Employees that date customers resulting in lost customers

[JLew]

So.....we have young-ish girls working in our drive thru huts (in a small town). We have an issue with the girls dating our good customers and ultimately they break up and the guys stop coming to our business. Have you dealt with this in your business? If so, how did you deal with it? Part of me feels like "they are young single girls and that's what they do" and the other part of me feels like because of them we are losing good customers......thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions? Thanks!

 

[JLew]

Uh oh....thinking I posted in the wrong section....I'll go explore for a better place to post this

 

[eldub]

If its a small town and you have multiple locations, are you sure the guys aren't just going to another coffee hut of yours?

 

[JLew]

Well, we are down to one location now (thank goodness) and yes , I'm sure we lose these customers. We will occasionally see the guys on days when the girls are not there, but they go from spending 8-10 dollars a day as normal good customers to either a total loss or once every couple weeks....it's really sad for us as owners. We have one girl that is really the culprit at this time and has cost us several great customers. And even though she means well, relationships end and things happen. And we lose customers. It's such a touchy situation, and not sure what to do about it.

 

[eldub]

I'm guessing the guys are great customers while flirting with the girl in question. They might not spend so much time and money there if they were only interested in coffee.

 

[MyMugsHalfFull]

Sounds like an accurate hypothesis there eldub..

I mean, hell, I remember going into a few stores just to buy crap once in a while for the "eye candy" lol... When I got stuck and they were telling me about something I felt compelled to buy

However, that isn't really helpful to JLew... $8 to $10 a day... Wow.. They had some money to burn.. wish I had that much extra to burn on coffee Sure it just isn't the economy slowing things down?

Also, I'm not sure this is as big a thing as you think.. As eldub said, if you have a good product and they weren't just interested in the girls, then they would still go. I remember a couple of places I used to regular and I would flirt with the girl on duty.. Well, made a butt of myself, and didn't go for a few weeks, but I went back anyway, although I did try and avoid that particular girl for a while.. But eventually got over it...

Also, how many customers could you really lose that way? 5? 10? I sincerely doubt these girls are driving away 10 or 20 customers...

 

[PinkRose]

Hello JLew

Welcome to the Coffee Forums website!

You posted this in the right section. You are obviously asking a business-related question.

I used to work in a place where the manager discouraged fraternizing with the customers to the extent that, if the non-fraternization policy didn't appear to be working, she would quietly inform the customer that the girl was married, or gay, or whatever to discourage any further interest. If the customer was actually coming for the good coffee, he would keep coming and leave the girl alone. If he was just coming to flirt with the girl, then obviously a customer was lost.

If this is a real concern for you, you may want to consider developing a non-fraterinization policy - or you can even do a reverse policy and post a sign saying "The management discourages customer fraternization with the employees" or make a joke of it and say, "Please don't date our employees. It's bad for business", or "Date our employees at the risk of heartbreak."

Rose

 

[dstrand]

Hi JLew,

I totally understand your issue, but I have a question. Do you have any idea how many customers these flirty young girls attract? I don't mean to sound crass, (and I don't think you'd be totally out of line, if you pulled the one girl aside and expressed your concern) but if your customer base is mostly young men who tend to spend $8 to $10 a day, you may not want to mess up a good thing.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Very interesting post. I am sure as a business owner u hate to see any lost customers but as a customer, ii even want to see what she look like....lol

 

[ChopShopCoffee]

I agree with Rose! I would make a joke of it! Guys are gonna be guys and girls are gonna be girls. Even if you make a policy of it they will still do it behind your back its just the way people are these days. I would express your displeasure with the girl but they are gonna do what they want. If they arent coming for quality product you really dont want them as a customer anyway. =) Good luck hope it works out!!

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I keep coming back to this thread for further reply... lol.... I never had any of that problem at my business but it got me thinking also.... I hope you can come up with solution that make everyone happy.....

 

[JLew]

Hi! Sorry....I came back for a few days after i wrote that and never had a response then kinda forgot about it, guess I need to change a notification setting somewhere...Well, I read thru the responses and I have no real issue with flirting and attracting the guys, that's great in my opinion...my problem is the actual dating of the customers...this one girl has lost us 5 great male customers in the last year, she dates them...they fall hard then she breaks their hearts and she moves on to the next. We have since had to fire her due to her not showing up to work and guess what.....4 of those 5 guys are back! Yay! 5 customers might not seem like a lot to some of you, but that can be $50 a day........since we have let her go, the amount of female customers that have made complaints about her "not paying attention to them because there was a cute boy at the other window" so, it is concerning as a business owner to hear thing like that because there is SUCH a fine line between what's a good thing and what's not good. Being flirtatious, and pretty, and friendly is great for business until it goes to far and hurts your business in other ways.....sometimes it can be so hard being an owner or manager it's like being a parent to adults that act like children! FWIW we have a couple other attractive young girls that work for us, they do not have this issue, so it might have been an isolated case with that one girl.....lets hope so......

 

[PinkRose]

Hi "JLew"

Thanks for the update. I was also wondering how things were going with that situation. It sounds like you had no choice but to let her go.

Customers take offence to a variety of things, and it's good to pay attention to them and address them when you can.

For example, when I was visiting a local cafe, I recently overheard several older customers making comments about a young (around 25 years old) woman, because she called them "Hon." She said things such as, "Thank you, Hon" or "Would you like whipped cream on that, Hon?" I'm surprised the manager didn't notice that the girl constantly calls everyone "Hon" You can't take a chance of having your employees annoy people....even if it's because of something as simple to correct as that.

Rose

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I was wondering about this as well... And i totally agree with Rose, professionalism is very important since most of your customers work in professional setting. They have certain expectations from the servers. I think middle age professional female customers are typically more demanding customers but they are very fair. If you can satisfy them, you can satisfy most of customers.

 

[NHcoffee]

There is a small chain of about 10-12 drive thrus in my area. It is locally nicknamed "aroma hoes" for a reason. Their coffee is terrible, but the lines to see the "hoes" is typically long. This operation only hires young attractive college girls.

When I owned a drive thru I had a very good male barista. Sales would be lower the days he worked verses the cute young blonde barista that worked opposite days. Eye candy is more realistic as to why they were coming in the first place. In my case clients actually looked for her car!

If she brings you clients, personally I would keep her dressing the window!