Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

My mother owns a coffeeshop - Her loyal visitors come in about once a day, spend on average $6, of which 50% is margin - That is, they bring in around $1000 gross profit/year. She has about 30-40 of those customers, upon which her entire business depends upon for it's "cover the nut" revenue.

She goes out of her _way_ to make those customers feel loved, and would never, ever, do something so insane as to jeopardize that $1K in annual profit over something as stupid as a $13 comp.




> She goes out of her _way_ to make those customers feel loved, and would never, ever, do something so insane as to jeopardize that $1K in annual profit over something as stupid as a $13 comp.

I used to live in Brighton, Massachusetts in a place with no internet and I'd go work at a cafe. The nearest place was called CafeNation, and it was pretty good. I'd go in there 5-6 days a week when I wasn't traveling, and usually got a crepe and then a coffee or tea. I was a regular, most people knew me.

One day I was in and out real fast to confirm something on email, I set my computer up, jammed away for 30 minutes in a hurry, didn't buy anything that time. Very, very unlike me, I was just absorbed in work. Whatever it was, it was semi-urgent.

The girl at the counter was new and didn't recognize me, and as I was packing up, she said, "Excuse me, are you going to buy something or what?" I was kind of shaken by this. I bought a juice to go, but then I started going to CafeNation a lot less.

Thing is, in retrospect it was totally silly. It shouldn't have made a difference - one employee who didn't know who wasn't even that rude from her perspective. I didn't even reply to her that I was a regular, I just gave her $2 and grabbed the orange juice and left, and then I started going to CafeNation a whole lot less. Kind of irrational of me, actually, since I see how her actions make sense from her perspective, but I just had a bad vibe about the place after that.


I think your reaction is reasonable.

In exchange for loyalty to a venue, customers expect and deserve a little "extra", be that in the form of benefits over-and-above, or simply taking extra care to not be rude!

If it's a new employee it's obviously a grey area - it's no one's fault explicitly, but management could have prepped the new employee better. The employee thought they were doing the right thing, which is unfortunate.




Consider applying for YC's W25 batch! Applications are open till Nov 12.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: