My Education Platform

A few thoughts on educating customers: how, and even if.

A lot of bandwidth is spent discussing how we should "educate" customers - or for that matter, whether we should at all. There are multiple schools of thought here, with valid arguments to each. Basically, my thoughts come down to this: Tell them what they want to know, no more, and try not to seem like a condescending jerk. The trick to that, of course, is to bait them in to wanting to know more. Assuming that bribery is out of the question, how do we foster this? First of all, let's return to that thing about not being a condescending jerk. When a customer asks how you drew that leafy thing on their latte, or why a regular macchiato is nothing like Starbucks' famous caramel drizzled version, answer directly, simply, and politely. Don't take it as an opportunity to mock them, or as the set-up to your punchline. Trust me, I know it can be tempting, but no one wants to be t...

Full article: http://baristing.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-education-platfo...