✎ serving_customers [Red Shade Games Wiki]

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====== Introduction ======

Serving customers is the liveblood of [[Bar Tycoon]]. It involves strategy, resources(your products in your inventory), your drink menu and a bit of luck as to how the customer will respond to your chosen drink. 

====== Sample Top Customer Data ======

{{ :ss_servingcustomersa.jpg |}}

====== Customer Area Breakdown ======

===== Name =====

The customer name is displayed first in the table. The name of the customer has no impact on gameplay but is for your record.

===== Customer Finances =====

Customers have a certain amount of money they will spend. How much money they have makes them LESS picky about the specific drinks they order. Example : Someone with $100 will be more likely to part with $5 for a drink they dislike than someone with $10. Finances also control how much a customer can spend maximum on a drink. That dram of expensive scotch might be out of the price range of some customers.

===== Customer Traits =====

Traits determine various modifiers to the customer. Many of them are explained in the Bartender Glossary menu in the Customers area. Your most important customer are CRITICS so be VERY AWARE of them!

===== Alcohol Tolerance =====

Alcohol determines how strong of drinks the customer can tolerate. Serving drinks ABOVE tolerance will hurt the actual score of the drink and in some cases, the customer will not even order the drink if the alcohol content is too high. The tolerance is based upon the preferred drinks.

===== Preferred Drinks =====

This section lists drinks that the customer is familiar with and has a positive opinion of. It is useful because it breaks down various ingredients that the customer prefers. These are **NOT ALWAYS** the best drink to serve a customer - their new favorite drink might be the one you have at your bar! Core ingredients like Wine or Beer can give hints on many potential drinks to serve the customer at once. It is not expected you serve the drinks a customer prefers - it is only meant as a guide.

===== Product Research =====

These are the general ingredients a customer prefers and impacts the maximum score of a served drink. You can add more to this list by using the Taste Test action.

====== Same Bottom Customer Data and Actions ======

{{ :ss_bottomcustomer.jpg |}}

===== Actions =====

==== Taste Test ====

Taste testing allows you to get additional information on ingredients WITHOUT risking the customer leaving the bar(the more conventional method of finding ingredient preference). You are allowed only 5 taste tests per shift and with 10 customers - that can go really quick! Saving taste testing for critics is generally recommended.

==== Next Customer ====

When you click this button - you collect the accumulated season points of Critic Customers(based upon all drinks served). This also grants 5 production points for ALL customers so it is better to click this button than lose a customer due to an "F graded" drink in most cases. Be very careful to use this when you have served the Critic and you want to actually see your season points improve!

===== Serve a Drink =====

The last piece of the puzzle. Serving drinks is a large part of what you do - and thankfully there is many tools to make the correct choices. IN the above example screenshot, you can see that Pilsner Beer - although a weekly promotional item - is a poor choice for this customer. Below all of the drinks you are able to serve and have bookmarked, you can see the customer's preference of the ingredient. 

{{ :ss_serve2.jpg |}}

On the next screen - you will be prompted to choose the ingredients for your drink. This is useful in varying rarity of ingredients, balancing the price of the drink and in some cases even the ABV%.

==== Estimated Scoring Screen ====

{{ :ss_estimatedscoring.jpg |}}

The estimated scoring screen is the bread and butter of knowing the results of your drink BEFORE you serve it. 

Both accumulated player skill and ingredient rarity determines the lower end of a recipe score roll. 

Production value is based upon the cost of all ingredients involved with the drink. In some cases, these may be beyond what a customer wants to pay.

If a customer will buy your drink - you will see a link that reads "Customer will buy this drink - CLICK TO SELL". This is the last step confirming the actual process.

"On the house" drinks - choosing this option, you will generate 50% Tycoon Points but NO Production Points. Because the customer is not paying, the drink is automatically ranked as an "A" but with too bad of a tasting experience, the customer may still leave. On the house drinks do NOT count towards Season Points.

==== Final Drink Serving ====

{{ :ss_aftermath.jpg |}}

Once you have confirmed your drink after estimated scoring, you can now see the results of your service and customer's response.

Recipe score is a large part in determining how much a customer actually likes the drink choice. 

The using products tab shows which products were used in the creation of the served drink and the remaining ounces/milliliters.

Your drink score is mainly used in seasons to determine your overall season points and weekly points. Only critic customers are important when it comes to this stat but it is useful nonetheless for seeing where certain drinks are score-wise.

When selling a drink - the cost of the drink is converted into production points. Tycoon points, on the otherhand, largely involves the customer's experience and their willingness to spread the word about your establishment. Then screenshot above shows that this customer did not like their "Glass of Full Rich White Wine" and left the bar with an "F" grade. If this was a critic - we would not get any points saved up from previous drinks if this happened.

The last row of the table shows the current numbers of production points, tycoon points and remaining customers for this shift.