The service industry is often painted as a tough one to be in -- just watch Waiters starring Ryan Reynolds for a hyperbolic representation of it. Two French cafes are hoping to change the tides by charging rude customers more than polite ones. Although there are ways in which businesses have been able to penalize such patrons in the past, a formalized way to do so has never truly been explored -- until now.
One of the French cafes determines its raised prices by levels of barbaric-ness while the other one focuses on more levels. Grub Street writes, "It's €7 if the customer declares, 'Coffee.' But that same cup drops to €4.25 if the person says, 'A coffee, please,' and then to a quite reasonable €1.40 if ordered with a 'Hello, a coffee, please.'"
Rude-Surcharge Restaurants
Two French Cafes Raise the Prices for "Barbaric" Customers
Trend Themes
1. Politeness-based Pricing - Restaurants and cafes charging customers based on polite language usage, opening up opportunities for similar practices in customer-facing industries.
2. Formalizing Disciplinary Actions - A trend towards developing formalized ways to penalize rude customers, creating possibilities for companies to implement clear disciplinary actions for disruptive behavior.
3. Customer-centric Pricing - New pricing models that factor in a customer's behavior and habits, creating opportunities for businesses to tailor prices and offers based on customer data and trends.
Industry Implications
1. Hospitality - Hotels and resorts implementing similar strategies to reward polite customers while penalizing unruly or discourteous patrons.
2. Retail - Stores and outlets exploring novel ways to incentivize courteous behavior, such as offering promotions or discounts on polite language usage.
3. Transportation - Airline and railway companies considering adopting similar models to charge rude passengers a premium or offer discounted fares to those who exhibit good behavior.