If You Run a Small Business, Park in the Back of the Parking Lot

That being said, when writing engaging content, it's usually better to show, rather than just tell. That's also what they did here.

Last thing - they wanted to convey the message to as many people as possible. If the article was entitled "Put the concerns of the customer first before yours," virtually no one would read it (and no one on a site like HN, Twitter, or Facebook would click through to it).

I'm not doubting that this is nice, but in a lot of businesses this could be all or most of their margin. You can be nice all day long but at the end of the day there has to be something left to run the business. There are plenty of ways to exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.

By your own admission, you went to this steak house for 10 years and had liked it so much you encouraged others. I'd imagine you would've visited multiple times per year? So, let's say 20~30 visits total? All that time you were happy and raved about it, but one bad visit and not only did it sour your opinion to the point you won't return, but you also mentioned that you will disparage them whenever you can. At around 30 visits, 97% of your experience there was positive to the point of rave reviews.

I'm not having a go at you, I'm just using your story to highlight the difficulty in customer service and how fickle we all are as customers (myself included). I suppose that really just speaks more to our recency bias as humans as well.

Yes I'm being tongue in cheek here, but try not to cut off your nose to spite your face.

V day and M day are the absolute worst times to go out for dinner, anywhere half decent is full and the kitchen is super stressed so they have reduced menus that are easier to cook (not possible with steak...). If you must go, you have to speak to the manager beforehand, tell them how important this is, remind them you come often, get a specific table, etc.

As for your second example, I don't find this to be good customer service. You paid for an upgrade and didn't get it. It's not just about the incremental upgrade. You could have booked elsewhere and the upgrade was part of that decision. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole sometimes. They could have done better than a refund on the delta and some booze.

Credibility tends to take a hit when you do that. People interpret it not as the restaurant necessarily being bad as much as you having a bone to pick.

Same with other giants / monopolies; this is why monopolies are bad for customers.

Meet the customers basic requirements and you compete on price first 9 times out of ten. Look at the airline industry, prices have steadily declined since deregulation and creature comforts right along with them. If Americans could buy standing room only tickets they would in droves.

Bad example, ever try fixing your own car and wondering why they made it so hard to access some parts? And then you try to replace some bit and break some smaller bit, like a plastic clip or something. And you can't buy the smaller bit anywhere. Most cars are built for ease of assembly, not ease of repair for example.

You don't get what you don't pay for.

Something as simple as not parking right in front might not make a huge difference, but that mindset, compounded over months and years, will.

Also, psychology is weird... if there are a bunch of spots near to your business pick one reasonably close but always leave the best one for customers - if there are cars parked close to the entrance but the best spot is open then customers will walk in with a bit of a buzzing high from managing to nab the primo spot. Aaaand if there is a tree that drops crap during spring/fall, park under it so no customer gets stuck with sap on their car since that can colour their entire interaction.

Isn't psychology fun!

Yeah, after trying the most popular Mexican restaurant in Gainesville, FL I can only agree.

What I guess you could do as a business owner is wear plainclothes / take off the apron and have a coffee with your own staff. Mind you it'll look quite obvious in a lot of cases due to the staff wearing e.g. aprons or other accessories that infer they're staff.

But giving away some free coffee or something just to break the ice (or 'prime' as another commenter called it) will be a good strategy as well. It requires a bit of pushing which some people will find annoying but still, it'll be worth it.

Then later on I find it has gone out of business...

Lines are great for hype, but don't try to artificially create them at the cost of customer experience.

Now the line is a (punishment + holding cell) for dudes who have to buy their way out of the line by opting for bottle service.

Ideally for the club it moves just fast enough that the patrons in line don't give up and go somewhere else.

That’s not been my experience in most major cities I’ve lived and traveled in.

