Wake up and smell the profit. 69Johnnie – true story
I had a busy coffee bar a few years ago that
was frequented by a mother and daughter
for coffee on average four days a week. Often
they would bring at least one of the daughter’s pre-school children.
Their average spend was approximately £11 and they had been
visiting us in this same regular fashion for about three years. Using
the same rule as my example on the previous page we can see that
they had already contributed £6000 of turnover to the business.
There was no reason for them to go elsewhere as long as we kept
them happy. But we didn’t. We had a problem with the dishwasher
and it meant that we often had some cups that weren’t quite as
clean as they should have been. I was busy (i.e. complacent and
didn’t have decent systems) and had taken my eye off the ball a
little with this site. They complained to a member of staff about
the cups and were given replacements and a vague apology.
But it happened again so they complained to the manager. She
got the machine fixed but it was still creating the same problem.
They complained again and when we still had the problem a few
days later they left and took their business elsewhere. They are
now £2000 a year customers for a client and friend of mine in a
neighbouring town. My loss was his gain and he, to his credit,
looks after them very well. He should do – the gross profit they
provide helps to pay his mortgage for two months of the year.