Thanks to everyone who completed the recent Terra Organics survey. We were so pleased to read all of your feedback, and to find out what you love about us and what we can work on. We’ve compiled some of the data to share with you. But first, here are our Survey Contest Winners:
1st Place Winners - $25 Off Next Produce Box:
- Richard B. of Gig Harbor
- Martha S. of Tacoma
- Wm Lamonte C. of Lakewood
- Allen Y. of Newcastle
And our Grand Prize winner who will receive one month of organic produce FREE!:
Mary M. of Maple Valley
Congratulations to all of our winners. Now onto the data.
Who Are Our Customers
Well, the majority of our customers are aged 25-44 and 88% are female. A strong 72.2% of customers purchase organic food most or all of the time, while 49.2% of customers have a garden of their own or a plot in a community garden. Unsurprisingly, 78% of our customers shop at a farmer’s market.
The Terra Organics Experience
The graph below shows that Supporting Local Farms is a strong reason for our customers’ interest in Terra Organics (79%), followed closely by the Organic factor (70.1%), a healthy diet (67.5%) and the Service/Convenience itself (60.2%).
Another question that elicited some interesting responses was this one:
When you received your first box, what were your initial impressions? – Here are some of the more notable quotes:
- Excited. It was like Christmas! We thought the produce had better flavor
- I was amazed at how much we actually get. I liked how we get recipes and storage tips.
- Very excited. I liked the challenge of coming up with recipes using up everything in the box.
- I was excited. Our first week contained persimmons, which I had never tried before. After reading how to eat them on the computer, my husband and I found a new fruit that we really enjoy. The next week we received the best pears we had ever eaten.
- Didn't always look "perfect" (like you find in the stores), but had great taste.
Great to hear about the “wow” factor our produce boxes were able to elicit on first delivery!
If there is one thing you’d like to change about the Terra Organics experience, what would that be?
- I wish I could "shop" -- pick $25 worth of goods to go into my box.
- Dan should have to come over and cook for us once a month
- The website is a bit difficult to use for additions and deletions
We hear you! It’s evident that our website does not allow for the easiest experience when it comes to customizations. Right now we do our best to meet your substitution and deletion requests via several different channels and there is admittedly a lot of room for human error. We’re in the process of updating our order system to allow for simple drag and drop shopping carts. You’ll be able to create a fully customized box each and every week.
The trade-off with the system that is under development is that we will no longer be able to maintain a standing “deletion list.” Instead, the Friday email will contain a link that will allow you to view your order, take a look at what the standard box contains, and then delete items, adjust quantities of existing items and add additional items to your heart’s content. Our best guess is that this system will be up and running by June.
Variety
While the majority of customers are happy with the variety provided in the boxes, 41.7% indicated they would like to see more local products. The skinny on the local deal is that, well, it’s skinny. We go to great lengths to find local products first, and the PNW box option represents our best efforts to source what’s available and to add as much variety week-to-week as possible. Largely because of the incredibly cold temperatures we had back in November, variety and availability is going to get worse before it gets better.
Our overarching philosophy is that if you want a mango when a mango is in season, we want to be able to provide you with that mango. Similarly, if you are adhering to the 100-mile diet, we want to be able to provide you with the best selection of local products to meet your needs. We believe that the updated ordering system that is in development will better suit your individual needs.
In addition, many customers indicated a desire for the availability of products like eggs, dairy and meat. We hear you, which is why we’re already taking steps to make these products available. Starting this past Monday, Terra Organics began offering local eggs from Terry’s Berries.
While the majority of customers indicated satisfaction with the variety offered in our standard produce boxes, we do want to ensure you’re getting what you want. As always, you have the opportunity to make changes or exclusions by emailing or calling us.
Our favorite comments about our Produce Boxes in general ---
- This service has really helped change the way we eat as a family. The weekly recipes are extremely helpful. We have broadened our eating habits in a positive way, introduced our daughters to veggies they hadn't heard of but now enjoy, and improved our cooking skills. We enjoy the challenge of finding creative ways to use all the contents of the box....and the produce just tastes good! From time to time we've gotten a smooshed item or not the best mango (hard and mealy) but this has happened to us is the store as well and for the most part the produce is excellent. Thanks for the positive impact you've had on our family's health!
- I enjoy the convenience of having organic fruits and veggies delivered to my residence. I also appreciate the recipes added to the boxes and the experience to taste veggies that I have not eaten before. I find that we're not able to eat all the veggies when duplicated in the next week's box. Overall, we find this eating experience healthier for us, plus supporting local farmers and the planet is gratifying.
- We rarely have any problems and if we do you guys are always willing to fix it right away. The staff both on the phone and delivery are so friendly and polite. I'm so glad I found Terra Organics, I wouldn't want my produce any other way at this point. I moved here from a small town in Nevada and we didn't have anything like this it is so great to see a community reaching out and supporting their local farmers and neighbors. I love Terra!
