Is this for real?

I know nothing about serving food, but quite a lot about customer service. If I ran a cafe or a restaurant I would ensure that customer’s expectations were at least met, and hopefully exceeded every time.

Last Saturday I bought 2 baby cinos for my daughters and was charged $2 for each one. That’s just stupid for 3 reasons.

1. I’ll tell lots of people how stupid it is to charge $2 for a thimble of milk with chocolate sprinkles on it (I’ll also tell them the name of the cafe)
2. I’ll never go back to that cafe despite whatever else they can offer
3. They had a chance to grab me as a lifetime customer, as the cafe is local, and they blew it due to their stupid pricing structure

Compare that with a restaurant in Melbourne who’s pricing policy is to ask customers to pay whatever they felt the meal was worth. They’ve been going well for at least 5 years.

I’d offer free baby cinos and 2 for 1 coffee on certain days if I ran a cafe in a competitive area.

I think most cafe owners are stupid. Try this and see what happens with your customers.

• Give them more than they thought they were going to receive
• Ask them for advice on how the food or service you are providing could be improved
• Provide them with something over above what they were expecting

It’s not actually that hard.

Find out what customers want and provide them with a little bit more.

Posted in Sales; Tagged Customer Service; Posted 24 July 2007 by Steve Herzberg