Typically I would not write a review unless I have great things to say but my experience was horrible so perhaps I'll share it with the community.
Thanksgiving day (11/24/17), I walk in to order a 'micro-to-go' box of coffee to bring home to family, yes they were open. Upon walking in I was greeted by the nice barista up front but when I placed my order she turned to look at whom I would assume to be the owner operator / manager to see if that was okay. I was greeted with a stern "No, we will not be making this for you. We typically take orders over the phone for a 'micro-to-go' and this being 10 minutes until close we will not be making this. Our equipment is cleaned and we will not dirty it up. You can have the rest of the coffee in our pots if you want". Thank you for offering me an alternative but no thanks, I'm not sure how long it's been sitting there nor will it be the amount I need.
My apologies as I didn't know you were closing in 10 minutes but shouldn't the store be operational to meet the requests of customers? Having worked in a Biggby coffee shop in the past as a shift leader for many years I know that everything should remain operational to meet the requests of customers until the actual time of close, then you clean up and clock out.
You are a coffee shop, what do you serve? Coffee. Does it take time to make? One would assume so. If you aren't making coffee then why are you still open? From my experience, a box of coffee takes LESS than 10 minutes to make, just run two carafes and pour it in the box then all you have to do is clean the filters and carafes then wipe down and you're done. Not to mention the high profit margin from a box of coffee, wouldn't any manager with a sense of customer service/profitability want to SELL a box?
Let me break it down for you:
- A 5lb bag of coffee costs about $50 from your vendor, maybe more maybe less since the market price fluctuates.
- It takes two small scoops of that 5lb bag to make a box of coffee which you sell for about $25
- Take out the cost of items associated with the 'micro-to-go' box and you net a profit to nearly half the cost of another 5lb bag of coffee to put back into your business.
Perhaps you were having a bad day. Perhaps you wanted to go home to see family. Trust me, I've been in the food industry before so I know what it's like to almost be free from work. Whatever the situation may be, this review is purely based on the experience I received that day.
Here is some advice / coaching if you are the owner / operator behind the counter that told me no:
- Your customer did not leave the store in a better mood than when they came in (sound familiar? Isn't that a part of the corporate model?).
- You are an entrepreneur and this is a business to generate money, don't turn away a transaction that will net you a profit. Your customers may never come back.
- Listen and learn from your online reviews, if you were doing something right then customers wouldn't be complaining and reviews would be higher.
- The market/area is saturated with coffee shops, if you say no then that money will be going somewhere else and to another shop that will happily take it.
- The Starbucks I visited down the street was horrendously busy and they didn't have a box available but they offered to brew as many cups of coffee I needed without any fuss. Your store was empty, everybody was just standing around, don't you WANT something to do?
So what is the take away from this? Customers, if you've read this far then know what you are getting yourself into. Owner/operator, you're heading down the wrong path and if you continue to do so then good luck with your future endeavors. read more