Photo credit: Nasty Hobbit

We messed up yesterday. We’re sorry, and we’ve learned a lot from it.

The situation:
We had a delivery of cupcakes that was to go out and be in the hands of our client by 10 a.m. With custom Quippies. For a birthday party.

What happened:
The cupcakes didn’t get delivered by 10.

At about 10:08 a.m., the client called and said, “Uh, hi. Where are our cupcakes?”

Panic ensued in the Foiled Cupcakes office.

Why it happened:
It doesn’t matter why it happened. The client didn’t get their cupcakes on time. No excuses. It was totally our bad and due to miscommunication on our end internally.

Another layer of blah:
The Quippies were not like the client wanted. Instead of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE!” on one Quippie, and “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!” on another Quippie, a single Quippie said “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!”

What the client said via e-mail shortly after the havoc:
“… Sorry, guys, but I don’t think that we’ll be able to use you going forward. There is too much competition out there, and this order was mangled, start to finish.”

EPIC FAIL.

What we have done to fix it:
We will double and triple confirm all delivery times with our drivers to make sure there is no gap in communication or confusion.

We will discontinue our relationships with drivers who don’t prioritize the delivery of your cupcakes in a timely manner.

We will get Custom Quippie proofs from our designer, forward them to you, and get e-mail approval before printing. We will correct/perfect the Quippies until you are satisfied with the customization.

We have sent a request into our web developer to get another form field into the Custom Quippies section; we want to get all details possible to make sure we get your Quippies just right.

We can’t promise for sure, but we’re hoping that these measures will help us serve you better.

Lessons reinforced:
If we’re not on time, we can really mess up our valuable clients’ plans.
We really, really value our clients. Losing a client is literally heart-wrenching.
We recognize that people are relying on us to bring them shiny happy goodness, and if we can’t deliver, then people won’t order from us.

We messed up. We’re sorry. We’ll learn from this, and we’ll be better.

Promise.

At our One Year Anniversary at theWit we decided to throw a costume contest out of foil. The winner gets a dozen free cupcakes every month for the next year.

Thanks to all who participated. There are some crazy costumes, and we have our favorites, but we’ll leave it up to you, the wonderful social media community, to vote for the best Foiled costume.

Please vote for your favorite costume (submit a comment with the corresponding letter) and that person will receive a dozen free cupcakes from us for the next year, starting next month.

We’ll keep the voting through 08/26/10 until 12 noon, central time.

A – @CristerDelacruz

B – @allieo

C – @stevomcclellan

D – Dave

E – @BPMmallow

and the little cupcake on top…

F – @sarahtoxic

G – @PaulinaMys & @MKinChiTown

H – @misspamelav

I – @cratediggahash

J – @kellyvonebers & @lamareo

and the little detail on top…

‘Shiny, Happy, Birthday’

K – Angela

L – @luvlylaos

M – @y_mosa

N – Alan

O – @leahchristine

P – @alvinthethird

Q – @kassiemclaugh

R – @HGisMe & date

The fine print resides here.

Get voting!

Hi, DailyCandy Kids Readers:

Lots of fun things in Celebration Sensations today, huh? We think so, but we’re a little biased.

Anyhow, onto the good stuff.

Place your order for a minimum of 2 dozen cupcakes by Saturday, 9/19 for delivery anytime between Monday, 9/21 and  Wednesday, 9/30. (You know you have something to celebrate between now and then, don’t you?) We’ll throw in a free 4-pack of our upcoming fall seasonal flavors – so new and so fresh, we haven’t even named them yet. But ohmygoodness – Jocelyn did an amazing job with these recipes (as always):

Spiced Pumpkin

Pecan Pie

Chocolate Pomegranate Ginger

Apple Streusel

When Amy (our super savvy and super rockin’ Order Coordinator) calls you to confirm your order, she’ll ask how you heard about us. Say “DCK” and you’ll be among the first to try our seasonal flavors.

Yum.

Remember, we deliver anywhere in Chicago city, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will Counties. Minimum order is just one dozen cupcakes. You can order online. And feel free to mix and match between our 20 flavors which are available every single day.  Oh, and we deliver to residences, office buildings (think: work party!), hotels, beaches, wherever.

Just click, relax, and wait. Our cupcakes will be personally delivered to you just the way you want them.

Thanks for checkin’ us out. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to check you out sometime soon, too.

Happy almost-fall, happy DailyCandy Kids day, happy Monday!

xo – Mari

So our most FAQ is, “What in the world is a Quippie?”

The concept/execution came to us AFTER our initial photo shoot. So that’s why they’re not included in the pictures you see online. (D’Oh!) But most of the people we talked to like the idea, so we implemented it.

Well, it’s a fortune of sorts. A tagline of cupcake humor. A little “haha” before you bite in. (Our copywriter wrote them. They’re funny.) Every cupcake comes with our standard line of Quippies.

“See? Carrots CAN taste good.”
“Any frosting on your nose is just leftovers for later.”
“We’ve been eyeing you too.”

But sometimes, people want something a little more personal.

We got our first custom Quippie order back in May for a 30th birthday party. It was for a nurse who’s originally from Texas. She’s also a mom to Ethan and an eternal sorority sister. So here are some of the Quippies we put into these specially made, individually boxed cupcakes for this Designer Event Chicago soiree:

“Save some for Baby E.”
“Nurse! I need a cupcake STAT!”
“You know you’re from Texas when . . .”
“LML. It’s a sorority thing.”
“Happy 30th to the Hostess with the Mostess!”

So that’s what a Quippie is. Fun, huh?