Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Derryl Reid on September 21, 2009 at 7:20am

I agree & I do think there are more positive experiences than negative!

We do allot of events & get some nice feed back from customers

1) Lady asks me "are you the owner" I brace myself for what maybe coming.
"I just want to tell you how much I love your coffee" She says. She just made my day!!
2) Customers who buy a coffee at the market & makes a point of coming back to tell us how great the coffee was!
3) At a folk festival my daughter serves up an espresso for one of the performers, he comes back a couple of time every day & tell her it is the best espresso he has had in Canada & coming for an Australian she take it as a huge complement!!
4) We are 100% Fairtrade & Organic, serve our coffee in compostable cups! We have customers & none customers come up say what a great job we are doing!


We love what we do! We try to do our best & being rewarded by simple complements from our customers go a long way for us!

Cheers!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike Spence on September 21, 2009 at 8:16am

That's great John! Happy customers are always a pleasure. Every once in a while I get the call from a current customer asking directly for me - they then proceed to tell me how helpful one of the customer service reps was. I always make a big deal out of it for the guys. It brightens everyones day. (Btw, thanks to John and all the great customers we have on this site as well!)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on September 21, 2009 at 8:27pm

"Cheap Ass Customers" thread has stayed in the top 5 front page while I had to search for this! Just like the newspaper...

I agree, there are far more positive experiences and customers than negative. Have experienced many of those little positive customer comments that make all the headaches and long hours of ownership worthwhile.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jesse -D-> on September 21, 2009 at 9:25pm

Honestly I have so many great regulars that it is hard to pick one to mention. Mostly it is people who respect what we do as a real career/craft. If you are taking a positive stance on your positision and looking at it like a career then you needn't worry about "cheap ass customers" and just takt the chance to make yourself better at what you do, make great coffee AND SERVE CUSTOMERS.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Maggie Cook on September 21, 2009 at 10:32pm

Haha agreed. Although "Cheap Ass Customers" has turned into policy rather than customers....
it's true that most interactions are positive ones. I think I posted my favorite customer story on my Funny Customers thread but I do have one other....

In addition to our amazing espresso bar we do have a jones soda fridge. We tend to have a lot of skater kids near our down town who come in and buy them all up.
One of my favorite non-coffee customer is this kid who looks like he's about 12. He comes in with his skate board, hat pulled down, punk-outfit-complete and buys a $1.75 soda. He says nothing...but he tips like $2! I eventually got him to start smiling at me, so I think we're working up to a conversation! I think his image is just a scam....or a middle school survival mechanism, take your pick :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on September 22, 2009 at 3:31am

Customer and girlfriend come to the counter, they both order small lattes.

I pour an awesome double rosetta for him and the "Indian" (check it out) for her and he looks up at me as I am cashing him out and says, "Well somebody spends too much time on youtube..."

:0)

-bry

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brady on September 22, 2009 at 5:38am

Too many great positive customer experiences to pick just one. However, several of my now-favorites have started off more in the other thread.

One family would come in, order small coffees, paying with credit card, lots of refills, camping for hours. We eventually figured out that the dad worked 3rd shift, and that he would get off and meet his wife and son at our shop once a week as they were passing. They are now regulars - really into coffee, have come to several of the latte art throwdowns we have hosted, and we love seeing them walk through the door. She always makes a big deal over my relatively pathetic latte pours (she uses skim), and take pictures with her phone to send to friends. He's a willing guinea pig for my wacky experimental drinks, and gives me good feedback.

Good people that I'm thankful we have for customers.

Thanks for starting this, John.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Benza Lance on September 22, 2009 at 9:48am

One of our regulars is "Espresso Greg". Usually one of the first people I see every morning at 6am. Homeboy gets espresso and macchiatos (in his own demi!), and has one of the best "non-coffee-person" palate of our customers. He's always giving us really awesome feedback, and often brings us coffee from a variety of US roasters, as he travels for work often. Love that guy.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Julian Gan on September 22, 2009 at 7:08pm

There's this lady that comes in once in a while, and she's a personal favourite of mine. She's just perpetually happy and good-spirited, and as soon as she walk in the door I start prepping her drink for her. She's always complimenting me on my latte art, making sure to admire the design (even if it's wonky once in a while) before she puts the lid on her cup. We engage in small talk, and she even tried tipping me (personally) $5.

I'd always welcome her presence even without the tip :p

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion