Customer Brownie Stories

This has been an extremely eventful week here at Fairytale Brownies.  As our loyal readers know, one of our Customer Service Team members is having a baby.  Well, she's due anytime now, and we decided to throw her a Fairytale Surprise Party!


Needless to day, any good party here at Fairytale includes the best brownies on earth!  (No, the cake is cake, brownies were later.)  Tanika was so surprised and pleased...and I hope Mackel will be pleased with all the love shown by all our people here, and I'm sure he will be.

On Tuesday, we're kicking our season into high gear with the arrival of our seasonal employees here in Customer Service. They will be here until just before Christmas to help us send brownies, cookies, and all of our other corporate food gifts for the holiday season.  We have one who is with us for his fourth season, and has started with us already!  Welcome back Tony "The Confrontation" Sanders!   

As a side note, Rosh Hashanah will commence at sundown on September 8th this year, so, Happy New Year!

We are thrilled to share that you can now buy gourmet Fairytale Brownies in Original, Toffee Crunch and Cream Cheese Belgian Chocolate brownie flavors at Farm Fresh to You inside the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, CA. http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/farm_fresh.php 

Farm Fresh to You store is an amazing store with local organic produce and they have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for those of you living in the area. We are so happy to share our locally produced family recipe of fudgy chocolate brownies as part of their gourmet grocery offerings. If you're not in the San Francisco area, don't worry! We are located in many retail locations throughout the Southwest. Visit brownies.com, or click this link to find our other retail locations: http://www.brownies.com/customer_service/ca_locations.aspx. 

This week has been extremely fun-filled and interesting. Here at Fairytale Brownies, we are gearing up for the Holidays! We've brought in additional staff to help bake the best brownies for holiday gifting, and we're working on ramping up our staff here in customer service too!  The holiday boxes are coming, and they're gorgeous! Those should be up on our site soon, as well as the new delicious Fairytale Cookies, which are eagerly anticipated!

If you'd like to see a preview of all our new offerings, go to www.brownies.com/new to take a look.  I'm sure those beautiful new packages will inspire you to ship brownies to your friends, neighbors, and business associates.

          

As for customer service, we're helping businesses gear up for the holidays already! We're offering up to 30% off their holiday brownie orders if they prepay before the end of this month. Just think of the awe when your customers or collegues receive a beautifully wrapped brownie gift delivered right to their door, and they don't have to know you received a large discount!

Delicious, wonderful fudge brownies are a great way to celebrate any holiday! Remember, only 4 months left until Christmas - visit brownies.com today!

Last Thursday, Fairytale Brownies participated in Buzzcation (Buzzcation is mostly a networking and happy hour event attended by local media and professionals) at The District Kitchen, Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Phoenix. The event was a fundraiser to help raise money towards our KaBOOM! playground build scheduled for April 2011. The event had over 200 attendees and raised over $1,500 towards our fundraising goal!  

Fairytale Brownies was there armed with brownie gifts donated for the raffle and with hundreds of gourmet brownies and new cookie flavors for attendees to indulge in. We asked attendees to try our new Caramel Pecan Cookie and Double Chocolate Cookie and then tweet about how they liked them. We had an overwhelmingly positive response to the new cookies and are very excited for their debut in a few weeks. 

Altogether, Buzzcation was a great way to support a fantastic cause and have fun with Phoenix locals! If we had the chance, we'd most definitely do it again! Below are some pictures of the event.


Alyssa (Fairytale Brownies PR/Marketing), Hunter (Fairytale Brownies IT), and Hilary (Fairytale Brownies Web Designer) taking a rest toward the end of the night. Alyssa counted up the donations and we grossed over $1,500! Great thanks to Buzzcation and to all who donated!!


Jo (Fairytale Brownies Customer Service), Lisa (Fairytale Brownies Corporate Sales), Hilary (Fairytale Brownies Web Designer, and Michelle (Fairytale Brownies Accounting) having a great time together! 


Our new cookies ready to be sampled! We asked attendees to tweet with our @ftbrownies Twitter handle on how they liked the new flavors!


