audrey (bidabble) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-05-12 07:41:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, audrey, emma swan |
Who: Emma Swan and Audrey
When: Mid April sometime
Where: Baxter Bakery
What: Bonding over coffee
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Today was one of those rare days when Audrey didn’t have a backpack with a baby in it against her chest. Ben was with his daddy for the day, and Audrey was on her own. It meant that she could really get hands-on at the bakery, instructing and cooking and cleaning and talking to customers. She could do the paperwork at home, or when Ben was napping. When she didn’t have the baby with her, she wanted to be present with her employees and patrons.
So she was passing out samples to the line that was running nearly out the door. Though she felt like a broken record, she wanted to make sure everyone knew that she was sorry for the wait, thankful for their business, and offered each a sample of a baked good while they waited for the baristas to take their orders. There was only so much room for folks behind the counter to work, anyway.
The fact that the line was almost half way down the street (slight exaggeration, but not entirely) was kind of encouraging. Emma didn’t really believe there was such a thing as bad coffee, she was aware that there was such a thing as bad baking, but so far she seemed to be able to choose her baked goods well enough.
Standing around in the line, checking her phone routinely, and thanking God when she got closer to the counter, Emma just hoped that the reason everyone was so willing to wait around here was that it was that awesome. She’d heard the hype, and that was why she was there. Ordering her coffee, and picking one of the baked treats that looked really damn yummy from the counter, Emma spied out at least one table that, if she were lucky, she’d be able to snag for the afternoon.
There was definitely bad coffee. Burnt coffee, expired milk, grinds in the cup, bad tasting sugars and/or flavoring? Audrey had had all the worst, just so she knew what to avoid. And she did a pretty exceptional job of avoiding such things. Just one of the reasons why the line was half-way down the street. (More or less.)
Another reason was the price. For the quality, Audrey charged a very reasonable price for her products. And she was big on samples and customer appreciation--frequent buyer cards, birthday discounts and coupons. She was a marketer as much as she was a baker.
She saw a customer she didn't recognize well, and headed over to say hello. She brought a coupon with her. "Hi! I'm Audrey. How's your coffee?"
Again, everyone here was so engaging. Emma had never really been pulled into so many conversations as she had here in town, “It’s… great,” hot, which was good since, y’know, coffee. And she was trying something new -she didn’t usually go for hazelnut flavourings, but why not? And her cupcake looked to be smothered in enough sweet icing to curb her sweet-tooth anyway.
“I’m Emma, hi.” She had been three seconds away from shoving her finger in her cupcake to get a sneak taste of the icing. Three seconds away from licking icing off her finger like a child. She absolutely needed to control herself. “It’s a lovely place, a few people sort of recommended that I try it out. Coffee addict.”
"Hi, Emma. I'm Audrey. I own the place." Audrey said, smiling. She moved over to a table that'd just been vacated, and started to clear and wipe it down so that Emma could sit. "Hey, thanks. I'm proud. It's taken me some time to put it together, and we're still working on things sometimes, but... yes. Thanks."
She motioned for Emma to take a seat. "I'm glad that word's out. We've got a lot of really loyal customers."
It was something about those smaller businesses, wasn’t it? The local people with the local businesses encouraging local economy. It made a lot of sense, and Emma could definitely get behind supporting the smaller businesses than the greedy conglomerates (although she was such a sucker for a Starbucks gingerbread latte) and giving back to the community.
Especially when it was just as good or well priced.
“Thanks very much,” a clean table was always nice to have and Emma slotted herself in nice and easy with a smile. “It’s a lovely place,” it was too, nice atmosphere, nice feel. Not all hipster and drab like some places. “I can see myself becoming a regular.” Especially if this cupcake tasted as good as it looked.
Yeah, there was something addictive about Starbucks. If only Audrey could buy a couple of those syrups to sell in her own shop! But none of the knock-offs (pumpkin spice, gingerbread, even the cinnamon dolce) were as good.
“Sure,” Audrey said, finishing up wiping down the table. She held out the chair. “Thank you. You definitely should. We love our regulars. Are you new in town?” Audrey asked. See? This was personalized service. This was how Audrey made friends out of customers.
“Yeah, I just moved here a few months ago,” it’d taken her this long get herself unpacked, settled and a job before she could really afford to go venturing around the place. It worked out well enough really. “So this is me just getting my footing.” And she could definitely understand why people spoke rather highly of this place.
Friendly staff, good service considering how busy it was, very good coffee. “I could probably make this place my morning stop.” Provided she gave herself enough time to wait in line, ha ha.
"Welcome to Orange County, then." Audrey said pleasantly. "I'm glad you decided to stop by and check us out." She moved over to the milk-and-sugar station nearby and wiped it down while they talked, wanting to keep her hands busy. Hey, she was working, right? She should get some work done.
"We've got great deals for our regulars," Audrey added again. "I'm thinking about instituting a punch card system with discounts at five drinks, then the tenth is free? Maybe I can have Merlin make us an app." Smart phone app instead of a paper punch card, right? What a brilliant idea.
“That sounds cool,” and incentives like that really helped to make return customers, some people just took coffee where they could get them, like Emma. But instances where they could get something for being loyal to a place, reward schemes were pretty handy in that regard for sure. “A diner I worked at a few years back did something like that, but like for breakfasts?”
Chicago had a hell of a lot of diners, which was actually probably a good thing, but she’d enjoyed it well enough and the regulars were the staple of the place. Discount cards were all well and good, points off things too. But rewarding people by celebrating their tenth buy with a freebie usually meant return customers.
“I could probably fill a card in a week.”
"Giving away free breakfasts? That sounds... well, I suppose that's sort of what I'd be doing with the pastries and coffees." Sometimes that's all anyone had for breakfast.
"That's what I like to hear." Audrey was smiling, her eyes bright. And it wouldn't hurt the pocketbook too much. She kept her prices fair and competitive. "I'll see about the whole smart phone thing. That would be pretty amazing. I wonder if there's already a company that does that sort of thing." She'd have to find out.
Emma tended to go through a lot of coffee, and when it was good coffee that drew her back, then she could go through several cups a day. “You absolutely should,” especially since Emma had just gotten a sip of her drink to really savor and wow would she ever be back for more. Good coffee and good food were the makings of a good day, add in the nice place and the friendliness of the staff? Why would someone really need incentive to return?
Further incentive would probably get a good response if only because it rewarded people for their returning. Which was always nice. “Reward card or not, I can attest to becoming a regular already.”
"Good." Audrey smiled brightly. "We'll become great friends you and me, Emma, I'm sure of it." She glanced over behind the register and saw that the girls working were becoming a little overwhelmed by the amount of customers. Then a gallon of milk tipped over and sploshed onto the floor.
"Ah. Whoops!" Audrey gave a little chuckle, turning her attention back to Emma. "I should go help them out. But it was really wonderful meeting you. And if you need anything, I'm here. And on Valarnet."
Emma didn’t doubt that she could easily become friends with Audrey, with or without coffee, but the woman’s easy nature sort of indicated that, yeah, coming here more would likely wind up in another pretty good building friendship. “Yeah,” smiling a little, Emma just nodded as Audrey indicated helping out again. “That’s great, I’m sure we’ll talk again.” The woman had a business to run just now though, and Emma could enjoy her coffee with the notion of further visits to come.