Business Lessons from the Donut Shop Guy
Kottke has some great guidance for creating an environment of trust as witnessed through his local donut guy(s).
When an environment of trust is created, good things start happening. Ralph can serve twice as many customers. People get their coffee in half the time. Due to this time savings, people become regulars. Regulars provide Ralph’s business with stability, a good reputation, and with customers who have an interest in making correct change (to keep the line moving and keep Ralph in business). Lots of customers who make correct change increase Ralph’s profit margin. Etc. Etc. And what did Ralph have to pay for all this? A bit of change here and there.
If you click through to his original lesson from the donut guy, there are some tips worth noting for retaining customers. From my perspective there should be some coffeeshop owners who read these posts. Local shops could benefit from this sort of service. And, I believe it could help get a good cup of coffee down to $1 per cup, which is exactly where I think the price point should be. BUT, that’s a different post for a different day; I’ve even created a ‘cup of coffee’ model in Excel and ran the numbers – it works.
Tags: business, coffee, customer service, jason kottke