"I used to go to a lot of frozen yogurt shops, and while I loved the yogurt, I thought I could do things better than what I was seeing," Mullen said.

One of Mullen's top priorities for his new business was customer service.

"Your customers are what make you or break you. You are there to serve their wants and needs, and you have to be good at that in order to own a successful business," he said.

Mullen must have discovered the right touch, because his records indicate he serves anywhere from 400 to 450 customers during the hot summer days in Willow Glen.

"If you come here from about 7:30 at night on, there's usually a line waiting for frozen yogurt or some of our premium ice creams," Mullen said.

The yogurt shop has also added a couple of items since opening— items that Mullen said have helped in the store's success.

"We serve organic coffees now, and the customers have really come to love the flavor," Mullen said.

Organic coffee is coffee grown without any pesticides or fertilizers.

"Pesticides and fertilizers tend to add sort of a bitter taste to coffee. Organic coffee has none of the bitterness of regular coffee and has a smoother taste," Mullen said.

But yogurt is still Mullen's passion.

"We have about 30 flavors that we serve here. We offer six different flavors a day. We'd like to be able to serve more flavors, but we're limited on space. That's not such a bad thing, because the customers always have a new choice and don't get bored with the same old flavors each week," Mullen said.

The yogurt shop has also found a way to create even more flavors from the original six offered, by combining flavors in one serving.

"We serve something called a "swirl," and the people like that a lot," Mullen said. "One of our most popular swirls is the Chocolate Mint swirl. It tastes just like the Andes mints you buy. We also have a Peanut Butter and Berry swirl that tastes just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," Mullen said.

If picking from the flavors of frozen yogurt hasn't fulfilled a customer's need to choose, next on the list is toppings.

"We have 10 toppings that customers can add to their flavors. We have fresh-fruit toppings, rainbow sprinkles and crushed peanut butter cups, just to name a few," Mullen said.

The ice cream selection at Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt Company is just as impressive as the yogurt selection.
"We sell premium ice creams in great flavors. We offer four flavors a day out of the 10 regulars that we carry," Mullen said.

Some of the top sellers of ice cream are the Bubble Gum, Pistachio, and Strawberries and Cream flavors.

And for dieters, Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt Company offers Wow Cow frozen yogurt.

"Wow Cow has no cultures, no sugars and is all natural non-dairy. We have a lot of people on Weight Watchers come in for that. And it tastes great," Mullen said.

"Willow Glen has been the best place I could have chosen to open our shop. The community is amazing and the people are so friendly. I've been fortunate enough to build some lasting relationships with our customers, even to the point of having a list to call when we're serving a favorite flavor of one of our customers," Mullen said.

Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt Company is located at 1098 Lincoln Ave. Open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Call 408.292.5961 for more information.