A business lesson in looking after one’s regular customers or clients The true cost of poor service – and not having Olive Oil in the kitchen!

A business lesson in looking after one’s regular customers or clients

The true cost of poor service –?and not having Olive Oil in the kitchen!

Between four and six of us meet regularly on a Saturday morning for coffee and breakfast after some of us have done a five-kilometre park run. The other’s walk their dogs. We have met weekly through most of 2022. The café in this story, has relatively new owners. They have been operating for about six months. The café has a new name, and a new menu.

Our small group was enjoying this newly owned café at first. The meals were pretty good with good sized servings. We tended towards the Bircher Muesli and Acai Bowl type breakfasts .. After a few weeks we noticed and discussed that the servings were getting smaller … and the service was getting a bit sloppy. Still, we persevered for a few more weeks …?

About a month ago we had a couple of the breakfast orders mucked up … they did not serve quite what we had ordered, and the fruit breakfasts were even smaller than the week before. We complained, got no real apology or refund – and did not even get offered a free coffee! (Which, back in the day was pretty standard practice!) On top of that I asked for some Olive Oil to go on top of my toast (it’s yummy with mushrooms), and they had none! Who does not have Olive Oil in a café kitchen??

Roll on two weeks later … They mucked up my breakfast again. And they still had no Olive Oil for me!

I had ordered my ‘fresh’ pan fried mushrooms – and they tasted disgusting. They tasted like gone off tinned mushrooms! I called the owner over and asked him if he had used tinned mushrooms. He said ‘no’. He took them away and came back saying that they did taste a bit funny. He gave no explanation, so I asked him if they were tinned or fresh. He then said that they were shop bought ready sliced mushrooms as they had had a busy morning and had not had time to get or prepare their usual mushrooms.?

He gave no apology – offered no refund or even a free cup of coffee. So, I asked him for a refund. He did not like this. It was obvious from his expression and body language. He walked off. A few minutes later one of the waitresses arrived with my $12. No apology. No owner.?

The following week we all decided we had had enough of the café and did not go there. We have not returned and won’t go there again.?

That’s now two Saturdays that we have not been there. With five people (sometimes there are even six or seven of us) buying breakfasts with drinks at about $25 per person that’s $125 per visit. Times that by 50, (that’s about how many times we would have visited throughout 2023) and that’s a grand total of $6,250!

That is what the café owners have lost from us for 2023 by not looking after us – we, their regular Saturday morning customers.?

If they had bought Olive Oil ($5), bought fresh mushrooms ($10), given good service (that’s free), offered me a coffee (cost to them about $2), been polite (also free), and apologised (free too!), I’d be telling a very different story.

This is a great lesson in how not to treat your customers or clients. The message is, look after our regulars, they really are our bread and butter, especially during the quitter times …

Adrian Hanks is a holistic coach and psychotherapist specialising in supporting people to live the best lives they can (including running their businesses well!).