Daphne Monroe of ABC15's Smart Shopper stopped by too! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)


Lars, Yvette, and Mike - the creators of Buzzcation! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)


Happy Buzzcation attendees! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)


Alyssa (Fairytale Brownies PR/Marketing) thanking attendees for their generosity! We raised over $1,500 towards our KaBOOM! playground build goal! (photo courtesy of Christopher Stark www.BauhasPhotography.com)

I know it's only August, but it's never too early to think about Holiday Gifts! If you are thinking about ordering early to save money, Fairtyale Brownies has the deal for you! Now you can Save up to 30% when you order your holiday gifts by August 31st! If you're not sure what decadent brownie gifts to order, just place a deposit to secure your discount. Call customer service at 800.531.5209 and we'd be happy to help you get started! Or, you can visit our website, brownies.com for more Volume Discount/Early Order Discount details.

With Early Order Discounts:

• No addresses or brownie gift selections needed.
• Just prepay now and place your order when you're ready.
• We'll help you find the best holiday gifts for your budget and follow up as the holidays approach!

Don't forget to look for delicious NEW GIFTS and delicious new Fairytale Cookies starting September 8th. With Fairytale Brownies, you'll not only be sending the finest all-natural gourmet brownies, but you'll also receive our world-class service. Visit brownies.com/new for a sneak peak at our new gifts coming your way soon! 

Yesterday we celebrated the 10-year employment anniversary for a number of our team members.  When you order brownies from Fairytale Brownies, remember that there is a dedicated and professional team behind the scenes.  

There were three team members celebrating anniversaries in August.  Kim Brandimarte is our Shipping Team Leader who makes sure that when we ship brownies around the world, everything is packed to perfection.  Chris Corn runs our retail store here in Phoenix and provides gourmet brownies with a warm and welcome smile to our walk-in customers.  Donna Baker is our Controller and she ensures that every time we send brownies, all of the financial accounting is complete and accurate.  We also honored Jen O'Flynn with a belated recognition plaque.  Jen oversees the customization of packaging for our corporate gifts.  She has been a team member for over 10 years.

Fairytale Brownies would not be the success it is today without the hard work and dedication of these incredible team members!  Eileen and I learned early in business that we cannot succeed alone.  We have spent many years building an empowered workplace filled with dedicated, hard working and, most importantly, happy people.  Thank you to all of our Fairytale Team Members!!






















Kim, Chris and Donna celebrating 10 Fairytale years!























Eileen, Jen, Kim, Chris, Donna & David with 10-year recognition plaques

Hello everyone, I know it has been a while since you have heard from your funny, friendly Fairytale Brownies customer service team member, but I am here to give you some updates. The last time we talked my boys were on their way to grandmother's house. Well they are back, ready for school and ready for their turn at "class treat for the day." They have already put in requests to me for Chocolate Chip Magic Morsels, and the designated snack-day lists haven't even gone out yet! Well, I have even a better surprise for them because now we have Double Chocolate Fairytale Cookies (coming this September). YEAH!! 

Next on the agenda is my baby shower, yes I am 9 months pregnant and having another boy. And by request from several of the attendees, they would like Fudgy chocolate brownies, so their wish is my command, even at my baby shower. The invites have been sent and 2 even included a 8-Sprite Favor which I feel is a great treat for one person.  Please look in the coming months for our new line of Cookie treats! ~Happy Reading!

As I sat at my desk working this week, I remembered that my niece has a birthday coming up and will be turning 3 years old.  I have been racking my brain trying to think of what I might send, which may seem odd to most of you considering I work for the best gourmet brownie company around.  Call me crazy, but it did slip my mind . . . sending brownies that is.  I think it might be because I get so caught up in the daily operations and future initiatives of the company, I just plain forgot that I am a customer too!
 
My niece is having a small party over the weekend so I decided to ship her a Birthday Morsel 24 to share with her little pals.  How lucky am I . . .since I waited so long to think of what to send, I also happened to luck out in that we also have expedited shipping available, so her fudgy chocolate brownie treats will arrive just in the nick of time.  The size of our Magic Morsel brownies are perfect for little ones - I'm sure they will be the hit of the party.

Enjoy your Fairytale Brownies, and Happy Birthday, Little Fia!!

I just wanted to share some of the great comments and raves that we've had pouring in to our customer service center about our great Fairytale Brownies and our excellent service! Here are some of the best ones from this week:

Fairytale Brownies offers a huge selection of brownie gifts in every price range - the quality is top-notch. My families request for birthdays is that I send birthday brownies! So easy to order brownies online and the shipping is a great value. ~ Stephanie B., TX

Our entire family enjoys the fudge brownies from Fairytale Brownies, and when there is a time for a special treat, we always look to Fairytale. Thank you for such an excellent product! ~ Ruth B., PA

I received Fairytale Brownies recently as a housewarming gift and loved them so much that I'm sending brownies to my Dad for his birthday! ~ Vic J., AZ

Great product! Ordering brownies online couldn't have been easier. I really appreciate the reduced shipping promotion. ~ Mary S., PA

I enjoyed Fairytale Brownies when I received them as a gift. The people I have sent them to raved that they were the best brownies too! ~ June F., IL

Visit us online at brownies.com for more information or to order brownies online! 

