Disclosure: I am friends with one Bridgehead staffer (HQ, rather than front line) and have some friends in common with Tracey. In addition, I am enough of a Bridgehead fangirl that I am recognized and howdy’d by Mia and a few other staffers. And I have a coffee card. And I was at the new location this morning.

I agree that Bridgehead should be doing more with Social Media. I think they should at least be setting up a “listening station” for social media mentions of Bridgehead and competing brands (locally, in any case). I think if they listen for a while, it may become clear that there are ways they can get involved in the conversation, including reaching out with special offers for loyal customers. They have the opportunity to create an (even more) rapid fan base. Think Apple!

Also, FYI, Mark Evans had a good post this morning on customer service and Twitter. http://www.twitterrati.com/2009/06/09/twitter-the-ultimate-customer-service-tool/ I agree with his premise that any consumer brand should look at some examples of customer service done right via Twitter. He points to a couple of examples.

Great post. Loving the new blog.

I’m always glad to see them succeed and expand, and I like that they are urban friendly in a city whose suburbs know no bounds. I merely wish that they would help encourage urbanity in parts of old suburbia in the same way that they’ve succeeded in the city core.

Re. Hintonburg: of course I have no *real* influence beyond my general golly-gee-whiz enthusiasm (hyuck hyuck), but I’d vote for that as well. Heck then I’d have FOUR within a short walk of home!

An appeal, Dennis — now that Westboro has two locations and Wellington Village has one, would you think about you using your “special access” to bend an ear or two re setting up a Hintonburg location?

I think the demographics are there; in fact,in our book club there are people from Sherwood Drive that walk down Fairmont to use Wellington street shops and services – that suggests the catchment area for Wellington in H’burg might be bigger (and more affluent) than it looks.

Have to think that BH is now considered a flagship store, too, and would create its own street traffic, to the benefit of the whole strip.

Okay, for my part, I’m long-time friends with Mia Eriksson, and once spent a whole afternoon with Tracey at City Hall heckling city council over parking meters.

Oh, and they gave me a test espresso this morning. Is that “Influence Peddling”?

My understanding is that because Clover is owned by Starbucks, Starbucks won’t be doing maintenance on any Clover machines that aren’t Starbucks-owned, which could create trouble down the road for Bridgehead.

I certainly think that their choice not to do traditional advertising is important, but they should also be applauded for taking post-industrial ways of marketing, such as their presence at local events.

Finally, my one hope for BH is that they recognize the potential for hitting a critical mass. I imagine that the new store won’t take away a tonne of business from the Richmond and Wellington stores, and I understand their desire to operate in an urban area, but there is also a dearth of quality coffee shops in old suburban Ottawa that Bridgehead has thusfar not spoken to. (Wow, that was a run on sentence if I ever saw one).

For transparency’s sake, I play ultimate with a BH manager and their operations/utilities manager, and was *very briefly* employed by BH (ie. I have had training on some of their policies and brand strategies).