Today we wanted to describe the process of how we determine if it is time for us to add new customer or place sign-ups on a waiting list.
The following conditions must always be met before we can add new customers*:
1. Warehouse Capacity (Not an issue for approx. 800 or so customers)
2. Driver Capacity (Not an issue for approx. 400 or so customers)
3. Truck capacity (Not an issue for approx. 800 or so customers)
4. Product availability (Not an issue for approx. 2500 or so customers)
5. We can currently service every customer to the best of our ability
*These numbers are availability as of 4/12/20
Real life example: On April 2nd, we had to delay new customers because we had over 100 signups in one week. During that time we leased a new warehouse, installed a walk-in cooler, bought 2 trucks and hired a driver bringing our max capacity from >300 deliveries a week to 800+ per week. As of 4/10, we have been able to start delivery for everyone that had signed up and customers signing up now.
Some of these issues are easier to solve and can happen sooner then others. For example - we can typically hire an awesome driver within 7 days - whereas expanding the warehouse can take weeks. We do our best to forecast growth, but sometimes we can't predict it. Generally, we need at least 20 hours of active deliveries to hire an additional driver. Typically with customer growth we can increase them from part time to full time 40 hours within a few weeks.
We believe our current customers always deserve the best service possible so we will never overload our delivery system. This can cause poor customers service or missed/late deliveries, which is why we pause new sign ups sometimes.
Typically when we are not accepting new customers, it simply means it will be 2-3 weeks before a first delivery for new sign ups instead of our usual 1 week turn-around time.
From time to time we get people upset that we cannot start them for a few weeks. While 99% of our potential customers are totally understanding - we do respectfully ask that if you are one of the 1% that take strong umbrage we can't begin your deliveries immediately that you let us know to cancel your account and you can get your groceries elsewhere. We give everything we do our best but we are not a large national company with endless resources (currently a husband and wife team with 2 drivers) and we are focused more on happy cows, happy customers and happy employees more then on growth.
Andrew Stolworthy
Co-Owner, Wasatch Milk
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