iMessage for bakeries and coffee shops

Most of a bakery's messaging value is in one unglamorous place: making sure custom orders get collected. A celebration cake that nobody picks up on Saturday is a full day's labour and materials written off, and it happens more than owners admit.

Order confirmation and collection

export const orders = {
  confirmed: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.bakery}: ${c.item} confirmed for collection ${c.dayDate} ` +
    `from ${c.time}. Inscription: "${c.inscription}". ` +
    `Balance of ${c.balance} on collection.`,
 
  // Day before. This is the message that prevents the write-off.
  tomorrow: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.bakery}: your ${c.item} is ready to collect tomorrow ` +
    `from ${c.time}. We close at ${c.closeTime}.`,
 
  ready: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.bakery}: it's decorated and it looks lovely — photo attached. ` +
    `See you ${c.time}.`,
};

The restraint problem

Cafés and bakeries are more tempted than most businesses to message frequently, because there is always something new out of the oven. Almost every one that does it ends up with an opted-out list.

The second item on the right is the interesting one. 'The sourdough you like is back on Thursdays' sent to the twenty people who actually buy it is a genuinely useful message. The same message to your whole list is spam. The difference is not the wording — it is whether you segmented.

Holiday pre-orders are the exception worth being deliberate about: Christmas and Easter order books fill early, and a single message three weeks out captures a large share of last year's customers. Quiet hours and frequency covers the general rule.