Entrepreneur.com
This article was written by Paige Arnof-Fenn of Entrepreneur.com. Paige is the founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, a strategic-marketing consulting firm whose clients include Fortune 500 companies as well as early stage and emerging businesses.
Caffeine is the fuel of choice for most entrepreneurs and business owners. I can boil water but don't even make toast well, so I prefer to go out for coffee and tea to keep my engine running at maximum capacity. My favorite spot to recharge is an independent café in a low-key area of town. Sometimes I get a "go cup" as we say in New Orleans where I grew up, and sometimes I grab a table or booth for a meeting or to work on a project if I feel inspired.
This café opened the week I came to Boston almost eight years ago for a housing-search trip. I stumbled in, not realizing they had just moved into the neighborhood as well. I immediately liked the place and knew it'd be one of my favorite spots to frequent.
The café found a loyal following of eclectic coffee lovers and seemed to appeal to various types of customers for a variety of reasons. It was so successful, the owners took over the adjacent space and doubled the size a couple of years ago. The café was able to grow happily while maintaining its independent, hip, non-Starbucks feel.
Business was great until they made a few strategic decisions that started to alienate their core customers. It wasn't any one thing, but a series of small things that impacted every key constituency in a negative way.
It's funny how people have found ways to bring up their frustrations with the café now in all sorts of situations. One regular was attending a dinner party I was invited to and announced to the table, as coffee was being served, how disappointed he was that his favorite coffee shop just raised its prices. He said they were already at the high end, but now the management seemed to be almost bothered by its customers, and this new attitude caused him to find a new place for his morning stop.
Another daily drinker, as we used to say at Coca-Cola, also asked me if I'd noticed the price hike. Then, she added that when she asked for an extra spoonful of froth on her coffee drink, they charged her an additional fee, which they'd never done in the past.
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