Ask a Square Champion: Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream

[Tom]

On August 5th, at 11am PT / 2pm ET, @pessosices hosted a Q&A in the Seller Community. He's been in the food & beverage business for 17+ years and has extensive experience with Square Loyalty, Square Register Hardware, Square Payroll, and Sales Reports. Learn more about his story below:

Hey friends!

My name is Pesso, your Q&A host! I opened up Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream (www.pessosices.com) in Queens, New York, in 2004 with my dad, and we've been running it together ever since. 

I'm excited to answer your questions about me, my business, and how I've used Square to expand and improve my business. I've learned a lot from other sellers, so I'm thrilled to be here to give you another business owner’s perspective, and help out where I can.

Here's more about me and my Ice Cream shop:

•     My dad and I make every single flavor of our homemade Italian Ices, Ice Cream, and Gelato ourselves, right in the back of our shop. We've come a long way in the last 17 years, and using Square products since 2012 has helped us tremendously.

•     My favorite thing about using Square is how I’ve used the Data and Sales Reports to do everything from finding & cutting low performing products, to figuring out our optimal store hours and staffing, and more. We also use Square Loyalty to reward our frequent customers and as an incentive to keep them coming back. This also works great with the Square Register Hardware that has sped up our service tremendously. On the back end of our business, Square Payroll has been an absolute lifesaver to save time on administrative work, so I can focus on ice cream making. 

•.    I've also been a Square Champion since 2016, which means I've been here in the Seller Community every week since then, answering questions, writing articles, and helping small business owners like yourself.

I'm excited to answer your questions, so feel free to ask me about my experiences in business and with Square. I’ll be replying to your answers within this post, but I’ll be posting a video of myself as a conclusion and roundup.

Thanks for joining, and I’m looking forward to seeing and answering your questions!

-Pesso

P.S. I am just a small business owner like you, so I can't help with any account based questions, but I am great at helping with business strategy ideas and for making Square products work for you!

Example Questions:

1. How has Square Payroll helped you? Is it worth making the switch?
2. Square Register looks really cool. How has it been working for you?
3. Staying in business for 17 years is a huge accomplishment! How did you make it work for that long?

[pessosices]

Hey @Helen ,

It’s absolutely my pleasure to be here - thanks for having me!

That’s a really good question. I have heard a lot of stories about labor shortages and having a hard time finding employees.

Luckily I haven’t really had this problem in my shop. It could be luck, or it could be our process. What really works for us is advertising inward to our own customers. Your customers are the perfect employees because they know how you operate, what your values are, and know and care about your products and services already.

I set up a Jobs page on our website (www.pessosices.com/jobs) with all of the important information, so anyone can find it at any point in time. And then when hiring time comes around, I post on social media about it which really drives a lot of applications.

Even more, the biggest thing that works for us, is sending out an email to our customers through Square Marketing telling everyone that we’re hiring. Just a single email basically brings us all of our applications & positions for the whole season. It’s huge and works really really well!

In terms of managing wait times and expectations, process is key. Coming up with a serving process that cuts down on customer wait times is super important. After covid, we switched from what I call Man-to-Man Defense where each customer is taken care of from start to finish by one employee, to the traditional Quick-Serve model of Zone Defense where a customer orders & pays with one employee, and another employee fills the order and hands it to them. This cuts down on wait times tremendously. Find a model that works best for you, use a stopwatch to time it out, and always see if there’s a better way.

Also setting up a Square Online website & store and encouraging customers to order online to cut down on wait times is a huge thing too!

Thanks again, and I hope this helps some folks!
Pesso

[Minion]

Hey @pessosices , Looking forward to seeing this!  17 years, that's an achievement. 👊

When you are closed down from October-February, do you use any Marketing campaigns to keep in contact with your customers during your off season?

P.S. If you can Overnight a Sample Pack , (for testing purposes), just six hours north that would be pretty awesome! 😂

[pessosices]

Thanks so much @Minion 

It’s been a lot of work to keep things going, but we’re glad we’ve made it!

Great question!

