Using research knowledge to solve real-life bakery problems

Shortly after launching online my home-based bakery, it became apparent that I was essentially the product manager of my own cheesecake venture. To effectively operate and grow this product, I needed a deep understanding of my customers, their motivations, their needs and their pain points. Who would be a better person to delve into these topics rather than a researcher? So there I went, putting on my researcher hat - analyzing data and making recommendations for my own online business. 

At this point, you might be wondering where the data came from. As the sole business stakeholder, product manager, researcher and baker of my own bakery, I unfortunately didn’t have the time and budget to run an official study. Instead, I resorted to guerilla methods, leveraging various sources of quantitative and qualitative data as listed below:

• Over 200 intercepts with customers, primarily through online chat with a few face-to-face interactions

• Instagram insights dashboard

• Observations of online shopping behaviors among myself, family and friends

I have been able to address a number of key takeaways that I decided to work on to improve later. Here are three of them:

1. Pictures help customers to make quicker and more well-informed decisions.

2. Cheesecake texture is a deal breaker for cheesecake enthusiasts. 

3. Payment process is inconvenient, as customers need to move back and forth between Instagram and another banking app.

Let’s get into each of these!

Pictures help customers to make quicker and more well-informed decisions.

One example to illustrate this point is that a number of customers buy cheesecake as a gift for someone they love. Though Gift Options are clearly described by words in the menu, they often request actual pictures of packaging and decorations that are gonna be used before making a decision. There are two primary reasons for this:

First, many gifts are for special occasions, and customers want to ensure there are no mistakes.

Second, customers occasionally wish to customize the decorations, to match with their own or the recipient's preference. 

“Could you please change the color of the ribbon to white?”

To provide clarity on decorative elements, a reel was created to showcase the entire presentation of a cheesecake gift box, from the exterior to the interior. This reel quickly captures the attention of customers who  browse the bakery’s page with the intention of buying cheesecake as a gift. It also becomes a lot more convenient for many customers to initiate an order, as they can easily send this reel to the bakery’s inbox to order “one similar box”.

“I would like to order one similar box for my friend’s birthday party this Tuesday”

Cheesecake texture is a deal breaker for cheesecake enthusiasts. 

Around 20% of the bakery’s customers are returning customers, and some of them consider themselves cheesecake connoisseurs. They have tried many different cheesecake shops in town, so they have experiences to compare and contrast. They have discerning tastes, and could describe precisely how a cheesecake tastes and what makes a cheesecake great in their opinion. They have developed their own set of cheesecake standards. Once acquired as the bakery’s customers, these customers become extremely valuable, not only because they keep coming back, but also because they are likely to have friends who also enjoy baked goods and refer them to us. 

These cheesecake experts who chose to settle down with the bakery share one common interest: they settle for the texture, as some of them pointed out themselves. The texture is always a deal breaker for them when it comes to cheesecake.

Ensuring a smooth and dense texture has always been a core value of the bakery’s cheesecake since recipe testing days. Now that it’s started to be recognized, it’s time to highlight this characteristic more prominently. To promote this feature, a range of pictures and reels were produced to emphasize the cheesecake’s texture. This content consistently gets the highest shares and saves-to-plays ratio, as reported by Instagram dashboard.

Highlighting the dense and smooth texture of the cheesecake

Payment process is inconvenient, as customers need to move back and forth between Instagram and another banking app.

On Instagram, payment process is not provided, at least in Vietnam where the bakery is operated. The most common payment method is by money transfer. After an order is placed, banking information is sent along with the order summary to customers. Customers then transfer the money and provide proof of the transaction to the seller. That’s when the transaction is done.

The whole process is far from seamless, with noticeable usability issues. From observations, a significant problem arises when a customer tries to copy the bank account number of the seller from Instagram and paste it into the banking app.

On one hand, the information customers need for money transfer, the bank name and account number, is often bundled with other text in one summary message. As Instagram does not support copying part of a message, customers are forced to copy the entire message.  

On the other hand, the banking app requires manual input of the account number, which must consist of numbers only. In order to extract just the account number, users come up with some workarounds:

• Pasting the message into a text box in another app which can automatically detect and select numbers (e.g., Google Keep), and copying numbers from there to the banking app

• Pasting the message into a random text box that they find convenient (e.g., Instagram or Messenger), manually selecting the numbers by using the cursor and copying numbers from there to the banking app

Either way is laborious for customers. The recommendation is simply to send the account number once again separately as a single message as in the picture below. Customers can hold and copy the number message, then paste it directly into the banking app. This small adjustment to eliminate the need to switch back and forth can significantly improve the payment process, as demonstrated by a grateful customer’s feedback. 

Account number sent along with other information and then again separately. Customer's reply: “Oh, that’s very considerate of you”