Cheap ass customers.
Hey there people,
Just wondering if any of you have some cheap customers that come into your shop.
Over the past couple months I have seen people a few...
1- One person asked for an espresso shot and hot water on the side, they then mixed them and used the milk on the tables to make a little flat white.
2- Another comes in almost daily with her own tea bag and asks for hot water but refuses to pay, she just sits there and drinks her own tea.
3- And finally the last one is people sharing tea, I've had people order tea then their friend comes up a couple mins later and asks for a mug of hot water and is less than happy when we charge them for it but when she returns to her table she takes her friends tea bags and sticks it in her water.
All of these people sit at tables and wont move for well over an hour while they chat away to their friends.
Have any of you had customers like this?
Just wondering if any of you have some cheap customers that come into your shop.
Over the past couple months I have seen people a few...
1- One person asked for an espresso shot and hot water on the side, they then mixed them and used the milk on the tables to make a little flat white.
2- Another comes in almost daily with her own tea bag and asks for hot water but refuses to pay, she just sits there and drinks her own tea.
3- And finally the last one is people sharing tea, I've had people order tea then their friend comes up a couple mins later and asks for a mug of hot water and is less than happy when we charge them for it but when she returns to her table she takes her friends tea bags and sticks it in her water.
All of these people sit at tables and wont move for well over an hour while they chat away to their friends.
Have any of you had customers like this?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Maggie Cook on
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Having people share is tricky. For instance, at our shop we sell a few shakes- but we only sell them in a 16oz size (proportions work out best for the shake). When moms come in with their kids they often ask for the shake divided into two 8oz sizes. I don't consider this a "cheap" move because they probably don't want their kids to have that large of a dessert.
I understand, however, not wanting a customer to share a tea bag. 1. that means the person wont buy something from you. 2. that means the original customer most likely will stay longer if they have a friend with them.
If I were you I would make sure the customers understand you have a one drink minimum (if you do) and then only offer cold water to customers/non-customer for free. I can't imagine a situation in which someone would drink only hot water, so I would probably just tell them you only offer hot water for customers if this is a huge problem. If it's not occurring most of the time, I guess I'd just cut your losses and realize some people are just cheap!
As to the problem of people staying a long time, that has nothing to do with customers being cheap- that's a general accepted practice in coffee shops. Customers are essentially paying for a ticket, not a drink. The ticket includes a drink, a comfortable place to hang out, and social time.
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Permalink Reply by John P on
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Having bad policies, like offering free or discounted refills, etc. will attract a greater percentage of cheap customers. The second cup is no less valuable than the first. A half price, or free refill clearly indicates to the customer that the original cup is not worth the price paid. The simplest way is to stop serving drip coffee and start making all of your drinks fresh, and by the cup. Either all espresso based or any of the manual methods for coffee: Press, Siphon, Melitta, Chemex, Eva Solo, etc. Coffee is not a commodity, nor simply a method of caffeine delivery. As Mark Prince says, "Coffee is culinary". Treat it that way, and you will attract more customers who treat it the same. I understand this business model is not for everyone, but if you are trying to appeal to the larger masses, you will have a greater number of these kinds of issues.
"We ask everyone staying to please make a purchase." In the spirit of things it should be (the value of) a drink, however if most of the party has drinks and one or two make a smaller purchase, that is cool. In the U.S., the sense of entitlement people have nowadays is off the charts. The concept of hanging out without making a purchase really doesn't exist in other cultures. It's such a rarity that people won't understand what you're asking because the concept is "foreign" to them.
I agree, for the most part with the concept that it is a "ticket", but the show only lasts so long. You can't stay in the theater all day on one ticket. (Well.... you shouldn't). So the best way to avoid cheap customers is to offer products and services that appeal to paying, appreciative customers. And if others want to enjoy the show, the ticket price will be clearly marked.
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Permalink Reply by Ann Schneider on
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My absolute favorite is a double espresso over ice in a 24 oz cup. Then they clean out the half and half, essentially giving themselves a large breve latte for half the price. Plus that drink hurts me to make, even after I run them through why it ruins the espresso and our roastmaster cries in the corner. All in all its a sad situation.
There will always be cheap customers, the question is, is losing their business and having them possibly tarnishing your name to people worth the money? Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on
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What the? Why don't you NOT serve espresso in a 24oz cup? What the hell else are they going to do with it besides take it to the condiment table? We don't serve espresso over ice or to-go, solves that problem very quickly.
