Just walked in to the Institute of Directors on Pall Mall with 3 colleagues. Unfortunately their expresso machine is not working so no Café Latte, Café Cappucino or Hot chocolates.  Not the best start to the day. So to add some humour to the situation, I suggested we get a couple of coffees from the Café Nero or Pret a Manager next door. I was politely and firmly told that I could not bring anything in from outside.

Rules are rules.

But not according to an article on the IOD website title An awkward customer in the section Business Information and Advice > Marketing & Sales >  "If what the customer wants is actually reasonable, you will have gained a valuable insight into your marketplace. Small businesses don't typically have customer satisfaction surveys because they can't afford it. Customer complaints are a great source of information for improving your service."

So a bad situation got worse due to the attitude of the staff.

So how could this have been resolved? In order of outstanding customer service….

-    They could have offered to have got the coffees for us from Café Nero, charged us and put them in IOD cups
-    Less customer-centric, but still acceptable, we could have got the coffees ourselves from Café Nero, and they put it in IOD cups
-    We go somewhere else…   Where?

Obviously Café Nero which has friendly staff with a sense of humour, working expresso machines, cheaper cofee and free wifi.   So what exactly was the IOD membership for?