Edmond entrepreneurs turn cookies into dough for customers

Bixby entrepreneurs Kim and Duane Carns have created a thriving franchise based on thanking clients with fresh chocolate chip cookies. They founded Cookie Advantage 15 years ago and are now expanding nationwide, including a new Edmond location operated by Heather and Mac Carver.

It works like this: Cookie Advantage customers — commonly businesses such as real estate agents, car dealers and bankers — input the name and address of clients they want to thank, and Cookie Advantage ships them a batch of cookies and a survey card via priority mail. Sixty to 80 percent of the surveys are returned, and most contain referrals, Heather Carver said.

“It just makes sense for them to fill out the survey while they are enjoying a delicious, gourmet, made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookie,” she said.

The package has the business' name and logo on it — not Cookie Advantage — so they get all the credit and reap the benefits. The recipe is no secret; in fact, it's printed on a card enclosed in each package. The real secret, says Duane Carns, is the gesture.

“We found you need to ‘wow' people,” he said. “The cookies do a lot of the follow up for them.”