-bry
Ann Schneider said:My absolute favorite is a double espresso over ice in a 24 oz cup. Then they clean out the half and half, essentially giving themselves a large breve latte for half the price. Plus that drink hurts me to make, even after I run them through why it ruins the espresso and our roastmaster cries in the corner. All in all its a sad situation.
There will always be cheap customers, the question is, is losing their business and having them possibly tarnishing your name to people worth the money? Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.
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John P said:Having bad policies, like offering free or discounted refills, etc. will attract a greater percentage of cheap customers. The second cup is no less valuable than the first. A half price, or free refill clearly indicates to the customer that the original cup is not worth the price paid. The simplest way is to stop serving drip coffee and start making all of your drinks fresh, and by the cup. Either all espresso based or any of the manual methods for coffee: Press, Siphon, Melitta, Chemex, Eva Solo, etc. Coffee is not a commodity, nor simply a method of caffeine delivery. As Mark Prince says, "Coffee is culinary". Treat it that way, and you will attract more customers who treat it the same. I understand this business model is not for everyone, but if you are trying to appeal to the larger masses, you will have a greater number of these kinds of issues.
"We ask everyone staying to please make a purchase." In the spirit of things it should be (the value of) a drink, however if most of the party has drinks and one or two make a smaller purchase, that is cool. In the U.S., the sense of entitlement people have nowadays is off the charts. The concept of hanging out without making a purchase really doesn't exist in other cultures. It's such a rarity that people won't understand what you're asking because the concept is "foreign" to them.
I agree, for the most part with the concept that it is a "ticket", but the show only lasts so long. You can't stay in the theater all day on one ticket. (Well.... you shouldn't). So the best way to avoid cheap customers is to offer products and services that appeal to paying, appreciative customers. And if others want to enjoy the show, the ticket price will be clearly marked.
In our town the students move where the cheapest refills are. It's a study I did for 2 years. The shop with a no-refill discount policy had the lowest volume, the next highest was our "rival" shop and then the highest volume was our shop with the lowest refill price. We only do refills on our smallest size so that people are buying more and more of them. I would rather sell the first for $1.95, then the additional cups for $1.00 and have them drink 3 cups than have them drink only one.
I agree it's not a commodity, but I still want my customers to drink as much coffee as they can. I get what you're saying with the cheapening of your product thing, though.
-bry
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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Another policy that has helped us cut down on abuses - charge by size of the cup, not amount of contents. And make the standard cup for the beverage in question small enough to fit only the contents that you are charging for.
They want a Medium in a Large cup? Charge them for a large coffee. Explain that it is a policy, and that half-and-half is no less expensive than coffee. This will be a revelation to some people, many have not considered that half and half is actually an expense (which speaks to John's point about the perceived value of something that is given away). We made this change a while back, and had a couple of looks... one or two that had been getting away with something. They left for a week or two out of protest, but have since come back.
Want a double espresso over ice? If you do it at all, only do it in your smallest cup and ring them for a small iced americano (which includes an allowance for half-and-half, right?).
If they ask for a larger cup, ask them why? Some older customers or those suffering from nervous system disorders have a higher risk of spilling their beverages, and will order a larger cup to help that. Others may not want a lid, so that they can smell their coffee better. This opens the discussion, and lets you better understand how to ring them up in a way that is fair for all parties.
If you make policies that are fair and reasonable and explain them clearly and in a friendly manner, you have little to lose. A customer that costs you money isn't a customer.
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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on
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yeah brady, i think the dialogue is so important. a good shop owner will be confident enough to tactfully discuss these issues with customers, explaining the pitfalls of doing certain things, and gauge the situation from there. if the person is quite obviously out to rip you off, then they can be asked to leave (again tactfully). if not, then usually an equitable solution can be reached.
unless it's the lady i ran into in 2006 that wanted me to charge her a single espresso price for a single espresso with 6 oz. of soy milk and sugar free hazelnut syrup. i asked her to leave when she threw a tantrum and the owner later backed me up fully
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I disagree that offering a lower price for the second cup cheapens the coffee. I would cheapen a latte if you made the second one cheaper because the exact same process takes place twice- so why would it be cheaper the second time? However, with drip coffee- the first time you are paying for the use of a cup, the service of the server, for someone to clean up after you etc. All the other times all you're doing is refilling the cup, so it would make sense for it to be cheaper.
