Gary and Donna Young opened North Star Bakery in 2004 with a plan to create a “friendly place where people would enjoy spending time.” To the delight of their customers in Wasilla, Alaska, their vision is intact and going strong some 15 years later. When starting North Star Bakery, named after St. Herman of Alaska (the North Star of the Russian Orthodox Church), Gary and Donna said, “we had no idea of the challenges we would encounter owning and operating a bakery!” But as is the case with most thriving businesses, success is in the details. Twin Peaks was there to help with the details so that Gary and Donna could do what they did best – keep their customers happy with fresh fare and baked goods, including the famed North Star Morning Bun!
North Star Bakery makes bread, cookies, pastries, cakes, pies, sandwiches, and more. In addition, they cater events, both public and private. With all these delectable baked goods to offer and a flourishing catering business to manage, Gary and Donna needed software to help track their sales, supplies, and profits, all in one place.
“I like being able to track sales from wherever I am!”
“I think we were one of the first businesses to use the Twin Peaks POMeSYS program,” recalls Donna. “We are a small retail and wholesale bakery business. Prior to using the Twin Peaks product we just had a regular cash register and had no way to track sales in sufficient detail. We looked at POS systems for restaurants but those couldn’t handle our sales to wholesale clients. We also looked at generic POS systems meant for regular retail businesses but those could not handle our custom cake orders. POMePOS from Twin Peaks fit our business better.”
Tracking sales is imperative to the smooth operation of a busy bakery like North Star. With approximately 725 bakery orders per month and another 10 in monthly catering jobs, North Star’s cash register was no longer efficient.
“I like being able to track sales from wherever I am,” says Donna. “It’s very convenient and I don’t think I’m even utilizing all that it can do, but I really like the POS system.”
With sales tracking, North Star says they can better manage and predict future sales. Additionally, the whole team can know what products sell best and curate the exact products North Star customers are looking for, discontinuing items that are not as popular to keep up with demand.
Friendly, responsive, and helpful customer service.
When asked what North Star Bakery thought about the customer service team at Twin Peaks, Donna remarked, “They’ve been great to work with, always friendly and helpful, and very responsive. I got to meet George, Garni, and Andrew at the IBIE Show in Las Vegas last fall. It was nice to meet the team!”
Twin Peaks believes in keeping up with market trends and listening to their customer’s needs, so it’s not unusual for their patrons to see the team out at trade shows, or to hear from them by email or phone to see how business is going. In fact, when they heard that Donna wasn’t sure if they were utilizing all the features of the POMeSYS system, they set up an appointment to cover even more features of the system that could streamline North Star’s operations including:
- Custom cake orders – a flexible option that allows cashiers to customize their order, such as choosing size, flavor, filling, decorations, and more.
- Scales with growth – easily add terminals or locations when expanding the business.
- Hardware compatible – compatible with most hardware or customization available.
- Real-time reporting – access reports from anywhere, anytime.
- POMeGauge: Bakery Snapshot App – Eliminate any guesswork and get a snapshot of your business anytime you need it.
Personalized and customized training and support!
Twin Peaks offers personalized training in a variety of ways, designed to fit the customer’s schedule and preference including webinars, phone support, and scheduled in-person visits. Software updates are based on new technological advances and feedback from their customers. In this way, Twin Peaks can keep a finger on the pulse of the bakery industry and provide the best possible software solutions to automate and streamline their customer’s business.
For Gary and Donna, the Twin Peaks POMeSYS means less time spent on backend operations and more time creating things like the North Star Morning Bun!
Production reports are like icing on the cake
North Star needed powerful software to analyze all incoming orders to meet growing production demand. With the powerful production management, North Star knows exactly what to make each day to keep customers satisfied and their most popular items in stock.
“After entering all orders it is important for us to organize production,” says Donna. “We have to get a clear listing of all orders, products to be made, and delivered or picked up. Each baker is given a list and instructions to follow.”
Once running on POMePOS, orders are no longer lost in the paper shuffle in the production facility. Comments and instructions from the customer neatly print exactly as requested. With no illegible handwritten comments, fewer mistakes are made and customer satisfaction is up. “Our decorators know which cakes need to be worked on first and which ones can be done later in the day,” says Donna. “It’s invaluable to know our production ahead of time.”
The future looks bright for North Star. “I wanted to say thank you to the team at TwinPeaks for all their assistance.”