CAPE CORAL, Fla. — All the way from Austria, Barabara Dolleshal brought the melt in your mouth Zotter Chocolates to the United States, she says before and at the start of the pandemic business was booming for the exotic chocolates.
“Over the months starting in early March and April, May, June were extremely strong months, and we sold even more than we usually sell, but we had increases of 3 - 400% in business,” said Dolleshal.
Despite the increase in sales, Dolleshal saw a decline in customer satisfaction, due to shipping issues with the United States Postal Service.
“So we ship with U.S Priority Mail which is 1- 3 business days and we had 4-10 business days, and our insulation and the ice we are using is not made for that long time in summer. We mostly got lucky but we had much more complaints, but we had about 3 times the melting rate than in years prior to that,” said Dolleshal.
This led to the chocolate bars arriving in a liquid state.
“USPS usually has a process on how to deliver a signature required package, but it was just left outside without notifying the customer,” said Dolleshal.
Working tirelessly to get in contact with the post office to resolve the issue, Dolleshal says, she understands the pandemic is new for everyone, and as a business owner she's made big changes to keep her business up and running.
“We increased our insulation per package, which did increase our cost of material, but we had to avoid melted chocolate at arrival. We didn’t get any complaints anymore from our customers about a chocolate package has arrived melted that was the best thing for us so far,” said Dolleshal.
As a business owner, Dolleshal says COVID 19 has made life scary, but she is thankful for the sweet victory.
Dolleshal says she hopes this increase in business and customer satisfaction continues even after the pandemic is over.