John P said:Having bad policies, like offering free or discounted refills, etc. will attract a greater percentage of cheap customers. The second cup is no less valuable than the first. A half price, or free refill clearly indicates to the customer that the original cup is not worth the price paid. The simplest way is to stop serving drip coffee and start making all of your drinks fresh, and by the cup. Either all espresso based or any of the manual methods for coffee: Press, Siphon, Melitta, Chemex, Eva Solo, etc. Coffee is not a commodity, nor simply a method of caffeine delivery. As Mark Prince says, "Coffee is culinary". Treat it that way, and you will attract more customers who treat it the same. I understand this business model is not for everyone, but if you are trying to appeal to the larger masses, you will have a greater number of these kinds of issues.
"We ask everyone staying to please make a purchase." In the spirit of things it should be (the value of) a drink, however if most of the party has drinks and one or two make a smaller purchase, that is cool. In the U.S., the sense of entitlement people have nowadays is off the charts. The concept of hanging out without making a purchase really doesn't exist in other cultures. It's such a rarity that people won't understand what you're asking because the concept is "foreign" to them.
I agree, for the most part with the concept that it is a "ticket", but the show only lasts so long. You can't stay in the theater all day on one ticket. (Well.... you shouldn't). So the best way to avoid cheap customers is to offer products and services that appeal to paying, appreciative customers. And if others want to enjoy the show, the ticket price will be clearly marked.
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Maggie,
Offering coffee who's value is determined by something other than the coffee itself seems counterproductive.
Maggie Cook said:I disagree that offering a lower price for the second cup cheapens the coffee. I would cheapen a latte if you made the second one cheaper because the exact same process takes place twice- so why would it be cheaper the second time? However, with drip coffee- the first time you are paying for the use of a cup, the service of the server, for someone to clean up after you etc. All the other times all you're doing is refilling the cup, so it would make sense for it to be cheaper.
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Bryan,
I hear ya. My thought would be you are focusing on the wrong thing.
For example if, for sake of argument, you have shop A which has respectable coffee price and value @ $1.75 coffee and $1.00 refills vs. Shop B who has phenomenal, not self serve coffee price and value @ $2.75 coffee and no refills.
Shop A sells 50 cups of coffee for $87.50 and lets be extremely generous and say 75% get a refill, that's another $38.00 for a total of $125.50.
Shop B sells 50 cups of coffee for $137.50, which is already $12 more than Shop A with all of the refills. Which means more beverage goes out with less return. And let's say only 10% come and get a second cup, which is another $13.75 you have a total of $151.25.
The notion that higher volume is always a better proposition only applies if you are comparing apples to apples. However if I hand pick you an apple right off the tree each time and handed it to you, isn't the value greater than the overflowing basket of apples that you grab yourself?
Raise the value by raising the quality. Raise the value by treating each cup as something special. Any loss of customers will be small in comparison to revenue gain, plus the gain of NEW customers looking for something extraordinary.
Just a thought.
Bryan Wray said:In our town the students move where the cheapest refills are. It's a study I did for 2 years. The shop with a no-refill discount policy had the lowest volume, the next highest was our "rival" shop and then the highest volume was our shop with the lowest refill price. We only do refills on our smallest size so that people are buying more and more of them. I would rather sell the first for $1.95, then the additional cups for $1.00 and have them drink 3 cups than have them drink only one.
I agree it's not a commodity, but I still want my customers to drink as much coffee as they can. I get what you're saying with the cheapening of your product thing, though.
-bry
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I wish that we wouldn't. I add water when I make it. People don't realize it anyways. But not serving them in big cups isn't my call. It's been enough of a process of the past year to take a customer base that's twenty years old and convince them why a twenty ounce cap isn't one at all. It's a slow process and when it's not your place it's ultimately not your call. It sucks. But we'll get there eventually.
Bryan Wray said:What the? Why don't you NOT serve espresso in a 24oz cup? What the hell else are they going to do with it besides take it to the condiment table? We don't serve espresso over ice or to-go, solves that problem very quickly.
-bry
Ann Schneider said:My absolute favorite is a double espresso over ice in a 24 oz cup. Then they clean out the half and half, essentially giving themselves a large breve latte for half the price. Plus that drink hurts me to make, even after I run them through why it ruins the espresso and our roastmaster cries in the corner. All in all its a sad situation.
There will always be cheap customers, the question is, is losing their business and having them possibly tarnishing your name to people worth the money? Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.
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Permalink Reply by Terika on
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I worked at a coffee shop where a regular would come in with his own really big travel mug, order a double shot, and proceed to the condiment bar to fill it up with half and half...he eventually got so lazy that he would pay for the double shot and then ask us to fill it up with half and half for him...my manager just about jumped the counter when that started. :)
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