We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Devon Verhoff a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Devon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?
There’s not one particular instance that comes to mind, but we really focus on getting to know our customers, especially our die-hard regulars. These are the regulars that venture to the farmer’s market when it’s 100 degrees plus at 8am in the summer or single-digits with windchill in the winter. We truly valve their opinion and try to go the extra step to verify their and all our customers bread satisfaction. We love when they come up with fun and inventive sourdough mix-in flavors, and try to focus on them in our social media posts.
Shout out to all of our regulars, without you we don’t exist. Thank you!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
We’re Dough Baking is a cottage bakery located in Tower Grove South owned by a husband and wife team, Devon and Alex. Our focus is using premium ingredients to make naturally levain (sourdough) bread. We primarily sell at farmer’s markets: including the Tower Grove Winter Market (February 15th and March 15th) and the Tower Grove Farmer’s Market every Saturday April – November. Additionally, during the market off-season we take pre-order for pickup events at our cottage bakery, ordering is available on our website.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Slowly, we’re a new business and things always take time. Since we only market on Instagram, most of our customers reach us by word-of-mouth. We’ve found when using social media to promote your business that it’s all about consistency and not flooding people’s streams with posts/reels/stories. But at the same time, trying to be creative; which can be hard when you’re doing a weekly post or two. It’s about being genuine to yourself and your product, don’t over do it.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Quality, creativity, and customer service.
It’s all about standing out, we pride ourselves on making fun and interesting breads that you can’t get anywhere else. This creativity mixed with our quality ingredients creates a unique experience with every loaf. However, having a unique product isn’t going to do it alone, when you have outstanding customer service, it entices people to come back, time and time again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bakesy.shop/b/were-dough-baking
- Instagram: @weredoughbaking