To that point people who complain are often the canary in the coal mine for larger issues. I am a big complainer. Typically in the end I get thanked for bringing things to a businesses attention. And I am a good customer. My largest 'reward' to date was a $5000 amount from a large german car manufacturer. They said 'we have never done this before'. What I said started out as a complaint. At first they were not really responsive. I finally brought home (successfully) that I was doing them a favor and that their dealer (a luxury car dealer) did not handle things the way they should have with a recent transaction.

I complain all the time at Whole Foods (where I spend a ton of money). Things just jump out at me. That said not everyone is me. Will say that I have owned a small business in the past. For every person that voiced a complaint there could be a hundred who don't open their mouth honestly. That's what I have found.

People think they shouldn't complain in a restaurant as another example. No the restaurant would rather have the complaint than you not returning or telling others. It's their chance to make things right and buy loyalty. Same story 'thank you for bringing this to our attention here is a $100 gift certificate'.

Like many other "nice to have" things, it's a matter of making it a priority. I'd had an hour commute when I worked in downtown Boston, and when I moved out to Silicon Valley, I told the realtor that was showing me around "No more than 15 minutes away from work." He was like "15 minutes? That means Mountain View, Palo Alto, or some parts of Sunnyvale. It'll cost you a lot." I said "I'm prepared to pay."

Would be nice if cities were built in a way that not just a select few high-earners could walk or bike to work, though. Right now, every person that moves into bike commuting distance of the major employers tends to displace someone who needs to move further away (oftentimes much further away); only way to avoid that is with more density.

Incidentally I built a site mapping homes for sale and rent over transit and bike routes (not roads) for Ireland, would it be useful for Scotland as well?

In the case you mention, airbags are a pretty good reason. Also distance. And disabilities.

It's insane how little bikes (or pedestrians) are considered compared to here in Sweden.

You don't need a truck, but you definitely need a car (with four wheel drive in many parts).

There are millions of people who live in places that require traveling on high-traffic busy roads to get from point A to B. These roads almost never have a bike lane (bike lanes do not exist outside of large cities). On many roads I drive on (speed limit 55 mph) there is no shoulder. Combine that with roads that have sharp curves that prevent drivers from seeing more than 25 meters ahead... yea, I would not bike with a kid with me.

Yes, riding your bike in an urban area is often more or less as fast / convenient as driving. However, driving at 70mph vs biking at say 15mph, the time difference adds up very quickly once you are out in open country.

Not to mention that there is very well built infrastructure for driving, while biking often means going on that same infrastructure with a 50mph difference between you and the rest of the traffic. Basically if you are riding on a bike on a highway, you need to act as if you were invisible and expect that cars may actively try to kill you.

(Father of a strong-willed 5 year old)

No amount of planning ahead can foresee every hiccup in getting a kiddo out the door...

I tend to agree the latter is probably at least somewhat on the parent.

Put another way, while a parent would probably not actually assign blame for lateness to their child (though oh boy, do I know some that would...), they are nonetheless using their children as an excuse for their own bad behavior, which is rude and dishonest.

Forgive me for being blunt but: no it isn't. It might take some work over a few weeks and may mean some tough mornings, but throwing up your hands and saying "well, I guess you're the boss 2 year old!" is silly. Your two year old can't tell time and you can migrate his schedule forward 5-10mins a day if you want too. Yes, his sleeping/waking will fluctuate around a mean and you can't control that, but you can control the mean value.

Yeah this always weighs upon my mind, to the point where sometimes I don't move ("perfect is the enemy of good", you can find a quote from all sides of a situation).

I think the ideal use case for a MVP is exposing it to a limited subset of users. These can be internal staff first, friends and family, or the noisy but helpful people who file a load of issues with you for another version/product. I think releasing a MVP to the whole world can be a big mistake, there are so many games out there I can't play them all. Some are fully realised in early access but others get a quick look then I never go back, even years later.

Heh, my bar is like this. Been going there long enough that I get to run a tab for a few weeks before the owner finally (jokingly) gives me a hard time about it.