We recently connected with Alessandra Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.

Alessandra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

At Bon Bon Bon, we take customer service pretty seriously. As shopkeepers, we assume responsibility for the entirety of someone’s in-store experience which is a pretty big deal because sometimes customers come in on what may be a really bad day for them. So for us, it’s important to recognize this role that we play in people’s lives. We like to think of ourselves as somewhere in between a jeweler and a bartender – a jeweler guides you throughout this really elaborate process before you buy a cherished item (like a shopkeeper walks you through getting the perfect gift). A bartender listens and knows exactly how to lift you up when you need it most. Working in a chocolate shop is a lot of responsibility (service-wise) because of the wide range of reasons why someone might be coming in. Maybe a customer is buying a “sorry for your loss” gift, or maybe they just got broken up with and needed a pick-me-up.

After seeing a full gambit of reasons why people come in sad or upset, we decided to make super secret – under the counter only – not for sale – giveaways specifically for these moments. We call them “Pick Me Up Packs”! These are given away at the discretion of a shopkeeper for those times when maybe someone’s energy is a bit off or for those extra sad days. Each pick-me-up pack consists of kitchen scraps – some sprinkles, a Bon, maybe some tiny mallows, really whatever’s in the kitchen that week! For us, this was an important add to our business because it really drives home the idea that we actually care about YOU, the human visiting our shop. No need to ask for it, and of course no need to pay for it, just a treat from us to the customer because we want them to know that we hear them and we hope it gets better.

Admittedly, Pick Me Up Packs have caused more tears than ever because of their unexpected nature, but we take that as a win because we’re pretty sure they are the good kind of tears when it happens.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you tell us about Bon Bon Bon’s founder, Alexandra Clark and tell us more about what separates Bon Bon Bon from other chocolate companies?

Our Founder and Head Chocolatier, Alexandra Clark is not your average “chef”. By nineteen, she had cultivated an intense passion that morphed into a professional desire to contribute “goodness” to the industry. Her curiosity took her to Michigan State University where she studied Hospitality Business & Food Processing Technology. After receiving her chocolate certificate from The French Pastry School of Chicago, she left the country on a full ride scholarship to New Zealand’s prestigious Massey University to complete a degree in Agricultural Commerce and continue her research on value chains in the cocoa and chocolate industry with USAID’s Partnerships for Food Industry Development (PFID). She returned to study at Ecole Chocolat as well as under Master Pastry Chef, Joe Decker and Master Chef Jeff Gabriel at Schoolcraft College. So all this to say, though Alexandra is a classically trained chocolatier, she found her home within Bon Bon Bon and was able to use those magnificent french techniques that she had learned and has used the chocolate she makes, as a vehicle for her creative expression and passion for her Detroit community. Sometimes that means we put Detroit’s favorite potato chips in a hand made chocolate shell with hand painted gold on top. And that’s what we like to call “French technique with Detroit Ingenuity”.

Though there is a lot that separates us from other chocolatiers, there’s also a lot that makes us super similar to some! And to us, that’s a great thing! We want there to be more good chocolate out in the world that follows similar core values as we do and we want other people to know about it. Whether these other chocolate businesses have sustainable packaging, or source their cacao responsibly, it’s important to us that we support those other chocolatiers in their efforts to make the chocolate industry better. Some chocolate shops that we admire and resect include Grocer’s Daughter, Mindo, Dwaar Chocolate, & Askinosie to name a few.

The one thing that I think does separate us from most, though, is how “weird” we are. Not just our product, but everything about us! We’re not really a “color within the lines” kinda chocolate company – which is really fun because we kinda get to do whatever we want (most other chocolatier’s wouldn’t dare to do or try). So if we want to mix white chocolate with hot cheetos, we can and we do! Or if we think there is value in keeping super secret under the counter chocolate for people who are having noticeably bad days, we will!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

The best advice I could give for managing a team and maintaining high morale is to just be genuinely kind to everybody. As leaders and managers, our work days can be pretty chaotic and all over the place, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have the time to be kind to our teammates. Try passing on writing an email while someone is trying to express a concern to you, or offer up some dedicated time to that teammate to talk about whatever they want.

Something that we at Bon Bon Bon notice, is that our employees really appreciate when we follow up on a previous question or complaint they made. This shows that not only did we hear them, but that we are actively working on finding a solution. As a result, everyone feels respected and appreciated – as they should because without a solid team, we wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do. Remembering that everyone’s work is important and actively reminding your team of this fact, is critical to keeping morale high and we wouldn’t dare to operate any other way.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The City of Detroit and its constituents are at the core, the reasons for our success. When we first opened up, we were only open one day a week and we had a sign on the door every other day of the week that said “closed but knock if you have champagne” and sure enough, people knocked. With champagne! and dinner! and tools if we ever needed it. The neighborhood and other visitors rallied together to support us in our early days to make sure we could stand on our own two feet.

Once we opened more days than one, we started to build up a group of “regulars” that would come in and tell us that they always come back to make sure our business would stay alive. That’s how things got going. Because some Detroiters back in the day, made sure that we were taken care of, we took care of them, they told more people, those people told more people, and we’ve been trying to show our endless gratitude to our growing customer base ever since.

Contact Info:

• Website: bonbonbon.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonbonbonchocolate/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonbonbonchocolate/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bonbonbon/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bonbonbonchoc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeHk5eMfrGOQRuRVHsHK7Kg
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bon-bon-bon-detroit-7

Image Credits
Tall Boys Studio