ON BUSINESS || The detail that kills your business may be the one you least expect
Today we’re going to talk about a coffee cup.
As a business owner, you may be keeping a hawk’s eye over your company’s financials because of the recession, but just looking at the numbers and not other factors may be what’s killing your business. Since money is tighter for everyone now, customers are more likely to switch to options that they perceive add more value. This may mean lower prices, better customer service, or more convenient options. Pricing and convenience you can still manage to be in the know from your desk because you can search online to see what your competitor offerings are, but what about customer service and operations?
This brings me back to the coffee cup.
My morning meeting got cancelled at the last minute (I actually received the cancellation email 2 minutes AFTER the meeting supposedly started but I guess that’s how people do things now) and so I had extra time to grab breakfast.
There’s this neighbourhood cafe I absolutely love because they serve this amazing Karak Tea and coffee bun combo. But here’s what I don’t love about it—their cups. I understand we shouldn’t use drink sleeves because this creates a ton of extra waste and is bad for the environment (yes, I also know we should bring our own cups and not use disposable cups, but that’s not the point of this story). However, the business could’ve gotten double-walled cups; then the cup wouldn’t be scorching hot for me to hold even on the short walk to my car. The thin-walled cups make other visitors also grab napkins to wrap around the cup. Not very user-friendly.
The other horrendous design flaw about these cups is the fact that they always, always leak. This happens even when I place it in the cupholder and ensure there’s no wiggle room. All it takes is one little bump in the road, and the drink spills out from the cup.
While I love the food at this cafe and their awesome $10 breakfast deal, I’m about to remove them from my expenditures because of this one little detail—poor cup design. It makes me wonder if other guests have ever told them, or maybe, like me, they also thought they could endure such a small detail in the customer experience. What I’ve discovered is, this becomes a frog in boiling water situation, where the water is initially cold, but then as it slowly comes to a boil and the frog is oblivious to this temperature change because it happens slowly…and we all know what happens to the frog that stays in boiling water.
Is one aspect of your business slowly killing it without you knowing? Maybe going through a secret shopper experience will help you see what it’s really like to be a customer of your business. Customers are less forgiving nowadays as money gets tighter, and you don’t want to leave your revenue to chance, would you?
