterintuitive to imagine.
So, I ask all of you to join me in enjoying, celebrating and reveling in the unique, hand crafted products you’ll find at Sweet Tooth. Leave the McCrappy product expectations and nasty posts to the big box stores who deserve them!
]]>On Friday, April 10, 2009, what seemed like a nice gentleman came into the bakery inquiring about cake decorating classes as a surprise anniversary gift for his wife. Since we do not offer cake decorating classes and that particular weekend was one of the busiest times of the year—Easter Weekend—I could not speak with him about his proposition. I politely told him to check back with us another time when we weren’t so busy and I’d be happy to discuss cake decorating classes. He then told me that he spoke with Glenn two months ago but he never came back to follow-up. I explained, again, that his request would require an in-depth discussion at a later time.
Firstly, there are liability issues of allowing a layperson to train in a professional kitchen and Glenn and I would have to research the legalities. In addition, we would have to schedule this class or classes off hours and most likely interfere with our personal time schedules. Therefore, this guy’s request required further discussion and planning. But he needed an answer right there on the spot. He pushed for details but I could not give him an answer and, once again, I told him politely to check back in with us at a better time. He walked out of the bakery in a huff and said, “This is not the answer I wanted to hear.”
Fast forward. On Saturday (day before Easter), I received a hand written, no return addressed letter delivered to the bakery, which said the following:
To the rude black man,
*(EXPLETIVE)* YOU. You are a business and you should accommodate your customers rather than deny them services. I hope you know that you ruined an anniversary for me and I will never visit your store again. I will also tell every person I know in the area that you are a rude business and they should take their money elsewhere. I hope you are happy. Oh and *(EXPLETIVE)* you one more time!
I can only guess that this guy waited till the last minute to get an anniversary gift and blames me for his procrastination and poor planning. However, I think we dodged a bullet here. I am not sure we would want to be alone with a crazy guy in a small kitchen and sharp objects. He did however; write a negative review about us online so I guess he’s happy now.
Lesson learned: Next time, just say a quick NO with a smile to a rogue request.
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Since opening the bakery two and a half years ago, we have had some real doozies for customers. Interestingly enough, most people think these people come from the housing projects down the street. They don’t. We have actually had some of the mothers from the development bring their children into our shop to thank us for baking their cakes. It might be surprising to learn that most of our bad customers are from the privileged class—the so called entitled. Here’s one for the record books:
A well dressed woman walked into our bakery wearing designer clothes from head-to-toe with son in tow. Her son (approx. 4 yrs old) was as perfect as his mom, beautiful. She asked my mom if her son could use the bathroom. My mom—a 70 year old woman that works at our bakery when she can—politely tells her that we do not have a public restroom.
“You mean to tell me that I am about to purchase something from your store and you won’t let me use the bathroom?” said the woman in a very nasty tone.
My mom apologized again but this woman began to express her displeasure with our bathroom policy, loud enough for me to hear her from another room. Naturally, I ran out to see what the commotion was all about. I explained to the woman that for legal reasons our restrooms are not zoned for public access.
“What law is that?” she retorts.
I politely said, “Mam, we share a bathroom with other tenants in the building and for security reasons our landlord lease agreement does not allow public access.” I also explained to her that our bathrooms are located through our kitchen and we could not allow her and her small child walk through it and risk an accident as well as us needing to comply with ISD regulations.
“Well I cannot believe that I am about to purchase something in your store and you will not let my child use the bathroom. I never heard of a law like that.” She grabbed her son’s hand to walk out the door and said, “C’mon on _____ we’re going to pee outside this man’s door and then we’re going to buy your cookies!”
To my complete surprise, she pulls her son’s pants down in front of my shop, bare butt facing me, and has him urinate on the sidewalk facing Broadway—a main thruway. She came back in the store to purchase her cookies with the same nasty attitude. O.K., I lost my composure because I could not believe a mom would expose her child’s private areas in front of a shopkeeper, pedestrians and car drivers, and role modeling bad behavior in front of a child. I told her to leave my store and had to almost forcibly remove her.
She kept screaming that her family owns a bunch of restaurants in Rockport and they are lawyers and that she has never heard of any laws pertaining to restricted restroom use. She also stated that she was going to tell every mommy group in the city not to shop at our bakery. I walked out to try and calm the situation however, noticing she parked her brand new Lexus SUV in a handicapped space. I couldn’t believe it! This woman was so entitled that my needs or anyone’s desires were going to come before hers. I tried reasoning with her in order to role model some sort of decent behavior in front of her child. But she demanded to purchase some chocolate chip cookies for her son. Huh? I thought she did not want to ever shop in my store. I sold them to her and walked to the police station and filed a police report for my protection. Days later, I was told by another police sergeant that exposing her child was considered child abuse and could result in a DSS investigation.
If I had known that leaving corporate America would result in having to interact with people like this—I would have stayed in my little cubicle and continued to interact with polite professionals. At least in an office, a standard of proper peer and customer communication is mandated—or else you’re fired.
Lesson learned: Sometimes you have to fire a customer.
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