I've owned my own business for thirty years and have a very loyal customer base. I understand customer service very well.
I sit at SB with a group of people that can vary from 2 to 10 people, the individuals vary from day to day. We sit outside at the tables and talk. Some of the people are retired and sit there for a long time, most people have the gold card and get refills using it.
I spend about $50 a month at SB, some of the people spend more and as a group we probably spend several thousands dollars a year. We are known by name and the SB people will sit with us on breaks.
Ok now about customer service.
When you have clientele that is spending a lot of money, loyal customers there are times when you should bend a bit for them, bending the policy makes for good customer satisfaction. Like the bartender may give an extra pour to that nightly loyal customer. It is called customer service, it is called goodwill and it is what keeps the customer happy. Recently we were at a restaurant and they made a mistake with our reservation. The manager came to our table and said we each get a glass of wine on the house and a desert on the house. She gave us $40 worth of goodwill. The next time I am in St Augustine Fl. I will eat at that restaurant and I will tell others about how much that restaurant cares about customer service.
Because I run a business I can't always sit with the people and talk. They sit there and will get refills with their gold card. Sometimes I will go to my office and come back in an hour, sit with the people and talk a bit. For a long time I would get a refill using my card, never knew about the on premises rule. Today the manager called me on it and in front of a line of people. Call me embarrassed and then I got PO'd. There is about ten cents of product in that refill, I spend $700 a year, maybe even more. In my world of business goodwill the manager should have just refilled the cup like everyone else and considered it goodwill.
It will cost her because she poured a $600 cup of coffee. I can go to Seattle's Best down the road which I also like or I can make coffee at home a lot cheaper. If the manager keeps messing with the group, a ten cent cup of product could cost her store thousands of dollars. Actually I told the people at the table that they will see me but I won't be buying any SB coffee.
Do they teach managers about goodwill, about customer goodwill? There have been many times that I didn't make as much money on a client because I went the extra mile for them, I lost a bit of profit but such servicing has allowed me thirty years of solid referrals.
Too bad because I like everyone that works at the store. Funny thing is that all the employees call us by name, except for the manager. You would think that in four years, the manager would take time to get to know our names, after all she sees us every day.