Rude customers are a normal part of any employee’s day. And while employees should always try to accommodate reasonable requests from customers, they should draw the line when it comes to rude customers. One coffee shop owner in Virginia decided to do something about this problem.

Rude customers are sadly common

Austin Simms, the owner of Cups Coffee and Tea in Roanoke, Virginia, came up with the perfect solution for rude customers. The reason for his unique move was to ensure that his employees got the respect that they deserved. Making a new price list, Simms posted it outside his coffee shop.

Trying to change attitudes, one customer at a time

Simms came up with the idea after he noticed the lack of respect that some of his customers seemed to have for the employees at his business. But his aim was not to penalize his rude customers. There was no reason for that. What he did was simply reward nice customers.

A brilliant, yet effective idea

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Here is how it worked. For nice customers, the discount was $2.00. Pretty good for a cup of coffee which can be quite expensive depending on where you get it. Normally, in and of itself that discount alone would have been good enough. All a customer had to do was use the word please to get it.

But Simms took it a step further.

Rewarded for being nice

For truly nice customers, or those who said, “Hello, I’d like one small coffee please,” the price for a cup of coffee dropped to $1.75. That’s a really good price considering that normally a cup of coffee at Cups Coffee and Tea goes for about $5.

“I decided because I need to solve all the injustices of the world, to start charging more for people who didn’t take the time to say hello and connect and realize we’re all people behind the counter,” Simms told WDBJ7.

A win-win for everyone involved

This allowed Simms’ shop to continue to serve his customers faithfully, while still rewarding the nice customers. Plus, now his employees were getting the respect that they all deserved. A win-win for everyone, and all for just a little common courtesy.

The thing about being nice is it doesn’t cost a penny and can usually make someone’s day even better. It is Simms’ hope that his unique approach to rude customers will teach them that being nice comes with its own rewards.

For more on Simms’ unique approach to rude customers at his business, check out the video below.

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Sources: YouTube- Top 10 Daily News, WDBJ7