Fairytale Brownies is excited to announce that we have many new and delicious gourmet brownie gifts coming your way, including our long awaited New Fairytale Cookies (available September 8th). We have New Christmas and Holiday gift packaging, New Towers, and New Keepsake Tin gifts! Check out this exclusive link to our New Products page here: brownies.com/new! 

While you're browsing our new gift selections, why not consider thinking about placing your order for Holiday Gifts? If you order now for the holidays, you can and Save up to 30%! If you're not sure what to order, just put down a deposit to secure your discount. Call customer service at 800.531.5209 and we'll help you get started!

• No addresses or gift selections needed.
• Just prepay now and place your order with you're ready.
• We'll help you find the best brownie gifts for your budget and follow up as the holidays approach!

Call our customer service team today at 800.531.5209 to take advantage of these early order discounts! For more information on early order discounts, please visit the volume discounts page on our website brownies.com, or click here.  Thank you and have a Fairytale Day! 

Every year the catalog & web team here at Fairytale Brownies discusses improvements and updates to our catalog and website based on what our customers are asking for. We listen very closely to what our customers' requests are and plan for updates and upgrades. We do this not only to stay close to our customers, but we strive to stay technologically competitive and implement features and benefits that are industry standard.

For example, on our website brownies.com we've just added a great new feature called "Enlarge/More Views" for our product details pages. This allows the customer to see close-up beauty shots, or "zoomed views" before they buy brownies. This will help the customer in understanding exactly what they are purchasing when they buy brownies for themselves or send brownies as a gift from Fairytale Brownies. For example, based on a simple product photograph, some customers did not realize our gourmet brownies are individually wrapped for freshness with all nutritional information listed on each brownie wrapper. 

Another feature we are adding both to our website and catalog (coming September 1st) is a full and complete description of the gourmet brownies including quantities/flavors in each brownie gift. Previously, we've included a product description with a descriptive photo for the customer. Now, we will be including all flavors, inclusions, weights, and their respective quantities in every brownie gift.  

Along with some really cool new features and benefits, we are debuting a fresh new look for both our catalog and website. Our corporate branding will remain the same, however, both channels will be updated with a modern and airy look and feel. We're excited for our customers to see these updates! Our catalog and web team has been working hard to get these updates ready for the Fall/Holiday 2010 rollout. Request a catalog here if you aren't already on our mailing list, and/or visit brownies.com after September 1st. You won't want to miss these updates :). Oh, and the delicious gourmet brownies are divine too, tee hee. 

It might not seem like the holiday season is just around the corner, especially considering the extremely high temperatures in Arizona right now, but peak season for Fairytale Brownies is coming and plans are already being set for the upcoming holidays. 

We're in the final stages of putting together our staffing plans and projections for the coming holidays and will be bringing on temporary seasonal staff beginning in late August.  We typically stagger the teams for each department.  Our brownie bakers will be coming first, followed by some of our CSRs, gift packers and data entry teams.  We will have a few rounds of hiring up through November.  We are lucky enough to have most of the same team members return year after year, but we also have to source new team members as our volumes continue to increase each season.  By the time it's all said and done in December, we'll have brought on 100+ additional temporary team members to help us bake and ship delicious gourmet brownies to customers all over the world!

If you are interested in temporary seasonal employment, or any other available positions with Fairytale Brownies, you can download an application at www.brownies.com or send resumes to careers@brownies.com.  We also accept applications in our Retail Store Monday through Friday from 8am - 3pm.  For more detailed information on the various positions, requirements and start dates, contact Janet at 602-489-5154 or via email at janet@brownies.com.

Well, after 17 years of creating the best brownie gifts anywhere, we've decided to branch out.  Fairytale Brownies began with just two flavors - walnut and plain.  Since that time we've expanded our line to include 12 flavors in three sizes (Original 3" x 3" Brownies, snack-size 3" x 1.5" Fairytale Sprites, and bite-size 1.5" x 1.5" Magic Morsels).  We've also introduced brownie trays and our most recent creation - Fairytale Truffles (bite-size gourmet brownies completely enrobed in 60% dark belgian chocolate).

