Whiners are Wieners “You've got to be kidding me,” a customer exclaimed at a local business that decided to charge more for a cup of coffee. The customer explained that he had been buying his coffee from the same shop for years and decided to pull out his phone to snap a photo of the price board at the counter. “If you've never seen this, it's really funny.” And after all, coffee is not like a piece of meat that sits in the cold case for six hours while customers wait in a fume-filled room. As the New York Times reports, some cities are even making street fairs mandatory. “Some businesses have started giving out discounts for a day, or week, or year, and then after that it becomes a little tougher to get them to stay in business,” said Bob Kershaw, owner of The Street Fair Group. It is good business sense. For some businesses, however, it is just more of the same. “A lot of our clients are trying to expand on their presence,” says Kershaw. “You have to be up front with consumers if you are not going to do it, you just aren't going to do it.” Wiener Sucker Strategy Certain businesses refuse to learn the rules of the game, thinking they will always have usurped the law of supply and demand. Take, for instance, the trend in business that uses cheap items and mark up the price. The idea is that customers will fall for the low price and the profit margins will be larger. In reality, this strategy backfires. When a store or restaurant uses cheap items like plastic glasses or paper plates, the customer is immediately warned that he has no money left after his purchase. “You must have money to buy that,” says Joe Hinkle, a consultant for businesses. “If you really want to make a sale, make them feel special. Use the price of an expensive item and cut it in half.” What happens to the store is that you make the customer feel cheated. You create a situation where the customer feels used. So when a customer wants to leave, he does. Certain businesses refuse to learn the rules of the game, thinking they will always have usurped the law of supply and demand. The Customer Is Always Right Another big mistake is to overreact to customers. “I can't tell you how many times I have been in restaurants,” says Hinkle, “where they don't hear what the customers want and get totally flustered and go crazy with it. A restaurant is supposed to be a fun place.” People don't want the waiter to sit with them, but be available to help out in the kitchen or with something else, says Hinkle. It is the customer who is at the center of this business philosophy. When a customer has a problem, you have to deal with it. A restauranteur has to listen. And so does the manager who is out of his element. Hinkle explains: “When you are being told ‘you are the manager’ and not ‘here is your problem, let's make it better,’ you are not being respected and you are making a customer feel like an afterthought. Not all of us can be owners and not all of us will be a manager, but all of us have to show empathy.” What to Do About All This So here is the bottom line. In a perfect world, restaurants would have the patience of the customer of a few weeks at the most. But they don't. And as for the other mistakes that businesses make on a daily basis. They can be fixed. Just think about all the people who say they are the manager, but don't understand the problem. They are part of the problem and have to take the blame. Like this post? Follow iBlogNewz on Twitter for more great content! To read more about online customer service training and to download our free ebook, Why You Will Lose Customers, visit the iBlogNewz Job Board. For more interesting posts, check out our iBlogNewz Pinterest Board. I think a lot of businesses overcharge for things that don't even need to be bought. How about having your own product, or do it yourself? If you can buy it elsewhere for less, you should. Just because you can make the same thing for a cheaper price, doesn't mean you should have to. Thanks so much for sharing this. I think you're spot-on on this one! A lot of companies get so caught up in profit and growth that they forget their #1 goal of providing good customer service. You'll read about a company here or there who has really poor customer service, but most go unnoticed because they're not making a huge stink about it, and a few will simply close their doors. What bothers me even more than that is how lazy some companies get to be when it comes to customer service. I won't shop in certain places simply because they make me feel that I should apologize and be thankful that they're doing me a favor by not ripping my head off. Some of these places will even talk down to you like you've done something wrong by coming in there. It's pretty sad that companies can be so arrogant in a "corporate environment" but then turn around and be so rude and ungrateful once you've entered their "establishment". As for what these people are doing to us, it's about time that they learn the difference between business and personal life. I've had enough of people having their feet too close to the fire. If you want to come to my home to entertain yourself, or come shopping with me, then I'm going to let you in. But for you to act as though your personal life is a business, and mine is as well, then I'm going to make sure you know that your service is not equal to mine. And if you'd like to keep this going, then I suggest you go ahead and apply it to every single business you come across.