Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association

Newsletter #306 July/August 2015 Volume 31, Number 5

Fresh Facts

Inside this issue:

Membership News 2 5 Small Ways to Make a Big Cus-tomer Impact

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How to Improve Your Market Sign-age

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9 Ways to reduce Lineup Stress for Staff and Custom-ers

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F2F University Workshops

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Presidents Message I just finished reading The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. An engag-ing read and time well spent. It was interesting that he finished the book talking about engaging staff and encouraging their interaction with each other. It in-creases their happiness at work and their productivity. He also talked about managing by walking around; getting to know your staff personally and see what is happening first hand. Summer is a busy time for us all. Not only are we planting, growing and har-vesting crops we are direct marketing them as well. We cant be everywhere so it is vital to have a knowledgeable and happy workforce as they may be the only face of the farm that the customer sees. Being on the farm lends itself easily to having BBQs and evening get- togethers with your staff. I know Im always exhausted in thinking about planning an even-ing event but find that when all is said and done I have more energy and a more positive attitude towards facing the next day. I also find that the friendships made amongst staff can be lasting. The support we received from our staff throughout our move from Markham and getting re-established here in Greenbank has been heartwarming. We couldnt have done it without them. They form the core of our business and set the atti-tude that new recruits pick up on. Farms are about family. Sometimes you get to pick who is part of your farm family. Enjoy your summer. Read the book You will be glad you did. Leslie Forsythe OFFMA President

Providing knowledge and leadership to grow the farm fresh experience.

There is a story about two dogs, who both at separate times walked into the same room. One came out wagging his tail while the other came out growling. A wom-an watching this goes into the room to see what would possibly make one dog so happy and the other one so mad. To her surprise, she finds a room filled with mir-rors. The happy dog found a thousand happy dogs looking back at him while the angry dog saw only an-gry dogs growling back at him. What you see in the world around you is a reflection of who you are.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

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Classifieds FOR SALE: Bayfield Berry Farm will have extra Saskatoon Berries available (mid July) FOB Bayfield (some deliveries possible) #1s as well as tree run available, Call Mar-lene at 519-482-1666,to put in your order. ADD A LITTLE MAPLE TO YOUR SHELVES! Fulton's Pancake House & Sugar Bush has a wide selection of wholesale Maple prod-ucts that your customers will fall in love with! From jams and fruit syrups, to lip balm and body lotion! Everything is pro-duced on-site using local produce and our secret ingredient... MAPLE SYRUP! Call 613-256-3863 or email info@fultons.ca to place your order! FOR SALE: Halloween Pumpkin Carriages - Used - Each Carriage seats 9 people. Pulled by tractor. Wagon undercarriages. Steel and fiberglass carriage also spray foamed in-side for nice finishing touches. Used for school tours and weekend costumers. 2 pumpkin carriages $3,500.00, each third carriage $2,000.00 Local pick up only. Email at greenmountainfarm@cogeco.ca or call 905- 520-0476. FOR SALE: Huglis Blueberry Ranch in Pembroke has its own line of wholesale gourmet blueberry products that include bbq sauce, jam, syr-up, hot pepper jelly, pure juice, dressings and salsa. For inquiries, contact Judy at info@blueberryranch.ca *These products can also be found in the Members Marketplace on the OFFMA website. FOR SALE: Delhaven Orchards Ltd., Blenheim, ON Frozen, pitted sour cherries available for wholesale and retail Call 519-676-4475 or e-mail delhaven@ciaccess.com

Our sympathies go out to these families as they deal with their loss.

Gordon Wayne Speers

1945 - 2015 It is with heavy hearts that we bring you the sad news that Wayne Speers, father, Poppa, brother, farmer and friend, passed away in the early morning of July 2nd, 2015. Despite recent heart issues, his surgery had been a success and he was on the mend, perhaps a bit more slowly than he'd like, but surely nonetheless. This turn of events comes as a devastating shock to all of us. We know that he would want his custom-ers, who he always cherished and missed serving during his recent time away from markets, to be advised. We thank you for all of the care and concern you've shown Wayne over the years and through his ill-ness. Speers Farms Amaranth will not be at the markets or taking orders until further no-tice.