When we’re open, I typically send out an email through Square Marketing once every 4-8 weeks. I don’t like sending out too many emails because I don’t like receiving too many emails. I myself unsubscribe from most lists from businesses, and I find that my customers do the same if I send them too often. Once every 4-8 weeks seems to work really well, and I always get a nice boost in sales when I send one out.

Now back to your question. When we’re closed, I do still send out a couple of emails. I tend to do a little Gift Card discount sale from thanksgiving to new years, so I send out an email or two about that which works out really well. Then about a month before I open I send out an email reminding our customers of our opening date and also letting them know that we’re hiring. This gives us a great boost for applications which is fantastic.

These couple of emails work well to keep us engaged with our customers and keep us top of mind for when re-opening comes around. Our opening weekend is always a huge success thanks a lot to that email. Another thing that works really well is that the day we close up for the winter, we immediately put big banners on our front gates with our re-opening date, so everyone can see and know exactly when we’ll be back.

Thanks again and I hope this helps!
Pesso

P.S. I think you might just have to take a little road trip down and visit us in person! There’s nothing like the full Pesso’s experience!

[Minion]

Awesome information, not just in that reply but all of them.  

I can agree with you on the emails, If I sign up for something and get more than lets say 3 in a month, I'm gone.  So it seems like you have a pretty good handle on when to send them out, without being obnoxious.  Just enough time passes by where the may start to forget then BAM Pesso Update.  Good Stuff Man

Also, I am hoping to get down that way next Summer/Early Fall to bring my son to a NYC FC game so we will definitely be stopping in for sure!

[pessosices]

Thank you so much, @Minion - I really appreciate that!

That's it exactly! Gotta love the BAM updates. 

I'm glad the strategy holds up and you're the same way.

Ah that would rock - thank you so much! 

[porktaco]

@pessosices thanks for doing this! Looking forward to tuning in.

[pessosices]

Thanks so much @porktaco ! I hope you get some good insights from this!

[HC_Charlie]

Hello @pessosices thanks for doing this Q&A, I've already learned a lot from your past articles and feedback in the boards. My question is: was there anything you did/didn't do that maybe held your business back from growing in the early stages of your business? FYI I'm about 2 years into my current retail store location and trying to constantly grow customers as much as I can.

[pessosices]

Hey @HC_Charlie 

It’s absolutely my pleasure - thanks for participating and asking!
I’m so glad that my articles and posts have helped, and it’s great to have your question here!

Congrats on the growth so far! Making it to 2 years is also a huge accomplishment.

The biggest thing that I didn’t (and still don’t) do enough of, which I really should, is promotion with local media.

The first step is setting up a “media packet” on your website (www.pessosices.com/reviews) with pictures, videos, links to reviews, and more. Then set up a template email with the same.

Then use all of this content to reach out to local news channels and websites. They’re always looking for new content and local puff pieces, and I’m sure they would absolutely love to feature your business to fill that spot.

Next, take advantage of the big social media culture and buff up your social media presence with frequent pictures and even more importantly, videos. Then reach out to some local Bloggers, vloggers, instagrammers and see if they want to collaborate with giveaways or just to come in to take some photos and videos themselves.

We’ve never paid for any of this, and we don’t plan to, even with free products (aside from the occasional giveaway to their followers). Ours have just been thrilled to come in and pay for our products and post about us which has been absolutely wonderful.

I hope this helps and I wish you all of the success and growth!
Pesso

[VanKalkerFarms]

What is something you wish you could do better in your businesses and how can you achieve that?

What do you feel is holding you down and you wish you could let go from your business (not profitable, takes to much time for the return, etc), and why have you dropped it or not dropped it?

[pessosices]

Hey @VanKalkerFarms 

Thanks so much for jumping in with some hard hitting deep diving questions! These are definitely tough, but super important to think about!

1. I definitely think I could do a better job of self promoting in terms of reaching out to local news sources, and doing more video on social media. Both of these would definitely have big returns, but it’s a little terrifying putting myself out there so much. But it’s on my list of things to do for this next year, and I gotta do it! Thanks for the push!

