Kaffe Bonehead: How to Lose Customers
I woke up bright and early this morning with a full slate of client meetings planned. One of them happened to be at a Starbucks. Due to how much I love the new Tribute Blend, I had no choice but to start the day off with a coffee. Anyways, after my meeting at Starbucks I had another at Kaffe Bona (literally about 100 feet away).
It was cold and raining, but I decided to just walk anyway. I sit down inside of Kaffe Bona and start getting my computer out. One of the ladies working there walked by and said, ‘Sorry, but we don’t allow outside drinks in here’ with a smile on her face. I kind of just laughed in response as she walked away.
A few minutes later, she walked up to my table and said, “Hey. I wasn’t kidding. You can’t be in here with an outside drink.” I respond, “Really?” She just looked at me as though I were a little kid.
I said, “Alrighty.” as I began to pack up my computer.
So What?
Now, I only had about a fourth of my coffee left. I could have just thrown it away. At this point though, there was no way I was going to stay there. I had two meetings slated to happen at Kaffe Bona and had intended on eating lunch there myself. I was NOT going to give them a dime of my money.
I walked back to Starbucks and texted both of the people I had planned on meeting that I’d prefer to meet at Starbucks. The first person I met with ordered a drink from Starbucks. The second actually brought his wife and both got drinks and a snack.
Instead of eating lunch, I was able to hop on the Starbucks Network and browse through the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Economist for free while waiting on people to arrive.
The sad part, I’ve had countless meetings both professionally and for school at Kaffe Bona. They have a drink and a sandwich that I love to eat and can hardly resist getting when I have a meeting there. But, I will never be going back. I almost emailed them through their site to tell them this story and how offended I am. However, they don’t deserve that. I’d rather just see them fail.
And this is why I go to Starbucks…
Zach
Related posts:
Love it
Word.
The customers who endure an unsatisfactory experience and say nothing are the ones that businesses worry about every day. It’s impossible to take any kind of corrective action when the company doesn’t even know there’s a problem.
Moral of the story? Don’t have BS policies like this, it alienates potential customers… you know, the people who support your business. lol.
As Zach already knows, I disagree with his assessment of the situation. I find it interesting that for small businesses, places like Starbucks have turned into “free office space,” where meetings take place over coffee. For the low price of a couple dollars, one can stay at the coffee shop for hours and hold multiple meetings – and have some coffee, too. These shops rely on the fact that the people spending extended time taking up space will actually buy something.
Instead, Zach not only did not buy anything, but brought in a direct competitor’s product. I posed this question to him – In what way was he being a customer?
I am confident that Kaffe Bona is well aware that their policy can push potential customers away. In fact, I am willing to bet that they instituted this policy mostly to address the situation Zach was in: basically loitering in their location for multiple hours while supporting their competitor.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Kaffe Bona is a coffee shop, not a free meeting space. To take it to the absurd extreme, why not have everyone buy their coffee at Starbucks, walk across the street and have their business meetings at Kaffe Bona – and buy nothing. Would you still be offended that they instituted a policy of no outside drinks? Or should they feel obligated to allow everyone in, because they might buy something another time, or had bought something in the past?
I really question that this is a case of poor customer service, and not a case of a poor customer.
Response as a blog forthcoming.
This is where I see the difference from a spectacular company (Sbux) and the other one struggling to stay afloat. Was Zach offered anything, such as the option to buy a drink or food? Also, countless times I have gone into Starbucks, had a meeting, and left- ordering nothing. Other times, I have walked in, ordered $10 worth of coffee and stayed for 10 seconds. Both times they have had no complaints. They understand the big picture. And that’s why they’re winning.
Apparently Kaffe Bona is not the only one who has taken proactive steps to prevent this situation from occurring:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/09/cafes-cutting-wi-fi-because-of-all-the-freeloaders/
Is it possible that this is a health code situation, and that Kaffe Bona is simply enforcing it more strictly than Starbucks?
I guess that’s possible, but that doesn’t seem to make sense. Definitely a good question, but it still doesn’t take the blame off of them. If this was the case and if they had treated me like an adult, they could have informed me that that was in fact the case.
Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I found this interesting: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/04/grid-lock-starbucks-covers-electrical-outlets-to-curb-laptop-lingerers/
This appears to be in NYC, and might not reflect a global approach, but it is interesting nonetheless.
hi??