I was recently in a local cafe – great spot, wonderful food, family owned.  As I was sitting and having a coffee and a fantastic breakfast, a couple entered who were led to a small table for two.  The woman (customer) asked if they could please sit at a table for four because they are both slightly larger and would fit better.  The server said; “No, we need to leave those open for “possible” customers because it’s a weekend and we want to make sure we can seat everyone if it gets busy.”

The couple were astonished and responded with “Really, you cannot accommodate us?”  When another server heard the conversation, she came over and assisted the first server (by backing her up) making it difficult for the couple to stay.  Subsequently, they left.

Interesting observation, the servers were incensed with the couple’s behaviour and began a ‘can you believe it’ gossip session, the table for four did not fill up.  The cafe lost 2 perspective customers and the place two doors down gained two.  (I later saw them). 

The cafe lost two customers THAT day.  They have subsequently lost those two customers for life.  But it doesn’t stop here; they will lose the business of each and every potential customer with whom these two people speak. 

Do the numbers:

Sally tells 4 couples (8 people)

Frank tells 4 couples (8 people)

16 in total

Each of those 16 individual people tell 2 couples (4 people) that they “heard” it wasn’t good at that cafe.

 A potential loss by the last story-tellers of 32 couples (64 people), add that to the original 16 people and you have 80 folks in total.  This is a conservative estimate of customer ‘story telling’ only if the last 64 people each say nothing.  Now, if Sally and Frank are VERY mad you can guarantee they will tell more than 4 couples each, they will tell everyone who will listen!

The cafe was cute, trendy, and the food was fantastic.  Had they accommodated that one couple, you can guarantee the couple would return.  They may even meet up with a couple of friends at the cafe who would share with other friends and so on, the clientele grows by referral. 

Had the owner come to see what was happening (no doubt she was in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove) she could have saved the day by saying; “Oh, I’m sorry, the girls misunderstood, please feel free to take any table you believe will work best for you.”  Then a great learning opportunity would have surfaced to share what exceptional leadership looks like.  She might have shared the few lines needed to lay out an expectation of “the customer pays the bills, and therefore keeps the cafe going and therefore gets to lead what the restaurant choices are”. 

The loss of potential customers is a FAR greater number than the gain would have been because angry people share with a wider audience than satisfied people, however, a gain is a gain – the loss was simply uncalled for.

Happy customers share with a few folks and you gain some new clients, or customers – what fun, referrals are the bomb!

Angry customers share with every single person who will listen.  They tell their family, they tell their friends, they mention it to people next door, they share with strangers and sometimes they send broadly communicated emails or write blogs!

Exceptional leaders provide their staff with clearly laid out rules of play by scenario teaching and showing people on the job what proper behaviour for customer service looks like.  It behoves them to do so, as it is the very livelihood that feeds them or their company.

A small gain is still a gain – bad service produces losses unimaginable!