Evelyn Teresa Gervais 1932-2015

Passed away suddenly on July 4 with her family by her side. Evelyn was the loving wife of Adrien for 50 years and the loving mother of Morris (Kendra Irving) and Ian. She was the very proud and adoring Me-mere of 4 grandchildren. Her life was de-fined by a commitment to her family, those in need, and her faith. Adrien and Evelyn Gervais purchased their farm in Barrie, ON in 1968 and grew tobacco until 1979.Getting out of the to-bacco industry, strawberries were the first crop, beginning in 1977, followed by blue-berries, raspberries and asparagus in the mid 80s. By the 90s the blueberry fields had grown to 40 acres, making Barrie Hill Farms one of the largest highbush blue-berry farms in Ontario. The farm continues to offer customers new and exciting prod-ucts and has been an OFFMA member since 2000.

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At the NAFDMA Convention earlier this year, Harold Lloyd shared some tips from his book, Supermarket Rules! 52 ways to achieve supermarket success, which apply to on-farm markets. From Harolds presen-tation Ive paraphrased five rules that might help give your business a little nudge forward. A number of these rules are very simple to implement you might even con-sider starting one mid-season! 1. Welcome customers with name-

tags But not just any name tag! Use first names only, keep them easy to read and then add a little something extra to get conversations started. It could be their hometown, years of service or something that completes the phrase Ask me about. Ask me about my grandkids. Ask me about fly-fishing. Ask me about our next on-farm dinner. Ask me about my top three favour-ite jam flavours. 2. Face upstream Although store aisles are not one-way streets, customers typically shop in one direction. Study the flow of traffic in your retail space. Then, train employees to face upstream while they are working. This body language says Im working, but youre more important. 3. Remember last impressions matter Train employees to say something about a

product purchased to every customer to create a personalized and memorable last impression. Take a lesson from clothing retailers! Have you ever heard something like that cardigan would look great with a little black dress? Think about a comparable comment for your farm. Did you know that this relish is made from cucumbers grown right on this farm? This sausage tastes great both pan-friend and grilled! 4. Huddle up and make a list Aim to have daily huddles with your staff to plan out the days activities. This is a great time to create to-do lists with staff, prioritize tasks and decide who will do what. Be sure to include an estimated time for completion on each task as Park-insons Law work will expand to fill the time available is always in effect! 5. 10 coins in your pocket We all know the importance of praise and positive reinforcement for creating an inviting environment that customers want to visit and employees want to come to each day. Try this trick as a little remind-er start every day with ten coins in your left pocket. Throughout the day, give sincere praise to people that deserve it and move a coin from your left pocket to your right pocket each time. Aim to have an empty left pocket by the end of each day!

Five Small Ways to Make a Big Customer Impact By Jessica Kelly, OMAFRA Direct Marketing Lead

Unique Opportunity Many of you are familiar with John Stanley as a direct marketing guru. What you may not be aware of is that eight-een months ago, John and his wife purchased a sweet chestnut farm in the southwest region of Australia. When they purchased the property, it had been neglected for three years and the first twelve months was about making it look like a working farm again. The farm has now progressed and they are developing a holistically managed biodynamic farm from which they will add value to sweet chestnuts. They have also begun rearing heritage (chestnut fed) pigs, poultry and have a small flock of sheep (which will be fed chestnut peelings to obtain chestnut fed lamb). They rely on WWOOFers (http://www.wwoof.com.au/ ) to help them on this journey and have had help from WWOOFs from the USA, Argentina, Taiwan and most European nations. John and Linda are wondering if there were any sons or daughters i=of OFFMA members who would be interested in gaining holistic farm management experience in Australia for a few months. Under the WWOOF scheme, the farm has to be developing along organic lines and the host farms supply accom-modation, meals and a learning environment in exchange for a WWOOFer volunteering on the farm for six hours a day 6 days in the week. John will also be providing a one to one marketing course for the WWOOFer. If this is something that interests a family member or staff, please contact John directly at john@johnstanley.com.au

