Educating and engaging with customers: tips from a local farmers market
There are more than 1,500 different business categories on Yelp, from parks and libraries to locksmiths and real estate agents. Even if your business doesn’t look like a typical brick and mortar, an online presence can help your business stand out and attract potential customers.
Fall Creek Farmers Market provides fresh, local food sourced within 200 miles of the Fall Creek community. According to owners Jonathan and Andrea Haskin, their online presence, including their Yelp Page, not only helps them connect with customers and answer questions, but it also educates customers about their mission to source and shop locally.
“It’s an education and information type of market, first and foremost,” Jonathan said. “We’re very sustainable, environmentally sound, and thoughtful about that. It’s an amazing buying experience, and an [opportunity] to get educated and informed on why it’s important to know about your food.”
Below, Jonathan and Andrea share four tips that help them provide an engaging, consistent experience both virtually on sites like Yelp and physically at the market.
1. Educate customers ahead of time
“We prepare right throughout the week—being very responsive online, allowing everyone to know what’s coming up and what’s [at the market]. We encourage them to bring their grocery lists out. We give them a list of vendors and what they’re going to have that day. Depending on what season it is, the produce changes, and so they can create their own meal ideas based on what the produce is going to be.”
2. Choose your partners thoughtfully
“We are very selective with who we decide to allow a part of our team. They have to be knowledgeable—[for] 90% of them, farming and ranching is [their] full-time job, and they’re serious and very well versed about it… They are very transparent. They allow you to come to the farm and visit to make sure you understand where your food is from, [so our guests are] not just taking it from us at face value.”
3. Foster personal connections
“People want to see the owners. People want to know our story. They want to know, ‘Hey, have you tried this before?’ We have to sample everything.
“Hosting and getting to know the community has been the most special thing about it. Connecting and counting on those interactions [has helped us develop] a closeness with our neighbors. That feels wonderful.”
4. Embrace the ‘suggestion box’
“Reviews are everything. They shape your business. It’s [like] the suggestion box—that old, physical suggestion box, [but] now you can get it in real time at any time. Even the not so favorable reviews… help us grow, help us adapt, help us get better. We want to have integrity, and we expect that from all [our] teammates. Once you have integrity, you feel that you feel that you’re in an atmosphere of trust and love.
“And it spills over to the community. When we do [Yelp Elite] events and the Yelpers come out, they’re like: ‘Wow, this is amazing. I wish more people would know about it. This is beautiful.’ It’s just up to us to be consistent and be responsive.”
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear from Jonathan and Andrea, or visit the episode page to read more, subscribe to the show, and explore other episodes.
Photos from Fall Creek Farmers Market on Yelp