Our customers are our quality control

This month one of our breads experienced problems. For a couple of days the Soda bread, a moist, wholemeal buttermilk soda, stayed soft in the centre and you would only have been able to eat the outside couple of slices. Before we noticed, about three or four batches went out which means that between 30 and 40 breads might have gone out substandard as they say or just not good enough. This can happen easily enough when you are making bread by hand. Changed rotas mean changed routines, The new harvest coming in means that flours have changed and now take less or more moisture and  recipes have to adapt and change.  Ovens might have been that little bit colder than they should have been. In rural Ireland without three phase electricity, our electric ovens sometimes challenge the net and may not be able to run at full heat – again something we may not notice on time. So, baking, while not rocket science, still demands permanent attention and focus and sometimes things can go wrong. That never means that we are trying to cut corners or don’t care what quality our bread is. It only ever means that we have missed a change and we don’t ever miss it for long. So, the point is that we are not infallible and that sometimes, thankfully very rarely, the quality is just not what it should be. If we notice, the bread does not go out, if we do not, we depend on you, our customers to tell us. 

 

As those of you who did tell us will know, we never presume you to be wrong. We will always listen, take note and always, always replace the bread for free. I actually am so grateful for quick, constructive feedback ,that I gladly throw in a few free scones or another free loaf  and always a most appreciative thank you!!  Obviously, the quicker you point this out to us, the quicker we can fix the problem which – in the case of the Soda we now have. 

However, we only had one customer who handed the bread back into one of the shops the next day. A regular customer who brought the bread back the next day, explained the problem,  took a new one and is – for this week anyway, our favourite customer. She brought the bread in  the Good Earth in Kilkenny, I don’t know her, but in the off chance that you read this, a sincere thank you very much. 

Once we noticed the problem we notified our customers and let the shops know that we had had an issue and that brought out a few customers  who said “ yes, I did not notice and didn’ t want to say…..” Why not please and how am I meant to notice if you don’t say?? We make over 15 different varieties every morning  and can’t try them  all everyday. We do try and taste and check and keep an eye but obviously things pass under the radar and we depend on you for honest feed back. 

And then of course there is the customer who notices a deterioration in quality, a problem with the bread and does nothing and avoids the bread in future. Or the customer who notices the problem, throws away the bread --- and tells all his friends to not buy with us because he bought this soft Soda bread there. This customer actually does damage and we don’t deserve this and neither does any other producer whose production process goes off kilter for a brief interlude. 

So please, if you like our bread and you like what we do, please be on our team and give us the feedback, tell us the issues and if there is something wrong, give me a ring, make us aware and help us out. You may mean to be kind by not complaining but I  would much rather you were kind while complaining.