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SUNG TO THE TUNE OF SIGNS, BY THE FIVE MAN ELECTRICAL BAND: SIGN, SIGN, everywhere a signa spe-

cial price on broccoli, soup in Aisle 9. In-store signage plays a vital part in the overall shopper experience. Ac-cording to U.S.-based Point of Purchase Adver-tising International, the number of shoppers making in-store deci-sions has climbed to 75%, from 70% in 1995. Not only is signage an important tool for naviga-tion and deal alerts, its also an expression of

your stores brand. If what youre putting on the wall or the shelves has a different look than the rest of your brand, it could look like some-bodys come and slapped it up, says Murray Stranks, business director at To-ronto-based Perennial Design. With that in mind, Canadian Grocer, asked signage experts for best sign prac-tices. DO: CONSIDER DISTANCE AND AN-GLES To be effective, your signs need to be visible. Stranks calls the first 10 to 20 feet of a store the decompression zone where shoppers orient themselves to a space. One of the first things customers do upon entering a store is look high above the light fixtures for signage that provides navigational cues. These signs should be well lit, not placed in shadow or blocked by architectural features such as columns. Wherever a person is standing in a store, says Stranks, their

primary field of vision is 45 degrees up or down from eye level to a distance of about five feet. For shelf signage, Stranks says signs placed less than two feet from the floor can be difficult, if not impossible, to read. DONT: FORGET LIGHTING Stranks says illumination is typically one of the last things retailers consider, leading to poorly lit signs. As a general rule, lighting for your signs should be double or triple that of your stores ambient light level. Light can be targeted through the use of floodlights or spotlights. DONT: BE COLOUR BLIND Horace Hume, senior vice-president and design director with retail store design firm Miller Zell, says colour plays a big role in the retail experience, from establishing cus-tomers moods to assisting with in-store navigation. Brand colour (e.g., Walmart blue) should take precedence in store signage, says Hume, but grocers can use additional col-ours for navigation and to alert shoppers to things such as discounts and sales. If you have a store thats a sea of blue, its very confusing for a customer to under-stand whats directional and whats prod-uct, he says. Hume notes some colours have specific purposes: yellow and red can be used to create a sense of urgency among shop-pers, while blue suggests security. Black, meanwhile, is typically associated with luxu-ry and prestige. Black also has the benefit of working in har-mony with all other colours, says Hume. It

How to Improve Your Market Signage By Chris Powell for Canadian Grocer

Found in the bathroom of Lepp Market in British Columbia, one of the great places we hope to visit in November as part of the annual OFFMA bus tour.

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disappears when you need it to, and its very visible when you layer in white or a bright colour. DO: GET THE LOOK (AND FEEL) Sheri Pearson, vice-president of retail insights and strategy for purchase design agency Hunter Straker, in Toronto, says its important for in- store signage to main-tain a consistent look and feel, both for aesthetic and practical purposes. Your eye is quickly trained to look for like items, and if you can create consistency, it reduces over- all clutter in-store, she says. Pearson also suggests retailers avoid us-ing cursive. Not only is it difficult to read at distances beyond two-and-a- half feet, she says, but it can feel archaic (particularly among younger Canadians who havent grown up learning how to write cursive in school). Funky fonts are also on Pear-sons list of donts. If its hard to read, dont use it, she says. Shoppers will not put the effort in to decoding hard-to-read fonts and will instead ig-nore and move on, she says. DO: HAVE FUN (BUT DONT GET CARRIED AWAY) Boring and bland does not make for good in-store signage, says Sheri Pearson of Hunter Straker. While showing some personality is a good thing, it shouldnt come at the cost of shopper comprehension. Pear-son says shoppers need to un-derstand a sign in three seconds or less. If there is any room for confusion, dont do it, she says. You can also communicate in-

