Just a coffee please !

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Just a coffee please !

Postby MrG » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:28 am

If you sell coffee to the public I'm sure you know the feeling, the customer comes in to your coffee shop where you have a menu listing all your different coffees, from a rich espresso to a mild latte, they look at you and say "Just a coffee please" !

(smiling politely) You then enter into the 'coffee quiz' to try and establish exactly what coffee they really want :roll:


Here are a few recent little gems that stick in my mind .....

1.
Customer: Do you sell coffee ?
Me: (smiling) Certainly madam, that's why we have a sign outside that says coffee shop !
Customer: Oh yeah. I thought you may only have sold tea.
Result: After a few questions she wanted an americano.

2.
Customer: I just want a coffee Please
Me: OK, any particular coffee. We do cappuccino, latte, americano.....
Customer: No, No I dont want any of those funny foreign ones. Just a normal coffee.
Me: Certainly I'll get that for you.
Customer:(Just as I was preparing the order) Sorry is it too late to change my order, I'd like a Mocha.
Me: Of course, that'll be one of those funny foreign Mochas then !
(I allowed myself a small amount of inner 'smugness' with this one)
Result: Customer sees the funny side and is now a regular !

3.
Customer: Can I just have a weak coffee ...... You know just half a spoon of nescafe !
Me: Speachless !
Result: After a very long and difficult conversation as to why we dont do instant, she had a latte.

4.
Customer: I'll have a black coffee with milk !
Me: Sorry, A what ?
Customer: A black coffee with milk
Result: An americano served black with a small jug of milk, exactly the way we usually serve it !
This customer sometimes drinks tea, served in a pot with a small jug of milk on the side .... she never
asks for a black tea with milk. She now loves to ask for her 'black coffee with milk' !

5.
Customer:(in a very rude, off hand manner) Coffee!
Me: Certainly, any particular coffee ?
Customer: (in a very rude, off hand manner) Just bring me a coffee !
Me:(other customers are now looking at us both) certainly madam !
Result: She got an espresso :twisted: .
It certainly wasn't what she wanted, but she was too embarassed to say anything. She didn't finnish her 'coffee' but she did leave a tip !


There are times when 'The customer is always right' simply doesn't apply ...... but you have to keep smiling, be polite and remember that if you dont look after your customers ..... somebody else will !
With the exception of customer No 5, all are now regulars ... and very welcome !

I'm sure others have lots of similar experiences ..... I'd love to hear a few, just to reassure myself that I'm not alone !


Al

P.S. I've just realised something ..... these customers were ALL women !
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby syscrusher » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:04 pm

:) great post.
Made me laugh.
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby lukas » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:10 pm

Very nice. Why don't you just offer a good cup of filtered coffee, which is what most people mean when they order 'just coffee'? It's so hard (at least in germany) to just get a simply good cup of coffee. I actually have to go to starbucks for that when I'm not at home.
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby Neo » Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:39 pm

Haha, lovely.
I kept smiling while reading the post.
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby CakeBoy » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:26 pm

Good post ...v funny stuff too :)
I remember many years ago witnessing someone ask a waiter in Spain for a "white coffee'", which was met with a cheeky grin and the response "Is no white, is brown!" :lol:
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby espressomattic » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:14 pm

Recently in Taupo I witnessed a group of bikers in a coffee shop. One sauntered up to the bar and said to the Barista:

"I'll just have an instant coffee please"

In dramitic fashion (He was older and italitian looking!)

"You want a what!(Looking utterly offended) We only do real coffee here (Laughing and shaking his head indicated the menu)"

Said biker was speechless and meekly asked for a cup of tea.

It was nce to see a Biker Club member get put down by a barista!
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby Aadje » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:31 pm

Nice :D
Bits 'n' pieces . . .

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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby tap » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:47 pm

ha,nice. like asking just something to eat in a restaurant.

been thinking about putting up a cafe serving nice (just) coffee. yes, meaning filtered..maybe siphon.
lately mostly drinking coffee or tea
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby Dan » Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:12 pm

I still love Steves story about the bag of pre-ground being returned because it wouldn't dissolve!
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RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby Aadje » Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:35 pm

:D
Bits 'n' pieces . . .

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Postby JulieJayne » Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:39 pm

That all sounds so very familiar.

Except that here in the Netherlands, instant coffee is not so well known. Thank goodness!

And when they ask for "just a coffee" they usually mean a cappuccino. So it generally follows:

Customer: Do you serve coffee? (whilst standing in front of a table and chairs, often with other customers already drinking)
Me: Certainly, what would you like?
Customer: Ordinary coffee.
Me: If you'd like to sit down I'll bring it to you. (Americano on the way)
Customer: (Sits and sees the list of options) Oh can you do a cappuccino?
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Postby Aadje » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:13 pm

at the place where I work, a lof of germans order a macchiato when they mean a latte macchiato. Don't know why or how, but it does seem that way. No offence whatsoever.
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Postby MrG » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:52 am

Aadje wrote:at the place where I work, a lof of germans order a macchiato when they mean a latte macchiato. Don't know why or how, but it does seem that way. No offence whatsoever.

:D

We get one customer who used to order a macchiato.
The first time she ordered one it was duly prepared and served.
She just looked at it a bit puzzled and then said........

"Oh ...... thats not how starbucks do it" :roll:

She came in a few days later and said she'd googled macchiato and said
" Yours IS a macchiato" :idea:
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Re: RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby espressomattic » Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:08 am

Dan wrote:I still love Steves story about the bag of pre-ground being returned because it wouldn't dissolve!


I took in some coffee to work a couple of years ago for my team. One of them bless him, tried to make a few cups. I found him frantically stirring a few mugs...

"Why won't it dissolve?"

"Mate this is real coffee...."

He even added milk to help it along. Just think, he protects you lot in the UK now.
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RE: Re: RE: Just a coffee please !

Postby BazBean » Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:01 am

obviously got a transer to CID then ?
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