About twice a month I have a delivery that doesn't take.
(I do cupcakes - so I get a lot of orders for gifts. ie, Suzy sends two dozen cupcakes to her sister Beth for Beth's birthday.)

Generally I call the person that ordered, tell them I'm going to attempt re-delivery and then try again. If it doesn't work out that time, they can arrange for pick up.

Last week was the busiest week I've ever had. I had a failed delivery, tried to deliver again and still couldn't make the drop. And I FORGOT to call the client and tell them. ARGH. This morning I have a voicemail from here wondering why she paid for cupcakes that never got delivered. So that's going to be a fun conversation.

Anyone else deal with failed deliveries? I realize most of you are doing event cakes so it's a little different business model... but I think I need a better process/policy. Thought I'd ask here before I go re-inventing the wheel.

When you say failed what does that mean?
Did you forget to deliver or is the person who is supposed to accept the delivery not there?
If you forgot to make the delivery then the customer needs to get a full refund.
If the customer wasnât there to accept the delivery at the specified time then I wouldnât offer a discount, that is if the time was agreed upon by both parties and confirmed in writing.
If you are scheduling to many deliveries and arenât able to complete them all you might have to cut back on the orders you take or hire a delivery driver to complete all the deliveries.

I can understand why your deliveries are failing. Are you talking to the gift recipient to make sure they are there? If not, then that's what you need to do. The ordering person either needs to make sure the person is there or you need to have contact info with the recipient. You probably also need to have a statement in your contract that they will be charged for subsequent deliveries and after two failed attempts maybe a charge for your time and suffering. I wouldn't deliver if I couldn't make sure the person was there. You can confirm a time with the gift recipient without giving them info about what it is, other than obviously bakery. It will still be a surprise.

yourstrulytx, the way I understand the situation is that - like floral delivery - rhienn is contracted to delivery surprise cupcake gifts. Thus, is unable to notify the recipient of when they are going to be delivered (it'll ruin the surprise).

If this indeed is the situation, you could do like the floral delivery do and maybe leave it with a nieghbor? Have a slip for the neighbor to sign saying they accepted them and then put a carbon copy of that on teh recipient's door. Just an idea

When I delivered flowers we had door hangers (to hang on the knob) saying thay we had a delivery for them and for re-delivery the can call xxx-xxxx.

Ooooh! A door hanger. That's a great idea!

I'm not forgetting to make the delivery. There's no one available to accept the delivery. (Although once it was because the apartment building's intercom system was broken and I had no way to contact anyone inside. I was't going to leave the cupcakes on the street.)

I actually am just about busier than I can handle, but I'll be freeing up some time for office/admin/delivery work by cutting back hours at my other job. I can't wait for that day! Just a couple more weeks.

Oh Ok, I get it now.
I didnât understand it as "surprise" deliveries.
Well in that case I'm no help.
I do cake deliveries but never anything like that.

I agree that you will have to treat it like a flower delivery. If no one is available, call the client first and attempt a re-delivery. If that fails, leave a door-hanger note that directs the recipient to call your shop to arrange a pick-up time.

We did occasionally deliver to a next-door neighbor...but ran into some issues with that as well!

When I worked in a flower shop, there were several times when a surprise delivery could not be made, and the client could not be reached, so we had no choice but to call the recipient to make sure they were going to be home for the "special delivery".

I like the idea of a door hanger..you can probably get them made up cheap and cute, and just have them call you when they will be home so you won't have a second failed attempt.

I wouldn't delivery next door, etc. Cupcakes can be eaten too easily by the wrong party!

I'd do the door hanger on the first attempt...gas cost too much to chase people down and hope they are home.


good luck!

melody

Re leaving with a neighbor, I wouldn't leave foods with third parties, and I wouldn't necessarily eat foods left with third parties I don't know (even if they live next door to me).