How do customers feel about fountain drinks at take out places

I haven't read the whole thread, but is hotballa completely or just mildly r****ded?

 

Are you able to give people samples? I know samples of coffee at a coffeeshop is basically unheard of, but it's nice to not have to dump quality coffee down the drain.

I'm no expert on anything restaurant, but I'm sure coffee is more expensive than soda. bottled or otherwise.

 

It depends on what it is. If it's straight coffee or a limeade or something like that, we certainly can. If it's a latte or smoothie or something like that, it would be more effort than it's worth to try to make a tiny version of it. We probably don't lose money if we throw out a drink and make a new one - we just wouldn't make money. But it's much more likely that customer comes back (along with his/her friends, etc). We're sort of a big hangout and office-away-from-home type of place, so our focus is building a community atmosphere and the short-term loss is not a big deal if we develop a regular customer as a result. If it were primarily a to-go place or something where we didn't develop long-term relationships with the customers, we might approach it differently.

 

At first though, I felt you should tell the customer no, take a different flavor or pay the price difference. My personal take all depends on the customer's attitude. If they are ordering off the dollar menu and just being cheap and being a jerk, I'd tell them to fly simply because you wouldn't want them as a repeat customer anyways.

If they were nice about it, you should honor it, as long as you're not losing money on the deal. Customer satisfaction goes a long way. If you're still making a profit either way, I would say you're the one being unreasonable.

 

is there any difference between this and expecting a bartender or waiter to give you a more expensive liquor/wine if the cheaper brand is out.

"Sorry, the house Red is out."
"Well, give me the more expensive one for the same price."

No way a bartender would do that.

 

btw hotballa, why not print out some coupons for a free fountain drink with next purchase to give out.

that way you can say, "sorry, the root beer is out. can I interest you in a different flavor? Or I can give you a coupon for a free drink, next time you come in." fountain drinks cost less than the cup you pour them in, no?

 

The main difference in this scenario is that the customer is asking for a better product at the same price. Here, the customer isn't trying to get any benefit - he's asking for the same product as the same price (unless he really wanted the bottle form).

 

If they don't want anything else in the fountain, they should be welcome to a refund for the drink... nothing else.

 

ok, let's stick to beer then. keg beers are cheaper for bar owners to buy than bottled beers, so pints are often the same price or cheaper than the 12oz bottled version.

 

hotballa,

here's another trick. when the fountain drink goes out, write it on a chalkboard as "Daily Special/50% off" then cross it out, and write "Sorry, Out"

then if someone complains for same price for the bottle, point to the chalkboard and say, "sorry we ran out because it was a special today."

 

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Why would you risk losing a customer over this? Make the customer happy. Being out of a flavor is an inconvenience for you and the customer.

As a consumer, I consider leaving a place if they are out of dr pepper, and I would expect them to offer me a like price solution if possible. If they didn't, they'd still get my business that day but I would think twice about going back because I put value into customer service.

 

Never noticed that. 16 years and 29,000 posts but can't spare 30 bucks. Wow. Even hotballa contributed.

 

I'm a takeout place's worst nightmare. I drink water.

 

Korean?

 

Nope.

Koreans are great. I spent time working in Seoul and those guys are crazy. Eat great meat for dinner, work until 2am, binge drink, then show up for work the next morning like nothing happened.

 

I was just kidding about the Korean part. I think there are people like this from every ethnicity.

 

And, they have a service you can call for a guy to come drive you home in your car after the binge drinking. You call and a guy magically shows up in about 5 minutes. Drives you home in your car and then gets picked up by his company. You and your car both get home in one piece and you don't have to go pick your car up the following morning had you taken a cab home.

 

I like the pretty waitresses that sit with you at the table and pour your drinks.

 

Never mind it's happened to me before. I've ordered something that was out and they offered me a more expensive alternative for that price because it was on the menu.