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.
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.
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.