3 loaves of brown bread, pls

Today I was the lead retail & drinks person for the day. It is not easy to keep all the customers happy all the time. And I'm not sure what we might do differently - As a retail bakery & gourmet shop +coffee bar for drink in or take out + high end service (we seat all patrons) cafe --- there is lots to do in the retail / drinks space since each person walking in the door either knows what she / he wants or is new to the place and may be "checking it out" & need a bit of guidance over "how it works".

So, we had a day, not too busy & I got a chance to see up close where the tough parts are & how we might make it work better for all involved - workers & patrons.

The phone is also in the responsibility set of the retail drinks person & we don't always get that right -- reservations, information, requests & handling problems. Just taking a message while 5-6 people are waiting for your attention - that can be difficult. So, that's an area to explore, looking for alternative approaches.

If manpower were not an issue, the highest cost to most small businesses including ours, then we would have a clear solution. More people!

Instead, we are doing a good bit of cross-training, we are very lucky to have some seriously good customer service oriented folks working for BR who make a huge difference in how the customer experience works, usually very well.

And when someone calls in the midst of the second wave on a Sunday, wanting to know if we have 3 loaves of brown bread, - "Yes?" - great -- will you put them aside for me? _ Yes? thnxs - I'll be there in about 30 mins. And he arrived and he loved that the bread was set aside and he is a repeat buyer of our fab brown bread.

It is part of the flow of the BRBC that I did not expect. People really like what we do and like that we can be counted on for a good product & a good experience.