Foodzie, the Artisan food company has a story. Actually, it has lots of stories. The food, the vendors, the founders, and the business model all have a story (or ten) to tell. There are so many stories to be told, the company launched a search for a head storyteller to share all of the tales with the world. Somehow, in the process of captivating "our customers with colorful insights and anecdotes about the producers and food," a key component of engaging people was missed. Someone forgot to listen to customers and bring the service.
When service is missing, customers become storytellers. The Foodzie story is being told on Facebook by people less than enamored with their shopping experience and the changes made to the business model. Changing how you do business is hard. There will always be some who resist the process. But when customers who promote your company and the products question the value, there's a problem.
If you are unfamiliar with Foodzie, it has been billed as the Etsy of food because it began as a marketplace for artisan food vendors to connect with foodies. The combination of tasting boxes and thousands of unique products was a winning model that appealed to foodies and media. The company was founded in 2008 by college friends, received venture funds, and grew quickly. Their success story has been told by traditional and digital journalists. After all, who can resist telling others about a growing business that was founded in a tough economy?
Foodies loved telling the story too. They wrote blog posts about the food that included pictures of the products and packaging. It was a marketing dream come true where customers used social media to introduce the company to new prospects. Until now.
It has been said that those who live by the sword die by the sword. The same channel that was filled with raves about Foodzie is now populated with questions about pricing, missing vendors, and delivery. Hopefully it won't be the undoing of the startup, but the signs are troubling.
Just in time for the holidays, Foodzie unveiled a new shopping experience. According to Rob Lafave, Founder and CEO, they consider the website upgrade the "Foodzie 2 platform" where they have changed from a massive marketplace to a focus on curated featured products. In an interview with Josh Benson, Lafave said, "Our community members can come and find the best of our favorites and have a very focused experience."
In addition to a significant decrease in the product offerings, there has been a 50% price increase in the tasting box. The explanation for the changes posted on the website reads:
"Based on customer feedback, we recently made a change to offer a more curated, ever-changing mix of products on the site, along with offering a selection of Foodzie Tasting Boxes to choose from each month. The new Foodzie Boxes deliver a greater experience to everyone, as we are able to offer full size items instead of samples, have the ability to include products like pickles and chocolates which we were never able to include before, and still keep the shipping free on everything purchased through our website."
There may have been extensive internal customer feedback that warranted the changes in the business model and pricing structure, but the social channel is filling up with people who aren't supportive of the new vision. Bloggers regularly promoting the brand have changed their message:
The company's Facebook page is filling up with people wondering where the vendors have gone and commenting on the lack of value:
Foodzie began as a new marketplace for artisan food. Using the Internet to make it easy for foodies to connect with vendors is brilliant. But there as two critical points that were missed:
- Social marketing works best when it begins with listening to the customer.
Foodzie's search for a Head Storyteller describes the position with this post on their blog:
We have a story. Our producers have a story. The food has a story. Stories, stories, stories. Seems like a small thing, but it's really kind of the whole thing. At Foodzie, we take our food seriously, but not ourselves too much. We're obsessed with discovering the best products from independent foodcrafters and sharing who they are, how it's made, and why we love it. As the Head Storyteller you'll work closely with the founders (that means me!) and designers to weave these stories into every touch point with our customers.
YOUR DREAM JOB AT A HIGH LEVEL
Each day will be different (which makes it fun!) but at the core your work will tie back to these three:
• Storytelling - Captivate our customers with colorful insights and anecdotes about the producers and food.
• Brand Building - Craft content to communicate the brand.
• Eating - Yep, it's a very awesome part of the job. Gotta eat it to write about it!
STUFF YOU'LL DO OTHER THAN EATING GOOD FOOD
• All the time, you'll create and be the strict enforcer of the Foodzie voice across multiple platforms including: blog, newsletter, site, Foodzie Tasting Box, and social media.
• Daily, you'll create conversation via social media, including Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
• Daily, you'll whip up how-tos, producer interviews and fun food stuff for the blog.
• Weekly, you'll deliver delicious discoveries via our email newsletter.
• Monthly, you'll dive deep, writing site and print copy for our top product selections that make it into our Tasting Box experiences.
• As Needed, you'll be crafting messaging on the site consistent with the brand.
WE WON'T LET YOU IN THE DOOR IF YOU'RE NOT...
• Obnoxiously obsessed with good food.
• A pro food writer with stacks (digital stacks work too!) of articles/posts that make us hungry and make us smile. Years of work don't matter as much as lots of examples of food writing we can't put down.
• A stickler for the small details.
• Active on social media (the usual suspects).
• Fast, flexible, and fast. We're a startup!
• A do-er, self-starter.
• Fun.
• A team player.
• Hungry to be the best.
• Living in the Bay Area.
• Obnoxiously obsessed with good food.The need to listen and respond to customers is missing, but being a "strict enforcer of the Foodzie voice" is included. Perhaps things would be different today if the customer voice had been the focus.
- Long term corporate success is dependent on the ability to deliver.
Companies have to provide the value and service expected by customers. Foodzie is in the direct marketing business. The concept may be unique, but they have to deliver the selection, pricing, and timing expected by their customers. Consumers are well trained in the best practices of direct marketing companies.
These practices include billing the credit card when the product ships, packaging that protects the products from damage, and responsiveness to customer feedback. Foodzie bills subscribers on the first of the month and waits to ship the products until the third week. Not only does this practice skate dangerously close to violating the FTC ruling, it escalates operational costs by increasing "where is my order" inquiries, and reduces customer satisfaction:
It's always best to learn from the experience of others. If the Foodzie founders had spent a little time learning from the direct marketers who have fine-tuned managing customer expectations and the logistics requires to fulfill orders, they might have avoided the train-wreck happening on Facebook.
Or, they could have simply learned pricing and business model lessons from Netflix.