Do You Cheat Your Customers Out Of Their Most Valuable Asset?

Cap City Squeeze juice bar in Sacramento makes delicious, freshly juiced awesomeness! It is so good! And I only live 5 minutes away!

Searched Google to see what time they close: 6:00 p.m. Checked my watch: 5:20 p.m. Cool!

Arrived at 5:25, only to be greeted with blaring music (much louder than usual) and all of the juicing machines pulled apart and in the sink – being washed by the employee. “I want a juice,” I said, motioning to the disassembled juicer. “Oh, sorry, we stop juicing 30 minutes before we close,” she said. This is the 2nd time this same employee has started cleaning the juicing machine before they actually close. I don’t get it.

I just wasted time – the most valuable asset of my life – watching an employee clean the juicer that should have been available to make my delicious, fresh-squeezed awesomeness! But instead I wasted time and gained frustration! That’s a bad-for-business combo.

I really do enjoy Cap City Squeeze’s juice product. I always get the Just Beet It. So tasty! But this closing down the juicing machine early is bullshit!

Of course I Tweeted my frustration! Of course I posted it on Facebook. Of course I SnapChat’d it! Why put up a hurdle to your product? Cap City Squeeze is not alone in this closing-down-30-minutes-early practice. Many food services operate this way, by shutting down the very device that brings customers in in the first place. It makes no sense from the customer’s point-of-view: you’re open until 6 p.m. and I want a juice.

Here’s the answer: clean the juicer on YOUR time, after you close, not on MY time, before you close.

How late do you stay open for your customers? Or are you cheating them out of their most valuable asset – time?