Working with Sweet Passions on Improving the Business Processes
We are partnering with Sweet Passions Bakery. On Tuesday, Stephanie, Trevor, and I all visited the business at 1 pm after our classes, while Christina and Nolan visited at 10 am on Saturday. We were actually surprised that they had so much business at such a late time. They constantly had customers in the store, but this comes at a cost. Andrea was sometimes dealing with a customer while the phone rang, so there was no one to answer which could mean that they lost out on future sales. We decided that it was necessary to change the voicemail to repeat the message in both English and Spanish, direct them to ordering on the website, and encouraging them to leave a message. In addition, we thought it may be good to hire a third "swing" worker, who could help the front when they were extremely busy with customers but otherwise would be baking in the back with Blanca.
Another issue with Sweet Passions is that we do not have access to the website so we cannot update the information or alter it. It is owned by the previous owner, so Blanca said that she would contact him and get that for us. Once we get the password to the website, we will be able to make these changes. We don't want to go through the process of creating an entirely new website because the original one really does look good, so it would be a lot of extra effort. However, if we do not get this soon, we will need to start working on a new website.
Finally, they have bought a banner, but do not have the necessary permits and licensing to put it up on their building. We have begun searching for neon/LED lights that would serve as an "attention-grabber" from the street, but they appear to be fairly expensive and outside our price range. However, we may be able to subsidize it somehow, as well as drive the price down through buying in bulk with other teams and negotiating a price. In the meantime, we will talk to Sal and see what we need to do to approve their current banner.