A Murky Way to Do Business

A bit of a brew-ha-ha (bad pun...ugh) has been stirred up by the owner of D.C.'s "Murky Coffee" and his blog post over a customer who wanted an iced espresso. Read about it here: http://www.murkycoffee.com/2008/07/open-letter-to-jeff-simmermon.html. It's worth reading.

Reading it made me think about my last post, "In Defense of Bad Customers". Over at the Murky Coffee blog, amidst the majority "You're a jerk and it's just coffee" and the minority "Way to go!" posts, was a really excellent suggestion: Serve the coffee the way the customer wants it AND the way you think it should be enjoyed. Even if the customer's taste isn't the same as yours, the customer will probably appreciate your passion and you'll have a loyal customer.

The point I got from the suggestion is this: yes, be passionate about what you do, but understand that customers are people. The Soup Nazi may be a great schtick, but it's a bad model for businesses. I've had to pass on business that customers wanted done for a number of reasons, but being obnoxious (and self-righteous) -- that's just bad business.