Business 101

If their business strategy is to turn away customers I’m going to help them. You see I’m all about helping people, and it was made perfectly clear to me that Café Gainsbourg in Kloof Street wanted to keep their clientele small.

We were supposed to have coffee club there this morning, but due to the poor response from the owner we decided to move to another venue. I had dinner at Café Gainsbourg on Wednesday evening to suss the place out, and to see if it was a suitable location for our club. I spoke to one of the waiters about our little get togethers and indicated that we would like to hold an event there on Saturday. I asked for advice on the best way to approach it. The waiter suggested to arrive on the day, the staff would then make a plan.

After arriving this morning, the club tried to organize seating with a waiter so the members could sit together as a group. As we were rearranging some tables, the owner approached us and told us that we were not allowed to move the tables in her restaurant. She became quite rude and told us that we should have made a reservation. It wasn’t even that full.

I tried to reason with her that I had come in on Wednesday and had spoken to a waiter and that he had said that there was no need for a reservation. She expressed that it was not his restaurant, that it was not how things were done and that I should have spoken to her. I then began to explain to her that I had no idea who the owner of the restaurant was, because of the waiter’s suggestion I did not make a reservation and thought that they would be more that happy to receive about 20 peoples worth of business. I guess I was wrong. She was unswerving and suggested that she did not need our business. Needless to say, the group was quite unhappy with the poor service and decided to move.

I’m certain that one doesn’t need a degree in business to see what type of repercussion her actions will have on her business. She not only turned away 20 willing-to-pay customers on the morning, but perhaps turned them away from ever returning; added to that the poor impression left with the 20 people (in various areas of influence) will most likely spread and deter once-potential customers.

If I were in her position, I would have certainly, tried to have been more accommodating. I’m not sure when things changed, but I miss the good old days when business owners took customers’ needs seriously and adopted “the customer is always right” attitude. Unfortunately, because of today’s incident Café Gainsbourg has lost my support.

It feels like I’ve been ranting a lot in my posts as of late ... It’s not really my style to rant and to be negative; but I’m finding it rather difficult not to, it seems like I’ve recently come across a myriad of people who are rude and have no respect for others.

To break the negativity and spin some positive, good old Arnold’s down the road came to the rescue, and were more than happy to welcome us with open arms. They have great breakfasts for a reasonable price and most welcomingly they have an open door policy and always greet with a smile.