Today I’m working from a coffee shop. I say a coffee shop, but to be honest it’s more like a department store. From where I’m sitting, I can see a Cigar Humidor filled with 100s of cigars for sale, a big display of homemade candles for sale, a large Gelato fridge displaying every kind of gelato you can imagine, a small kitchen that serves Belgian Waffles and French Crepes (but only on weekend mornings), there is a large energy drink display, the music playing has no relevance to any of these things, oh and yes there is coffee too.

The only thing that’s missing? Customers. I’ve been here for two hours and remain the only customer. It’s not a coincidence. I’ve been here before and it was the same story, except when they first opened, they didn’t have all these add-ons. They just had coffee and a dream to be a local coffee shop.

So what went wrong? Well, for reasons that are probably a mixture of poor branding, inefficient marketing and a lack of reach to the demographic they wanted to serve, it’s never been very busy and so the classic response to low customer levels is to start to offer more and more, because “surely that way we’ll appeal to more people…..”. Unfortunately, while you might appeal to a larger base of interests, you’ll attract none of them in sufficient numbers to sustain a business.

You see, customers have way too many choices today. There are ever more demands on their attention, money and loyalty. To the coffee customer, the cafe isn’t “purist” enough to get their business. To the cigar smoker, he’s unlikely to seek out his fine Cohiba in a coffee shop and to the gelato customer, well there’s no indication outside that this is anything more than a coffee shop, so the gelato probably isn’t selling.

As a customer, I want you to “get me”. I consider myself too smart to be won over by run of the mill signs and posters. I want to align myself with a business that matches my interests and motives. I want my coffee shop to be passionate about coffee and little else and I want to get my cigars from a store that deals in little else.

So if you do nothing else today, ask yourself, what is my main product or service and how well am I representing this? How passionate am I?

To those customers you attract, you’ll keep them forever and they’ll be your biggest raving fans and evangelists. Keep adding on to your product range in the hope of attracting more customers and you’ll end up knee deep in melting gelato trying to keep the cigars dry…..

If you’re sick of bartenders tuning up late for work, if at all, or if you are tired of the constant churn of staff in your bar, then Vietnam’s first robotics company has the answer for you. Clearly sensing your pain, TOsy, the Vietnamese company has come out with “Topio Dio”: the world’s first robotic bartender!

Developed as a service robot, or as so-called “Skillful Bartender and Waiter”, Topio Dio is 125 cm tall and weighs 45 kg. It is equipped with 28 joints, 3 wheels, built-in camera and sensor and is controlled via Wi-Fi. Although the price is not disclosed, apparently it is only 25% of the cost of similar products in the market.

I’m not sure what similar products they’re referring to…? A fully trained bartender?

It’s not yet clear if the robot will bring his friends to the bar when he’s on duty and serve them free drinks…..we’re still waiting for the robotics company to return our call.

Most bars give their customers a bowl of peanuts to keep them drinking or a complimentary appetizer to ensure they stay in the bar, but there seems to be more of a trend to go far, far, far above and beyond this.

I just came back from a few days in Delray Beach, Florida where I stayed at the magnificent Seagate Hotel, a few hundred yards from the beach. No sooner had I checked in to the hotel, the receptionist was letting me know that the hotel had two brand new gleaming white Mercedes GLX vehicles available for any of my transportation requirements at no cost within a five mile radius of the hotel!

It wasn’t that the hotel was charging $500/night; in fact it was comparable to a budget hotel in the area, but the hotel had (rightly) figured that such a service was sure to wow guests and keep them coming back. It wowed the socks off me! But the Seagate Hotel isn’t the only destination to offer such a service in the hope of attracting more customers:

Spasso Restaurant in Minnetonka near Minneapolis is offering free round-trip rides to the wine-focused restaurant, for four to six diners, in a shiny new black Cadillac Escalade. No minimum purchase, no gimmicks and very few rules.

“We’re trying to get this thing going, so we’re open to just about anything,” said general manager Matt Urspringer. “They’ll pick you up at home, drive you to the restaurant and take you home. Just call us up, and we’ll patch you through to our dispatcher.”

Such a service might make sense for your bar or restaurant too, especially if you are in a downtown location with parking difficulties. Vehicle lease costs are at an all time low, so check it out and let us know if you do the same!

Happy bartenders equal happy customers and happy customers like to spend money. It makes a lot of sense to ensure that these very important staff are taken care of, but it’s easy to overlook one guaranteed thing that will annoy your customers.

I was asked a very good question by a bar owner during the week. He wanted to know what the best way was to handle the fact that customers were arriving at his bar, having a drink or two at the bar before moving to table for dinner. The drinks consumed at the bar were being added to the restaurant check with the wait staff benefiting from the full tip for food & beverages.

He wanted to know if bartenders should get a percentage of each check, or whether tips should be pooled, or if it all balanced out in the end anyway?

He said that his bartenders were fuming at the money they were losing on busy nights in the restaurant.

My initial thoughts are that it depends on the establishment and how much of a problem this is perceived to be. This bar owner maintained that customers would not be interested in cashing out at the bar and the table as it is too much work for them.

I personally don’t think it is too much to ask of customers, but if your service level is such that you don’t want to inconvenience customers in any way, then you may need to address this issue by enforcing some kind of tip share policy to ensure that all staff get their fair, earned share of the tips.

One method would be to pool all tips and split them according to the food & beverage split percentage in the establishment and divide between bar and restaurant staff.

Whatever the solution, it looks like there is no solution that pleases everyone. what would you do?

Ignoring the issue doesn’t seem to be the answer so all suggestions are welcome!