What was the problem we were solving?
The idea for our reminder service came about before Little Birdy Cakes was even fully formed. We had decided to target the corporate sector but we were unsure what their needs were. We tested the idea on our guinea pigs at Excite Media and it seemed to be a winner. Then we hit the streets to talk to businesses about what they really needed. The concept grew from there. As each business comes on board there has been an overwhelming sense of gratitude for finding a solution to a very common problem.
How do you solve a small problem in a big way? By finding the pain points and solving them.
Imagine you have 30 staff members in your office. The boss has decided that you will be celebrating each staff members birthday and it is your job to remember and order the cakes. At first you are excited, ordering cakes is fun. There are so many to choose from. You google, you bookmark, you check with various people what flavour they would like. Most say chocolate cake so you choose a chocolate mud cake. On the day, you leave work and drive to the cake shop to pick up the cake and then drive back to the office. You organise plates and forks and display the cake for everyone to see. Everyone sings happy birthday, they eat the cake (it’s ok) and then you are left with the cleaning up. All up it has taken you 2 hours to search for the cake, order it, pick it up, set up and clean up. And guess what? There is another birthday next week.
All up it has taken you 2 hours to search for the cake, order it, pick it up, set up and clean up. And guess what? There is another birthday next week.
After ordering a few cakes you realise that there really isn’t that much to choose from. A few places don’t taste that great, some are too expensive and the 10 cakes that seemed like a lot to choose from really only narrows down to 4 or 5 cakes you could actually order. When you ask again what people would prefer and they tell you everyone likes chocolate you get disheartened. Every time a birthday comes up you have to reorganise your morning to make sure the cake is picked up and ready to go.
It’s no longer fun and games
One day you search “cake delivery Brisbane” because you are sick of wasting your time picking up the cake. You find a local business who caters for just what you are looking for. The cake options look limited but when you realise that the cakes change every month you realise that it will be easier to choose. They deliver!! No more running around on the day. And best of all, they will remind you when each birthday is coming up. Something you had never considered essential before.
The value of time
When we were in the process of creating the reminder service, there were two things that we really wanted to address. The time factor and the cake options. The time it takes to take care of this task for an office is one of the many unaccounted for tasks. The person ordering still has to get all their work done but in a smaller amount of time. From a manager or owners perspective, it costs money to have that person out of the office or doing non-productive tasks. It was essential that the cakes had to be delivered. To the point that we don’t offer a pick up option. This is a cost saver for us as well. As we don’t have a shop front, we don’t have to have a staff member available each day to cater for those wanting to pick up.
One email, an invoice and your cake will be delivered on the day ready to be eaten. THAT IS IT.
Then there is the time spent ordering a cake. There are only a few places that you can order a cake online from. If you are adding delivery, then most times you have to add this to the order and the price will depend on where it is being delivered to. Or you have to get in contact with the business to organise delivery. With our service, delivery is included in our prices. Once your details are in our system the only thing we need to know for each birthday is: Is the birthday going ahead or has the date changed? Which cake would you like to order?. THAT IS IT. One email, an invoice and your cake will be delivered on the day ready to be eaten.
Too many options can be a killer
I was very scared at the beginning to only offer two cake options when every other cake business had 10 plus cake options. The reason for going with two cake flavours a month started as purely a cost exercise. As I didn’t have a team of staff and we take orders up to 2pm on the day before delivery, I couldn’t manage too many flavour options. Every additional cake flavour adds an average of 30 minutes to an hour (even for just one cake!). Where as adding in one additional cake to one of our two cake options only adds 5 to 10 minutes. As time has gone on, it has proven to be a hit. Most people do not like having too many options as it causes mental fatigue. I, for one, hate restaurants with big menus! I can never decide and then I get food envy because I didn’t choose something else. We have plans to expand our range in the future, not to add flavours but to add value. We often get requests for slab/sheet cakes and we would like to have a premium cake option for those massive occasions and milestones. The ones you really want to go all out for. All in good time.
Do you have a pain point?
So have we done what we set out to do? Will it last the test of time? I certainly think so. Why not give it a try for yourself and let us know? If we helped solve a pain point for you then we have done our job. Call us on 0426 503 875 if you would like to try our reminder service for your team.