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Why you charge Admin Fee for changes..?!

Customers who purchase regularly enough from us will be aware of our admin fee policy. Even for those who are buying from us for the first time, they are made aware of this (a) via a notice on the Home page of our website prior to their online purchase, and (b) as detailed in the order confirmation that they will receive upon successful placement of their orders (both online & offline).  Our admin fee policy is not something new, just that we have become quite the stickler when imposing it these days. Having said that, we do not hide our admin fee policy under some small/obscure print. We make it known to our customers before they order and even remind them after they have placed their orders. But whether everyone choose to read/take notice is something that we have no control over. For customers who call us and wish to place an order way ahead, our staff also make it a point to check with the customer that he/she is certain of the required date and inform him/her of the admin fee for changes.

For the uninitiated, we provide a 24-hour grace period for customers to request for changes to their orders (e.g. change of cake type or collection/delivery date). In another words, customers may contact us to make changes to their order within 24 hours of order placement, and we will accommodate one such request per order free of charge. After the 24-hour grace period, an admin charge of $10.70 will apply for change request. The grace period is meant for customers to rectify any mistake that they may have made when placing their orders. It is not intended for customers who want to change their minds/plans after the order is placed.  

So why are we so anal about imposing an admin fee for changes nowadays? There was a time when we used to allow customers to make changes indiscriminately. So much so that we were getting more than 10 such requests per day. And when our meringue started selling out a week in advance after Covid-19 started, we had increasing number of customers who would just place an order to "chope" the cake first and then ask us to change the collection/delivery date afterwards. We also have some customers who, after placing their orders, realized that someone else in their party had ordered another cake (from a different cake shop). So they came calling to cancel their orders with us. But why us and not the other cake shop? Probably because we were easier to "cham siong" (Hokkien equivalent of "discuss") than the other guy. But all these changes were beginning to take a toll on our business and started to create massive havoc to our production planning. So we finally had to put our foot down with the strict imposition of the admin fee. And as soon as we had done so, the number of change requests fell dramatically. Customers who initially wanted to make changes, when reminded of the admin charge, suddenly do not have the need to change anymore. And for those who really need to make changes after the 24-hour grace period, they were prepared to pay the $10.70.  

As with all additional charges, we do have customers who deemed our admin fee as being "customer unfriendly".  Then again, we have come to know that many of our peers do not even allow for changes to be made once the order is placed and confirmed. And we have long acknowledged that we cannot please everyone.



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