formation quickly via lifestyle imagery complemented by a snappy headline. Shoppers process images before text, so the key is to communicate your message with a visual representation, then drive home your key pointSale, Great deal, Like these? Try thisin five words or less. At a time when tweets and emoti-cons are used in everyday communica-tion, its best to keep signs short and snappy. There is a current trend towards the chalkboard look in retail signage. Pear-son says it contributes to a feeling of arti-san, handmade and localall traits that are highly valued by millennial consum-ers. If handmade is the feeling you want to convey, then signage treatments that nod to that attribute is a good strategy, she says. This article originally appeared at Canadi-anGrocer.com.

This chalkboard was created by LimeTree Paper Co., a new Business Member with OFFMA and is very on trend with what is popular in signage right now.

Congratulations OFFMA! As this newsletter is being put together, the number of OFFMA followers on twitter is steadily increasing each day. We are presently at 9076 and have big plans on reaching the 10K mark before the end of the summer. One of the prizes we will be offering our 10,000th follower is a gift certificate to spend at one of our members farms. We will ask the winner which farm he/she hopes to visit and give you a heads up later this year. NOTE: if you are on Facebook or Twitter and OFFMA is not following you , please let the office know. We want to keep in touch and help promote your activities. For Facebook us-ers, OFFMA has a members only Facebook page where you can share your frustrations, look for products as well as suggestions from other members. Simply search for Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association and ask to join the group.

Fresh Facts Page 6

Yes, I Mind Waiting 9 ways to reduce lineup stress for staff and customers by Jeff Mowatt How do you let a cashier know that youre in a hurry when youre waiting in line? a) look at you watch and shake your head, b) sigh, huff, and roll your eyes, c) complain to others in the line, d) all of the above. If you answered positively to any of these options, then youre like most of us who defi-nitely do mind waiting. Lineups are frustrat-ing. They are barriers that prevent custom-ers from fulfilling necessary and often tedi-ous tasks. That means that if you dont manage your lineups properly, youll lose business due to customer frustration. Not to mention your staff will be stressed-out. Thats a lose/lose scenario. Most managers think the best way to man-age a lineup is to get the staff to work fast-er. Often, this only creates worse prob-lems. Consider the impact on your staff of trying to work at full speed. Its impossible to go flat-out without eventual burn-out. Morale drops. Turnover increas-es. Tired employees make more mistakes; which take even more time to fix. Ditto for the negative impact of working fast-er on your customers. Only a fool would want tired, aggravated employees interact-ing with customers. Working faster to get through a line-up cuts short the human inter-action that creates customer feelings of loy-alty.

In the long term, working faster doesnt work. Instead, we need ways to reduce the stress of lineups for both customers and staff with-out working fast-er. Here are nine:

1. Warn the customer in advance. Ever been frustrated by the long waiting-room lineup to see a doctor? (I, know stupid question). Though delays can hap-pen for legitimate medical reasons, some doctors offices reduce patient frustration by phoning in advance and warning them of the delay. If your customer calls and says that they plan to come in, suggest the best times for them to drop-in to avoid waiting. 2. Acknowledge people entering the line. Too often, the first time the employee acknowledges the customer is when they get to the front of the line. That means a person who wants to spend money is being deliberately ignored. Lousy strategy. In-stead, acknowledge customers with a Hi there! or Ill be with you in just a few minutes! as they enter the lineup. 3. Organize the line. Often, people dont mind waiting if they can avoid standing in line and yet still keep their place. Some restaurants and medical offic-es give customers pagers so they can go shopping while they wait. Theyre paged just before its their turn. 4. Distract and entertain the customer. A sociology experiment found that the best way to speed-up a slow elevator was not to add a faster motor. Instead, they added mirrors to the inside of the elevator. People got so caught-up in looking at themselves they thought the ride was twice as fast. Lesson: you can reduce the perceived length of the lineup with a distraction. Examples: Restaurants could offer reading material to people who are dining alone. Disney theme parks provide video up-dates about the ride you waiting for. Any unusual conversation piece will take your customer on a mental holiday. An Or-lando hotel distracts guests waiting to regis-ter by herding live ducks to the fountain in the lobby.