At this point we’ve done just about all we can and dropped so many product lines that took too much time, effort, cost, and everything else. We slowly started dropping products starting with the lowest selling, and worked our way up over the years to dropping somewhat popular but high cost products just last year. It was definitely terrifying to do it, and some of our sales numbers have dropped, but our profits have increased dramatically, and has let us focus on what works best. And it’s a heck of a lot easier to train and manage our employees, and has made their jobs easier too, which is a nice bonus. Covid is a great excuse to do so, so if anyone out there is struggling with the decision to drop their worst products, look at your data, and try it out! Here are my articles about using Square Data to make those kinds of decisions:
https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/General-Discussion/How-I-Revamped-My-Business-Thanks-to-Square-Da...
And
https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/How-to-Make-Square-Data-Work-for-You/m-p/111297#...

Thanks again for the awesome questions! I’d love to hear your answers to them too!
Pesso

[TCSlaguna]

Hey @pessosices , 

I was wondering how you use Square Reports to determine the optimal product mix. How do you determine the right balance between providing a sufficient variety of products and proper product turnover? How does customer feedback change your decision? 

Thanks for all the input and feedback you provide in the Seller Community. We definitely learn a lot from your experience. 

[pessosices]

Hey @TCSlaguna 

Thanks for the great questions!

Square Reports gives me all of the key data points I need about how well each of my items and categories are selling. I then take all of that data and put them into my own spreadsheets so I can track that month by month and year by year to spot trends and see how my products are selling. I then combine that with figuring out my product cost and profit margins, to put a full picture together of what makes sense to sell at what price point, and what doesn’t. So Square Reports doesn’t directly give me the answer, but it gives me the tools to find the answer.

In terms of getting the right mix of a variety of products while still keeping things slim and effective, that’s a decision that’s tailored to your specific business. There are plenty of businesses that just do one thing, with one thing on the menu, and they do it well and are known for it. Others are known for having a long menu. I believe in being somewhere in the middle. We’ve narrowed down our menu to just Italian Ices and Ice Cream, with a few toppings and one cone. We still have 40+ steady flavors, and we rotate in 6-10 flavors at a time, out of a repertoire of another 40+ flavors. So we do a couple of things, but keep our variety in flavors. Now this is a huge drop from where we used to be with 100+ flavors everyday, and shakes and sundaes and egg creams and floats and canned sodas and 40+ toppings and frozen yogurt and creamy ices and so much more. So we still have variety, but variety that makes sense and takes advantage of our reputation, and builds an even better reputation with a more streamlined and efficient business.

I definitely do listen to customer feedback in my decision making. Depending on what the product is, what the profit margins and effort involved are, if there’s a huge customer backlash and demand for it, I’ll definitely listen to that and keep that a huge part of my decision making. But if it’s something where the demand is lower and the costs are just too high, while customer feedback does matter, at the end of the day my goal as a business is to stay in business. You definitely need to do what you have to do and make logical business decisions. Customer feedback is a huge consideration of that too!

Thanks again for all the kind words. I definitely appreciate that, and I’m so glad to help!
Pesso

[alexandriak]

Hi there!! Can't wait to see what your answers are to some of the above questions!

what are some of your best marketing plans that you've seen return on? 

[pessosices]

Hey @alexandriak 

Thanks so much for participating, and I hope my answers to the other questions help too!

That’s a really great question! I’ve had a lot of success with Square Email Marketing. I send out an email to all of my customers once every 4-8 weeks, letting folks know about new flavors, new specials, and anything else going on in that time. It’s super effective and gives us a great boost in sales and keeps our customers coming back. To build out our email list, we use Square Online that automatically adds the email address of anyone who orders anything, and we have a button on our website to sign up for the email list. We’ve also done the Birthday Rewards email campaigns which helps incentivize people to sign up for our emails.

We also post on social media once a day, 6-7 days a week. This really helps keep us at top of mind for our customers, since we’re always on their feeds, no matter when they scroll through their accounts. It also builds a huge repertoire of photos that we then use across all of our marketing campaigns.

I hope those help and let me know if you have any more questions!
Pesso

[Doran]

Super excited about this!  

How do you integrate Social Media with Square to market your shop? 

[pessosices]

Hey @Doran 

Thanks so much for jumping in here!

