“Have a seat at a table, we’ll bring it out to you.”
The service at Autumn Rooms in Newcastle is impeccable. The tables are full most mornings, and definitely on the weekend.
They’ve been showing up with great food and excellent service – they know their customer, and it shows.
Occasionally though, I’ll grab a take-away.
On the back end, “dining in” is a more costly experience. While “take-away” can set them back the cost of a recycled tray, dining in requires the real-estate itself, additional staff and wages, dish cleaning and more.
When we compare to take away, the “dining in” part of the experience is given to us for free. Order your food, and you can enjoy this nice atmosphere here to eat it.
I don’t have to pay extra to enjoy their space and facility to eat. They provide water, ammenities, even salt, pepper and a few different kinds of sugar for my coffee.
All free.
So businesses have been integrating a “free” component for a long time. It’s a little grey in the case of the cafe as we’ve come to expect it as part of what it means to be a restaurant, but is far clearer in many digital products or services, where the base case option is usually free.
As a consumer, “free” is wonderful. It’s frictionless, I don’t need my wallet, I can refer it to a friend without tension.
As a creator, “free” is even better. It’s generous, and can help build both attention and trust for your work or project.
A posture of generosity always comes back around, and “free” is the perfect example.
What can you start to create for free?
*The concept of FREE was popularised by Chris Anderson.