- I'm not sure if you mean the actual cardboard box or the box and its contents. The box and bag are great because they are re-usable, recycled, and biodegradable! We anxiously await the arrival of our box every time! It's a real treat to have it waiting on the porch. I have saved money and we are eating wonderful food that I KNOW is the best we can buy.
- I think the company must be run by overachievers! (That's a good thing...) I like everything about Terra Organics-good variety of quality produce each week, the recipes, the storage tips, and I especially like the delivery. Oh, and it isn't ridiculously expensive.
We’re once again pleased to hear that we’re meeting and sometimes overachieving in the eyes of our customers. But as some of the comments indicated, we don’t always get your order right.
We generated a composite score to reflect order accuracy based on length of time receiving a Terra Organics box, delivery frequency, and number of deliveries received, and what we found is that we get a little over 95% of the orders correct. Having even 1-in-20 orders wrong is a problem, and we attribute the majority of the errors to the system in place that handles add-ons and substitutions. We have noted a marked decrease in the number of packing errors – missed items and the like – since we started tracking these numbers a couple of months back, and we hope that you see improvement in this area as well.
Regardless we will always be there to correct those mistakes. Please call or email us if you ever experience one.
While it was difficult for our customers to choose only one answer to “What do you value most about Terra Organics?” the fact that purchasing from Terra Organics helps to support local farms won out by a small margin.
And that fact is now more important than ever. With our recent purchase of an old dairy farm in Orting and establishing our own farm, Tahoma Farms, we are able to source the variety and quality that our customers have come to expect from us, in the quantity we need, and have it integrated into our operation so that it’s the freshest produce around! Beyond that, our relationship with other Washington growers is one of mutual respect and benefit. But don’t take our word for it -- look for our grower profile videos coming this year to our website.
Terra Organics Comparison
According to those of you who have purchased from other produce distributors, Terra Organics is on average better in terms of Value, product quality, delivery service, community and variety but is not as strong when it comes to ease of ordering. As discussed above, we are working to create a better account management system which will allow for much smoother ordering.
Please rate the ease of navigation on Terra Organics webpage?
While 76.9% of customers indicated that the ease of navigation on the TO website was either good or excellent, we did notice some comments indicating some issues. Of those comments, one was too many navigation buttons on the left, another was being logged out when going to different sections of the site, and yet another noted a displeasure with pop ups. We definitely hear where you’re coming from and will be taking steps to reduce clutter. One of these steps will be to redefine our blog and recipe space to make it more conducive to reading and discussion.
Terra Organics Meet-Ups
49.3% (148 people) of survey participants said they’d be interested in attending a Terra Organics Community Meet-Up. That’s wonderful to hear because we’d love to meet up with you too, which is why just such an event is in the works. We’ll be sure to make some announcements when this comes closer to fruition. Without a doubt you can expect a Terra Organics party to have the best appetizers around.
This past year, Terra Organics began providing newsletters (Peapod) on a monthly basis. Do you appreciate receiving the information in these emails?
While many of you appreciated learning more about Terra and Tahoma via our Peapod Email Newsletter, many of you have not received it or are unaware of its existence. To join our email list, please go
here and we’ll make sure Peapods get delivered to your inbox.
If there is one thing you’d like to see from Terra Organics in 2010, what would that be? –Our favorite responses:
- farmer Dan swimsuit calendar
- Can't think of anything at the moment ..... you're wonderful!
- Ability to add additional items such as eggs, milk, etc.
- easier website
- More opportunity to visit the farm. Work shares?
- continued quality service with good food
- More integration into the food movement and with a focus on more things than those of individual interest such as health, but rather on the social and environmental benefits of utilizing your services.
- I would like to participate in an organic cooking class...
- I love knowing the financial situation of Terra. The more transparent you are, the better in my opinion. Would love to know what you feel needs to happen to make the business grow. If I knew you needed "x" number more customers to achieve your goals, it might inspire me to evangelize the farm/terra.
- I would like to see a box put together that suits home gardeners in the productive months (i.e. May - October). Even a reminder of what I should be planting if I want to take advantage of the season:)
- I'd like to learn more about the farmers who grow the produce Terra sends.
While we aren’t likely to see a Dan swimsuit calendar anytime soon, a lot of what has been suggested is in the works. In fact, we’ll be sending out a survey next week asking what one item you would most like to see added to our offerings. Would you like local meat? Milk? Bread? Based on your responses, we hope to add the top item(s) to our offerings this summer once the new system is in place.
We also hear the importance of transparency, whether it’s talking about the state of our business or presenting more information about the farms we source from and our staff. All great suggestions and something we will feature more of on our blog in the coming months.
All in all, we were incredibly pleased to read you insightful and wonderful comments in this survey. It warms our hearts to know that we are helping to bring great local and nutritious food to so many homes and so many families. While the response to our survey was overwhelmingly positive, there are still many areas we know we can improve on and your answers and comments have helped bring those to light. If you had a specific concern or issue you asked to have addressed, we will be in contact with you in the next week. We expect a lot of progress in 2010 and are pleased to have your support as we go forward.