The setting was the Hilton Bristol yesterday morning.
Well, the answer is “yes and no”.
Yes because:
- I have a small bucket of cappuccino before me
- I’m going to drink it
- I just handed over a £5 note and was given 25p change
No because:
- I’m enjoying it in the guest lounge at the Hilton Bristol, surrounded by business-people and not Gordano services on the M5, surrounded by chavs, emmetts, Saga tours, teachers and engineers
- The waitress who served me asked me how my morning was going, smiled, offered additional cakes and pastries, used my name, was dressed nicely, brought the beverage to my table
- I’m sat comfortably, on-line, warm and happy as I work
- It’s a Costa Coffee, in a branded cup and to the “standard” I expect – it tastes consistently nice and I trust them to deliver a good brew everywhere I go
In other words – its a “branded experience” (I’ve written about this all year) in a nice environment, delivered by nice people.
99 pence for the coffee
£3.76 for the “experience”.
And there are plenty of other people around me prepared to pay.
If you want to maintain and increase your prices – provide your patients/clients with a branded experience.