March 5, 2012
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Morning coffee
All around Manhattan, on practically every block corner, are coffee carts. They have coffee, tea and all kinds of breakfast selections like bagels and muffins. Some even have hot breakfasts and you can order eggs and bacon.
Along the way from my stop at Lexington and 59th Street, to work, about two blocks, I walk by four carts. Around my building, not including those four, are another three carts, totaling seven within a two block radius. I’ve been to all seven and only two serve decent coffee. It’s interesting that you can tell other people tend to feel that way because the lines for these carts are much longer than the other ones.
What I don’t understand is how these cart owners not understand why the cart across the street always has a line, but their own cart barely have any customers. It’s obvious that those other carts are doing something right.
The ROI (return on investment) is so much higher if they’d just invest in better coffee. The problem is that once you screw yourself over with crappy coffee, people aren’t as likely to come back so essentially, your customers are usually one-time only. I go to the same cart whenever I get coffee and although it’s not the best, it’s good enough. The guy recognizes me and knows my order right away, just like he knows everyone else’s order who is in front of me. We are all returning customers. He even let’s us buy on credit! I only had a $20 bill and he told me to give him the dollar next time.
Which brings me to the next thing–customer service. The fact that he remembers my orders and is polite everytime I see him, makes me want to go back. Some of the other cart owners have very poor attitudes and it’s hard to want to support a business like that. One time, I bought coffee and two hard-boiled eggs from my guy and as I was putting the change away, I dropped my coffee and eggs. Without missing a heart beat, he quickly made me another cup and packed two eggs into a new bag and told me it wa okay. He wouldn’t even take my money despite the fact that it was entirely my fault. How can I ever go back to another cart?
Comments (14)
the cheapest and best form of advertising is still word of mouth and that is achieved with brand loyalty. I love when business owners have a heart and care about their customers. I don’t recommend places very often so when I do, it’s because they really blew me away. Your coffee cart guy is a sweetheart
There’s no free coffee in your office?
I’ve had that same experience at a pret manager by my place. One morning I went, they ran out of ham&cheese croissants, and the next morning they said “sorry about yesterday, take this one on the house”
@BaLob - There’s coffee in the office, but it’s not drinkable. lol.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
@jigg - hm, let me guess… K-cups by gloria jean?
@BaLob - Flavia..
http://us.myflavia.com/home/index.jsp
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
What I want to know is, do these carts have tip jars and did you ever tip the guy prior to the coffee and egg drop incident? It’s nice of him regardless. I just want to know haha.
The other carts probably bank on people not having time or maybe something else they’re offering is better than the coffee? Who knows. There are STORES that I’ve had bad boba from and yet they were able to stay open for years…so yeah. Gotta be SOMETHING they’re doing okay.
@kalamai - Nope, they don’t have tip jars. You can tip if you want or not at all. I personally have never tipped the guy because everything I get is $1 or $2. So there’s never any change or anything.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Awww that’s so sweet of the guy making you another cup of coffee and eggs! That’s almost like me at my convenient store. Whenever we saw a kid drop his slush or sodas outside of our store, we just grab another one and go out to give it to them with no extra charges or anything. It’s nice to be important but it’s important to be nice. There’s also another convenient store across the street from ours so we have a little competition i guess, but we always try to make things affordable. Or we just try our best to be friendly to the customers so that they can always come back. Sometimes my father let customers pay back another time but it’s risky. He’s let a few people owe up to $5 or over $100 and there’s been a few that has never come back
Aw wow, what a nice guy. Now, that’s customer service.
you bought $21 worth of coffee?
cool cool
@happyobligations - lol. No. Coffee was only $1 and he didn’t have change for a $20, so he just asked me to give him the dollar at another time.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
that is pretty nice of him! i remember a i bought a cake from a cafe and the cake slipped out of the paper bag when the woman handed it over to me. and my friend was like “oh it fell out?” and the woman shrugged. i never went back there again lol
if she replaced it i would go back there again!!!
i think its the smile, knowing your customer’s name and order will bring me back
Completely agree with the idea of good customer service. That is one of the reasons why I always went to my local starbucks because the baristas were amazing. Knew not only my name but most customers’, always started conversation, knew my order, etc. This is what I love about Starbucks and this is one of the reasons why I always go there even if it’s a bit more expensive than local coffee shops that taste the same.