Do Your Kids Love Ice Cream?

My kids certainly do! In fact one of the things they love about Baskin Robbins is they can theoretically try all 31 flavours of ice cream before actually buying one! But when it comes to new ice cream experiences the cold marble slab market is opening up in a big way – both in terms of competition and PRICE!

If you have not had the opportunity to try one of these marvels in marketing you should, there are Marble Slab Creamery and Stone Cold Creamery franchises popping up everywhere and it is taking the ice cream eating to a whole new level.

But this explosion of taste and experience comes with a warning – do not compromise the brand experience in favour of distribution. Tim Hortons, the #1 coffee store here in Canada is now putting Stone Colds in some of their stores, but the customer service levels are certainly lacking based on a recent store visit. We were kept waiting while staff continued to serve a stream of coffee and donut customers at another till, including arrivals after us.

When we were finally served it was evident the person serving had little or no experience of the Stone Cold approach, even down to the size and flavour options, or going by the poor product presentation, was not even that interested in serving – it seemed like more of an inconvenience than the fact our purchase was equivalent to 7 or more coffee customers. This would be as insulting as my going in to a Tim Hortons and ordering a Vente coffee or a Starbucks and ordering a double double – its damaging to the brand and makes for a poor experience not an ultimate one.  

Your employees are a critical extension of your brand, regardless of whether its ice cream, coffee or not retail or hospitality at all.  If they are not trained or engaged then the brand that will suffer first and most is yours, not their personal brand.