After much soul searching we decided it was time to branch out beyond our brownie beginnings.  Customers sending thank you food gifts kept asking for more variety.  So the next logical step was cookies.  But these couldn't be just any cookies - they had to be worth of the Fairytale name. So after months of testing, baking, evaluating and tasting hundreds of cookie experiments, we've created two decadent and delicious cookie flavors:  Caramel Pecan and Double Chocolate.

Fairytale Cookies are made with the same premium, all-natural ingredients that we use in our brownies, including creamery butter and farm-fresh eggs.  So this fall when you're ready to send corporate gifts or ship brownies to a friend, you can feel confident that our new cookies will be as delicious and well received as the brownies you've sent before!























Caramel Pecan and Double Chocolate Fairytale Cookies!

Each gourmet brownie gift we ship includes a comment card, which we call a Business Reply Card.  When a gift recipient completes the postage paid card and returns it to us we save them for a drawing at the end of each month.   Each month we select 2 winners who receive a complimentary Fairytale Dozen (our customer favorite which features 1 each of all 12 delicious Fairytale flavors).

This week I received a wonderful letter from a recent winner.  It reads:

"Dear Fairytale Brownie Friends,
Five days ago I answered the doorbell and found a box from Fairytale Brownies.  My first thought was "what are my kids doing?"  Did they forget they already send me a box of Fairytale Brownies for my birthday?  After opening the box and reading the enclosed card I was shocked and surprised; I could hardly believe it!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!  I've been enjoying them each day since they arrived. Sincerely, Darlene"

We'd like to say thank you to Darlene's family for sending her a brownie gift. Fairytale Brownies makes delicious gourmet brownies that are perfect for any occasion.  And thank you Darlene, for being such a great Fairytale Friend!

Every year, Internet Retailer Magazine (Strategies For Web-based Retailing) announces 100 Retail Web sites that they feel go above and beyond in making their online presence more useful and effective in connecting with customers. This year, Fairytale Brownies web site www.brownies.com, was awarded a "Top 100" award in the Food/Drug category.

We were honored for our commitment to excellent customer service and our customer engagement activities in the social media space. Notably, our blog, blog.brownies.com was recognized as well as our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube presence for being a branded, useful and unified customer experience.

Fairytale Brownies is your premier gourmet brownie gifting company, offering a large selection of chocolate brownie gifts including Special Occasion and Custom/Corporate Food Gifts. To read the full article, click this link: http://www.internetretailer.com/2009/11/21/food-drug. 

Last year, Fairytale Brownies was a featured item on QVC's segment of luxurious chocolate gifts. Various customers who ordered our special assortment of gourmet brownies from QVC left great feedback on the product and their experience with our company. Below are some of the fantastic reviews left by those customers. Also, if you follow the link below, you can see the special QVC assortment we featured on the segment!

http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.M18026.desc.Fairytale-Brownies-4-lb-Brownie-Assortment

OMG - JUST OUT OF THIS WORLD  ****** (5 stars)
"At first I said how can they be worth the money for brownies, but boy was I wrong. With every bite, you can taste the high quality of the recipe and there are many flavors for everyone. They can each have their favorite. I guess it is true, you get what you pay for. I will wait for easy pay to buy again, but I will buy again and again and again!"
~ Posted by maroc 02-13-10

BEST KEPT SECRET ***** (5 stars)
"I sent these to a friend for Christmas. Took a chance, had never heard of this company. My friend called all of his friends to tell them that these were the best brownies he had ever eaten. What a great purchase. Highly recommend this item!"
~ Posted by beckee on 05-05-10

MOST DECADENT BY A CHOCOLATE LOVER ***** (5 stars)
"I have ordered brownies online for years, and they are the best I've ever had. Decadent chocolate brownies! Love love love them! Order them for everyone you know who loves chocolate!"
~ Posted by cstog on 09-21-09

HAVE A FAIRYTALE DAY! ***** (5 stars)
"I have purchased these brownies for many years for my family, friends, co-workers, and customers. I also gave a box of Sprites to my child's teachers. These have always been of terrific quality and we have enjoyed all of the flavors. One tip... if you can't eat them all at once, put them in the freezer and take out as needed. Great warm with a little ice-cream!"
~ Posted by neani on 02-27-09

 Erin, David and I are back at Rick Gayle Studio taking photos for our holiday gourmet brownie gift catalogs, and I thought I would share a few behind-the-scenes photos. We've been taking pictures of new towers and tins that will be full of fudgy brownies for the holidays, and they all look delicious. Today is the first day we've taken photos of our new Fairytale Cookies, and we are excited to offer customers the opportunity of getting cookies delivered along with our brownies. They are looking and tasting good! 

