How do you take a cake order from a customer?
How do you get a new cake order?
How do you book out time for a customer and get a cake order?
During the conversation do you immediately look at your electronic calendar? Are you doing this in view of the customer? Do you look there and then to see if you have space for another cake order that particular week?
Or do you take down the details and say you will have to check the records and get back to them?
Which would be better? Which looks more professional?
An immediate response, so that the customer knows that you can create their cake and fit it in your schedule?
Or a delayed response, with ‘Let me check the bookings and come back to you with designs and prices’?
So what could the customer prefer?
A slot booked in – for a cake, whilst they have no idea of the final cost?
Or a slight delay.
And a confirmation of your availability. Then comes a discussion around the price and design.
Surely the latter option is better?
The first could create a nervous customer. Since they would never know at first what costs they had booked themselves in for.
So many people are using email. It is easy to hide behind email and forget to have a face to face conversation. Even a telephone conversation would be nice! But nowadays it seems the whole transactions are happening via email. This is when misunderstandings happen.
As an aside – I asked my friends if they were to book a cake decorator would they like an email or a phone call. And do you know what – 100% voted for phone call! So be aware of this statistic!
Anyway I digress…
So take the opportunity – when out and about, and you get a request for a quote for a cake – just take the contact details.
Get back to the customer with a conversation – not just email.
You will have a higher chance of tweaking and adjusting any design. It might be deemed as ‘too pricey’. But a real conversation allows for adjustment. This will happen way more frequently than via an email series.
Are you are thinking seriously of taking customer orders?
Have you seen our selection of Customer Order Forms – which are available online?
Here is the link

E Order Form available in £, $ and Worldwide versions
For UK users – we also have a physical order pad – which makes a duplicate for your records on ‘no carbon required NCR’ paper.
Really useful.
Here is the link
Here is what a customer thinks about them.
Penny Grundon UK
“Can’t do without one!”
Perfect for my records’
Or find our whole product suite