With Cafes reopening, customers with mask exemptions are often faced with mistrust and made to feel irresponsible for not wearing one. Constantly having to justify why they are not wearing one in addition to having to cope with potential health problems, can result in a hostile visitor. Yet Cafe owners/managers who take their word or assume they are doing the right thing could face huge fines and are not allowed to demand proof of the exemption. So how is this best approached?
As a Cafe owner/manager, you have the right to choose not to risk getting the fine based on their word. We recommend leading with an assumption of innocence in letting maskless customers know that you ‘understand they may have an exemption and that they are not obligated to share proof of this’. This can help lower their guard. Explaining that as a business, you are unable to risk a fine without proof but could offer an alternative such as bringing it out to them, could make a big difference. It shows empathy and a willingness to help whilst politely declining to serve them otherwise. We have seen regular customers of many years become disgruntled enough from being asked to wear a mask or show proof, that they went out of their way to leave a bad review. It simply is not worth it.
When you often serve hundreds of people a week and do a wonderful job at it, it can be incredibly discouraging to receive a negative review. Particularly if most of the happy people do not put in the effort to leave a positive one. The bad one sticks out like a sore thumb.
Want to know how you can turn a negative review into a positive experience for the reader? Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest tips!