Here's Erin with a plate of cosmetic sponges that our food stylist, Kim, uses to prop up our brownies. 


And here I am tying ribbon around our monstrous new 6-box Fairytale Tower. It's 20 inches tall, and full of Fairytale Brownies and Cookies and other goodies! 


And here's Kim working on our new Christmas Tower set.

Today is June 14th, which in the U.S. is Flag Day. According to the site USflag.org, the 4th of July was traditionally celebrated as "America's Birthday," but the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. Then in 1894, the governor of New York directed that June 14th be designated Flag Day and Flags be displayed on all public buildings. Thus, sparked many patriotic programs throughout the US. But it was not until August 3rd, 1949 that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th as National Flag Day.  

On days like today, I often reflect on what it means to me and I find myself thinking about our Military servicemen and women stationed around the world. Chest swelling with pride, I'd like to shout from the rooftops that I am proud to be an American, and send a heartfelt "Thank You" to our Military who remind me that freedom is not free.

Though freedom is not free, we can still show our appreciation and support by sending our soldiers care packages full of homemade treats for free. One way that Fairytale Brownies shows our support and appreciation is by offering Free Shipping on any gift that goes to an APO or FPO address year round. This helps our military families who send brownies to their loved ones, or even those who have anonymously adopted a soldier to send a gift of thanks and support.

To find out more about Fairytale Brownies Free Shipping to APO/FPO addresses, please visit our website brownies.com, or call our customer service number at 800.324.7982. 


Patriotic Morsel 24  $30.90
Free Shipping to APO/FPO addresses!

Fairytale Brownies has begun raising funds to build a local play space next spring with our national nonprofit partner KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is an organization that helps communities build safe playgrounds within walking distance of every child in America. Fairytale has been a partner with KaBOOM! since 2001 and has helped build many playgrounds across the country. We've always been the helpers, but not the organizers.

During the next 9 months we will have a variety of ways for those who believe in play to donate to our cause. We will have special events, promotions, and fudgy chocolate brownie giveaways - all fun stuff for the sake of play!

Eileen and David met on the kindergarten playground and know how important play is for children's imaginations, health and well being.
Many schools are eliminating recess from their school day, and new schools are being built without playgrounds to save money.

I'm sure there are facts and figures that can be quoted here about the importance of play, but the most convincing evidence I have comes from last week's Fairytale Brownies' summer party.

We had a barbecue at work that included games and prizes. We raced toy cars, played Corn Hole (Bags), scavenged for "Mr. Brownie Guy," exchanged white elephant gifts and squirted each other with water guns. It was so much fun that our team members are still talking about it. We all usually hang out with our individual departments, but the games allowed us to get to know each other better. Now we're scheduling play dates! (Not really, but we are more comfortable talking with one another.)

Here's Tanika (Customer Service) winning one of the plasma car races against Eileen (Sales/PR). It was a close race!

If you would like to donate funds or volunteer for our future build, contact me at aandrews@brownies.com. We'll be happy to have you on our team.

We want to hear from you and are asking for your help. Providing an extraordinary product and world-class service has always been first priority here at Fairytale Brownies. Our "Mission Statement" is as follows: 

• Our Purpose is to simplify gift giving and spread joy through gourmet chocolate brownies.
• Our Core Values are product excellence, incomparable service, integrity, teamwork and leadership.
• Our Goal is to be the number one and best tasting brand of gourmet chocolate brownies in the world.

That's why we want to hear from you and are asking for your help. If you are a Fairytale Brownies customer and have had a positive experience with us, would you consider sharing your purchase experience with us on our Yelp community business page? Yelp is a social networking site whose goal is "To Connect People With Great Local Businesses" through product and service reviews. Some thoughts about content for your review could be answers to the questions: 

• Why did you decide to buy from us?
• Did we meet or exceed your expectations?
• Would you recommend Fairytale Brownies to your friends and family?

Please visit our Yelp business page here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/fairytale-brownies-phoenix  and leave your review for us. We know you have many choices out there for your gift-giving needs and are grateful that you've chosen Fairytale Brownies as your gourmet brownie solution! Thank you so much for your help and for being great customers!