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5. Provide comfort. Provide seating, food and drink. On busy Saturdays, a Calgary car wash brings you free pop and hot dogs while you wait in your vehicle. 6. Amuse the kids. Prevent frazzled nerves for everyone by providing a play area for toddlers. Parents will love you for it. 7. Update the customer of progress. Even if youre not completely ready for the customer, you can still let them know youre working on their behalf. A travel agent, for example, can phone the client to inform them that theyve booked the flights, and are working on the hotel. 8. Explain unusual delays. If its an unusually long delay, apologize to the customer, explain the delay and thank them for waiting. When a pharmacist ex-plained to me that his assistant had quit that day, so he was short staffed, I didnt mind the wait. If he hadnt pointed that out,

I wouldnt have returned. 9. Increase staff at no extra cost. If your lineups are sporadic you can increase capacity on the spot without spending extra money. Carol Chuback, manager of a Greyhound Courier De-pot, installed a doorbell under the cash-iers counter. When the teller notices more than two people in line, he dis-cretely rings the doorbell signaling to a co-worker in the back to come to assist at the front counter. Bottom line no one likes lineups. But thats no reason to ask staff to burn themselves out. By getting creative youll boost your repeat business, and youll make the buying experience more pleasant for everyone. Thats what I call win/win. Jeff Mowatt is a customer service strategist, award-winning speaker, and bestselling author. For more tips, training tools or to inquire about engaging Jeff for your team visit www.JeffMowatt.com

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Ontario Farm Fresh Cathy Bartolic, Executive Director 2002 Vandorf Rd. Aurora, ON L4G 7B9 Phone: 905-841-9278 E-mail: info@ontariofarmfresh.com www.ontariofarmfresh.com

2015-16 OFFMA Board of Directors Leslie Forsythe, President Forsythe Family Farms Nicole Judge, Vice President Spirit Tree Estate Cidery Brian Hugli, Past President Huglis Blueberry Ranch Kristin Ego MacPhail, Ego Nurseries Ltd. Hollis English, Murphys Farm Market & Bakery Cara Epp, Associate Member Edana Integrated Marketing Steve Martin, Martins Family Fruit Farm Dana Thatcher, Thatcher Farms Karen Whitty, Whitty Farms Jessica Kelly, OMAFRA Advisor

Farm 2 Fork University Workshops

Oct. 29thDecorating with Winter Greenery Heemans Greenhouses & Strawberry Farm More and more people want their homes to look lovely all year round including the win-ter. And more and more people are looking for an activity or experience that they can share with their friends and/or family. Heemans does an outstanding job with their inter deco workshops and you will have a chance to experience what they offer on October 29th. Added bonus will be a sample from their brand new Berry Caf.

Dec. 3rdPizza Night Spirit Tree Estate Cidery Join Nicole and Tom as they lead us through pizza making on a wood burning oven. Youll be surprised at what exactly you can put on a pizza and how great it will taste when it is baked in their oven. A great opportunity to re-connect with OFFMA friends, tour an on-farm market and hash out some of the challenges and successes of the past year. Be sure to mark your calendar for this one.

Jane Eckert is going to Alaska! An Agritour of Alaskaexplore the 49th State from the Inside-Out with fellow ag. marketers June 10-21, 2016 For more details, go to EckertAgriMarketing.com