How To Win Friends

My work takes me to many small retailers over quite a large area. I've learn a lot about what makes a business work and how simple things make or break businesses from  small to large. I never cease to be amazed at the great lengths to which some businesses are willing to go to drive their customers away, and at what little things they refuse to do to keep them.

On my way to a meeting today I had to stop for a few minutes to send a document to a client. I sat down at a table on the street in front a cafe, got out my laptop and plugged in the 3g dongle.

A few minutes later the cafe owner came over and very politely told me they had free wifi, he said it would be much faster and he told me the access password, then left. As he was going I asked if he would be so kind as to grab me a coffee and a croissant.

I fully intended to buy a coffee when I sat down, but this approach was so refreshingly friendly and helpful. I got my document sent, made it to the meeting, I came back to the cafe with my client, we spent some more money there and concluded our business.

This cafe is nothing flash or stylish. It's in a very uninspiring location, but it had such a great feel about it. I sat back for a while and watched them work. Some excellent flamenco guitar was playing, the owner was buzzing about and looked to be really enjoying what he was doing. It was a quiet morning but there were plenty of occupied tables. I tip my hat to the little man at Pistache. He understands why people go to a cafe. Whats hard about that?