Social media is a huge part of our marketing strategy. When we’re open, I post on social media once a day, 6-7 days of the week. This makes sure that I’m front of mind for my customers that are on social media, and it definitely works!

I also linked up my Square Online store with my Instagram account, so I can tag items and get a little bit of cross promotion.

But otherwise, it’s just a matter of being top of mind for my customers, and making their mouths water while they’re scrolling their feeds. Whether they order online, or come in in-person to order, it’s a win either way!

Thanks again,
Pesso

[aarontw]

Hey @pessosices  - Excited to learn even more about your story via this event 🙂 

My question for you is: What is your top recommendation for someone starting a business in 2021?

The technologies that are available to Business Owners have certainly changed a lot since you started in 2004. What benefits and drawbacks do you think there are there to starting up in our much-more-digital world?

Thank you you so much for being here and hosting this event!

[pessosices]

Hey @aarontw 

Thanks so much for having me! It’s an absolute pleasure to be here and to be able to share some of my experiences to hopefully help some other small business owners in the process.

Great questions all around!

My biggest suggestion to someone starting a new business in 2021 is to get creative and play around with some new future-proof concepts. In the last two years we’ve seen the way we look and interact with the world completely change. Unfortunately, a lot of shops with traditional business models ended up not being able to make it through while these changes were happening.

We don’t know what’s in store for the future, but we can think about worst case scenarios to come up with new business models that can make it through most situations. Moving away from having a traditional physical location can solve some issues, some businesses are getting away from traditional supply chain sources, and some new entrepreneurs are coming up with new businesses without any physical products by shifting over to services and digital products.

There is no way to make a business completely future-proof and disaster-proof, but any steps you can take to plan ahead for possible business disruptions will put you ahead of the game.

In terms of starting a business now in a more digital world, I think it’s pretty much all positive. Running my business now is the easiest it’s ever been. From supplies delivery apps and drop shipping companies, to the simplicity and accessibility of social media and digital marketing, to the ease of Square’s POS & business management systems that provide an incredible amount of data. All of this makes running a business the right way so much simpler and allows you to run it smarter. I would have done so much differently and saved a lot of time and money and effort and stress if these tools were available when I first started.

Thanks again Aaron!
Pesso

[Radio1]

Thanks for the opportunity - two Q's if I may:

1: what are some simple but effective strategies around Loyalty programs? We are using it, but haven't really dug into it and may not be using it to best of its abilities.

2: any suggestions for analyzing Sales Reports to establish best business hours? We are debating closing earlier to save on labor...

Thanks!

[pessosices]

Hey @Radio1 ,

Thanks so much for the great questions!

1. The best Loyalty programs are the ones that customers actually use, so the simpler your program the better! You can get super advanced with different tiers and things, but we’ve found just an easy to use and understand program is the best. We do 1 point for every item, 12 points gets $5 off, so we can say “Buy 12, get $5 off.” Customers love it and use it constantly, and it’s simple and great for our employees too, so it’s working really well. I definitely recommend working it into your customer flow. We make sure to tell every single customer about the program and offer them to sign up, so we get a lot of use out of our program. If you want to read more about how we do things, you can check out my articles on Loyalty programs: https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Business-Resources/Customer-Loyalty-Part-1-Why-Rewards-Programs-a...
   And
   https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Business-Resources/Customer-Loyalty-Part-2-My-Experiences-with-Re...
   
   
2. We absolutely use our Sales reports to figure out the best business hours for us. Deciding whether to close earlier is definitely pretty easy to do. I’d first recommend figuring out an approximate break-even number on how much money in sales you need to make enough profit to cover your labor and other expenses per hour that you’re open. Then figure out a minimum viable number of profit that makes sense to be open for. Then Square Reports makes it super easy to see how much in sales you make each hour, whether for a particular day, or on average for each day of the week over a longer period of time. I’d recommend quickly making a spreadsheet for this, for each hour, for each day of the week. For the hours that you don’t hit the break even number, it may definitely not be worth it to be open, and for the hours where you’re breaking even, but not hitting a good profit level, dive deeper and see what makes sense for you.
   
   

I hope this helps, and definitely let me know what you find!

Thanks again for joining,
Pesso