CARLO'S BAKERY
“Salesforce helped me grow my business like a boss.”
How a neighborhood bakery retains its local feel while expanding worldwide
What happens when a small, family-owned bake shop in suburban New Jersey becomes the subject of a hit reality television show? After “Cake Boss” debuted on TLC, orders at Carlo’s Bakery grew more than 1,000%. Rapid growth is every small business owner’s dream, but the 100+ year-old company’s antiquated pencil-and-paper ordering system couldn’t keep up with the sudden flood of orders. That’s when the Cake Boss put in their order for Salesforce.
Today, Carlo’s Bakery’s “Cake Boss” is in its seventh season with TLC and they sell 24,000 cupcakes each week. They have nine retail stores, a mail order shop, a cooking school, and significant business-to-business sales. They are also launching an online cooking program that will bring their CEO, Buddy Valastro, into kitchens everywhere.With help from the Salesforce Customer Success Platform, Carlo’s continues to maintain the feel of a neighborhood business as it expands around the world. Carlo’s customers range from a little old lady in Hoboken with a fondness for cannoli to large corporations that want to send rugelach to clients around the holidays. Even Norwegian Cruise Lines has Carlo’s branded bake shops on board their ships.
The company manages all of these relationships through Sales Cloud. Individual stores and corporate headquarters can share information and customer details from Sales Cloud via Chatter. Retail managers, area managers, and the executive team all use Salesforce to see daily, weekly, and monthly reports ranging from financials to average wait times. And with the Salesforce1 Mobile App they can access real-time metrics and keep an eye on customers from anywhere.
“We’re a celebratory business,” says Leo Minervini, CIO. “Salesforce helps us track birthdays, corporate parties, and other special events so we can build relationships and grow sales.” The company creates elaborate email campaigns around the holidays and uses Data.com to find the right targets, like financial companies in Manhattan. “We’ve seen significant gains using Data.com,” says Minervini.
“Salesforce helps us track birthdays, corporate parties, and other special events so we can build relationships and grow sales.”