I paid £4.75 for a coffee – or did I?

The setting was the Hilton Bristol yesterday morning. Well, the answer is “yes and no”. Yes because:

1. I have a small bucket of cappuccino before me

2. I’m going to drink it

3. I just handed over a £5 note and was given 25p change

No because:

1. 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

2. 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

3. I’m sat comfortably, on-line, warm and happy as I work

4. 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.