Having a virtual office does mean that you spend a bit of time in cafés, drinking coffee as you discuss strategy with your business partner.
While Campbell Live's recent anecdotal evidence suggests that people are reluctant to give up their little luxuries, such as coffee, the evidence should also be a reminder to café owners that they still need to provide seriously good customer service.
Seriously good customer service has many facets, but one of the most basic concepts clearly links customer satisfaction with increased profit. This means that if you provide great customer service, then you not only retain the business of your existing customer, but those customers become walking advertisements for your business, resulting in new custom. This word of mouth advertising costs nothing.
When existing customers repeat visits are combined with visits from new customers, your bottom line improves. It really can, and should be, that simple.
So why do so very many cafés act as if they don't care? And how can they prove to you that they do care?
Here's an example. Sarah Fechney owns Ground Floor Café in Riccarton Rd, Christchurch. It's down the Hagley Park end of Riccarton Rd, near the Corner of Mandeville St. She doesn't have the best date scones in town (you'll find the best date scones at Oddfellows Café on the corner of Disraeli and Selwyn St), but Sarah does have outstanding customer service. Let me explain.
Most of us like something free, otherwise we wouldn't bother having our wallets stuffed with the ‘Every 10th (or 8th, or even 5th) coffee free' cards. If we're a regular customer, it's great to think that our loyalty will be rewarded with a free coffee every now and then. The worst part of the process, of course, is locating the card in your wallet. Ground Floor Café goes one better than that and has your coffee tally loaded on a swipe card, on which you can also load money (much like a debit card), but only if you want to. You can then choose to either keep the card in your own wallet, or leave it with the café.
So what, you may be asking? Plenty of people do that. But here's where Ground Floor Café's customer service excels. Let me explain. A month ago, just after I'd initiated my coffee card at the café, I met a client in the café, who happened to be paying for my coffee. At the time of payment, by my client, Sarah leaned over and said to me "I'm sorry, I can't remember your last name, but it's Sue, isn't it? I'd just like to make sure you get your coffees recorded on your card". And she then proceeded to swipe my card twice to load the two coffees (not paid for by me) onto my card.
What this demonstrates is that Sarah ‘gets it'. She understands the importance of generating goodwill with her customer. She didn't have to record those coffees on my card; I wasn't even paying for them. But in doing so, she not only exceeded my expectations, she actually proved that customers are important to her.
There are a couple of often quoted customer service maxims. One is that we should exceed the expectations of the customer, which Sarah did. Another is to keep the goodwill of every customer in every transaction. Sarah wins on both levels and as a consequence, she not only keeps my business, but she now has a walking advertisement (me) that costs her nothing.
Why don't more café owners ‘get it'?
Written by Sue Saunders
