One of our relatives was in town last weekend, so we decided to meet up with her for coffee. Most of the places that I’d normally grab a coffee close by 3 pm on Saturday and Sunday, so our late-afternoon meeting time meant that I had to pick a different venue than usual.

I remembered that a new Mexican restaurant in my neighborhood has a coffee shop on one side of their space, and they stay open until 10 pm or so. We decided to give it a try, and sure enough, the coffee was great and everyone had a nice time.

One thing struck me as odd, though. The coffee bar wasn’t separated from the main dining area at all, yet the staff acted a bit weird when we asked where we could sit. Apparently, the coffee shop section was designed mainly for take-out, with a tiny bar counter as an afterthought. Since the restaurant wasn’t that busy, they let us sit in the main dining room, but I kept feeling like they could do a lot more with the two seemingly separate sides of the venue.

For instance, why not offer a 10% discount on dinner to anyone who comes in for a coffee and may want to stick around for a full meal? Or, how about describing one of the featured menu items from the restaurant on the coffee shop receipt or via a separate handout?

Either way, if you’ve got customers coming in and only purchasing from one part of your establishment, it makes sense to use those interactions to cross-sell them on your other offerings. Even if only a few feet separates one part of your venue from another, a little encouragement can go a long way towards motivating customers to try new products and services that they would otherwise breeze by during their daily routines.