Listen to Some Great Tips to Increase Your Shop Profits:

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Jim Ross of Flat Pennies Ice Cream has had success running an ice cream business for over 10 years.

We had the pleasure of interviewing him and asked what his top 2 secrets are to improving operations and customer satisfaction.

Conduct Regular Focus Groups for your Ice Cream Business

One of the best ways Jim continues to improve his business is through conducting focus groups. These focus groups consist of individuals outside of the company that have an interest in helping improve the business or offering their opinion (and yes, it helps that they get free ice cream for participating!)

Jim recommends having a variety of participants. He often reaches out to teachers, customers and vendors that have a background in marketing or simply have helpful ideas that they want to voice. These groups usually consist of 6-8 participants as lower than 6 can result in not having enough voices while more than 8 can result in the focus group running too long or having too many opinions.

Tips for a Successful Focus Group

• Participants from various backgrounds such as vendors
• Make it known that nothing they say will bother you and you want to start with a clean slate
• Include any employees or contractors who will be responsible for handling the outcome of the focus group so they know first hand what they need to do (if this isn’t possible, have someone take thorough notes or record the session)

If you are unsure of how to encourage people to participate in a focus group, simply offer them a free meal or free ice cream! After all, that is the common interest among the group. It should be fairly easy to find participants because people often feel proud when they see their ideas come to life. This creates a type of “ownership” where they can come into your shop and say “I had a part in that!”

Improve your Ice Cream Business with an Employee Log Book

Another great tip from Jim is to have an employee log book. This has helped his ice cream business greatly as it is something that all employees look at and write in every day with suggestions to improve the business or efficiency, comment on the day to day operations, and anything that comes to mind.

 

 

 

 

This opens up communication between the employees and owners and allows everyone to have a voice in the company. The free flow of information results in constant improvements to the day to day operations as well as the business as a whole.

Running an ice cream business can be a difficult task at times, however, implementing tips like the two mentioned by Jim at Flat Pennies Ice Cream can greatly improve your operations and in turn improve customer satisfaction. Constantly look for feedback from your employees as well as others who are not directly involved with your business.

Listen to the full interview here Length: 50:30 17.3MB

To learn more about Flat Pennies, check out their website or their Facebook page