Get On the Calendar!
Posted on May 23, 2012
Well, here we are again. It’s time to get back into the swing of things, as they say, since we’re coming into the busy season. The Delivery Boy has been busy getting the equipment up to the task and managing the logistics, and the Cake Ladies have been even busier with the rousing success of Sugar Buzz and the Friday/Saturday sales of cupcakes and cake balls at the counter!
Lately some people have been getting surprised when they call the shop to place an order, and since I’ve overheard these conversations several times, I thought it was time to get the word out. As many of you know, The Cake Boutique makes all of its cakes to special order for each customer; while there’s not a lot of lead time required, there is SOME lead time required. So we usually have people calling in for their orders many weeks in advance of the actual date of their event. The Cake Ladies often find a space in the schedule for last-minute requests, but this is not always possible. None of us—especially this delivery boy—ever want people to be disappointed, but the fact is that we are a pretty small shop. I can only deliver so many cakes, the bakers can only bake so many cakes, and the Cake Chicks only have so many hours in their day. I can tell you that when the ladies tell you that they can’t make your cake, it means one thing—that it is truly and genuinely IMPOSSIBLE to fit another cake into the schedule!
Every schedule has ebbs and flows, and cake-making schedules are no exception. You might come to the Boutique during some random week in September (a busy month, but still…) and find out that they have no problem working one more order in, and that you can have it tomorrow. But then you might come to them one day and they have to turn you down for even the simplest product, because it’s a spectacularly busy week, and you go to another shop and they are able to make the cake the same day! HOW does this make sense?! Well, there are a lot of reasons why other shops might be able to accommodate your request better on any given day or week. Certainly some of our competitors have more production capacity, particularly those who have been in business locally for a long time, but others don’t get as many pre-orders on their schedule. Because of the amazing response to the Boutique’s products, we have a TON of pre-orders. The Cake Boutique is seeing an unheard-of level of repeat business, and these customers are familiar with the need to order ahead—often they are placing orders and holding dates several months in advance to make sure they get the best cake out there. This has led to the situation where The Cake Boutique has weeks in July and August that were totally booked as early as April! Not everyone is facing this kind of repeat business cycle, and so their schedules may not fill up as quickly.
The bottom line, I guess, is this: we know it’s disappointing when you call and the schedule just won’t allow us to fit you in. We know you’re likely going to go somewhere else when that happens, especially if it’s an event with a fixed date (birthday, baby shower, etc.). And we know that if we break that schedule by accommodating your request, and the requests of the many others who call on the same day, you will be even more disappointed with the results. If The Cake Boutique operated like an supermarket-type “industrial” bakery it would produce supermarket-quality cakes—and we know that’s not what you’re looking for. All of us who are connected to The Cake Boutique can only hope that the schedule will work out better next time, and that you will come back to us for your next event. Remember—if you have an event coming up, please connect with The Cake Boutique early, and the Cake Ladies will do their absolute best work to make you “A Memory You Can Taste!”