Why Is Cash Payment at Luckin Coffee Still an Issue?

Consumers report that Luckin Coffee staff steer them toward mobile ordering and accept cash only after delays, with one customer waiting seven or eight minutes before another employee took the cash and placed the order on their behalf. Luckin's customer service says stores do accept cash and that staff can help customers order through the APP mini-program and pay in cash afterward.

The complaints recall earlier reports of an elderly customer stranded at the counter by unfamiliar mobile ordering. Analysts link the friction to Luckin's model of small stores with few staff and no dedicated order takers, a design built for efficiency. The company has not announced a change to the policy, though service awareness remains the stated room for improvement.

Recently, some consumers have reported encountering inconvenience when using cash to pay at Luckin Coffee stores, where staff repeatedly steered them toward ordering via mobile phone, and only after a long wait did another employee accept the cash and place the order on their behalf. Similar situations have been mentioned by netizens before, with one elderly customer left at a loss in front of the counter because they were unfamiliar with mobile ordering. In response to the difficulty of paying with cash, Luckin's official customer service said that stores can accept cash, and after customers arrive at the store, staff can assist them in placing an order through the APP mini-program, and they can pay in cash once the information is confirmed. Some analysts believe that Luckin's operation model of small stores and few staff, with no dedicated order-taking personnel, is out of consideration for efficiency, but there is still room for improvement in service awareness.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Recently, a netizen shared on social media their experience of paying with cash at Luckin Coffee. The netizen said they wanted to pay in cash, but the staff kept persuading them to place the order via mobile phone, and explained that if they insisted on paying in cash, they would have to wait because the store was quite busy at the time. After waiting for about seven or eight minutes, the netizen's friend, who was in a hurry, suggested placing the order, but the staff still recommended ordering via mobile phone.

Faced with the staff repeatedly recommending mobile ordering while being reluctant to accept cash, the netizen expressed dissatisfaction and asked whether there was a rule prohibiting cash acceptance. Only then did another staff member come out of the office, accept the cash, and help the netizen complete the order using a mobile phone. The netizen therefore raised questions about Luckin Coffee: whether the store simply had no ordering device, or whether cash was prohibited.

In fact, discussions about the inconvenience of cash payment at Luckin stores are not new. Earlier, a netizen posted that an elderly man had trouble at the counter when buying coffee at Luckin because he did not know how to order via mobile phone. According to the post, the elderly man saw several cups of coffee placed in the pickup area and wanted to buy one. After the staff told him he needed to scan a code with his mobile phone to place an order, they turned around and went to make drinks.

The elderly man walked around but still did not know how to operate it, so he had to ask how much a cup of coffee cost. At that point, another server told him that the prices varied, and after the elderly man made his choice, the server picked up a mobile phone and helped him place the order.

The netizen mentioned that many Luckin stores have also opened in third- and fourth-tier cities, all using mobile ordering, and that they themselves had never ordered at the counter, so they asked: Is Luckin the only one without counter ordering?

At the time, Luckin's official side did not respond to the matter. However, in the comments section, many employees working at Luckin said that staff can actually use their mobile phones to help customers place orders and accept cash, that this is part of their job, though there is no discounted price. If customers are willing to accept this, most employees are still happy to help.

Some netizens were not convinced by this explanation. They pointed out that although many chain restaurants are also promoting mobile ordering, they still keep ordering machines to provide consumers with staffed ordering service, which is a basic requirement of the service industry and should be done no matter how busy they are.

Regarding this issue of difficulty paying with cash, official customer service responded to the media, saying: Cash payment is allowed. After customers arrive at the store, store partners can assist them in placing an order through the APP mini-program. After confirming that the order information is correct, they can simply give the cash to the store. Online ordering is mainly for the convenience of after-sales service, so that any problems can be handled promptly.

As for Luckin stores not offering staffed ordering, some analysts believe this is the result of Luckin's pursuit of maximum efficiency. Luckin's store design adopts an operation model of small stores plus few staff, so there is no need to arrange dedicated personnel to provide staffed ordering. This saves labor costs and also safeguards its low-price strategy.

But saving is saving; when providing staffed ordering service, the training process still needs to strengthen service awareness among all employees. In this incident, cash payment was ultimately accepted, and the customer was also willing to accept the fact that paying in cash came with no discount, so it would have been better to solve the problem directly from the start instead of making the customer spend time waiting. The time employees spent repeatedly making suggestions was actually already enough to resolve the issue. Image source: Internet, Boss Broadcast

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.