While many companies call their best customers "Platinum", "Gold", or some other euphemism for "VIP", I have always believed that the biggest compliment you can give to a customer is to call them a "Regular" and get them what they want before they ask. It's a great feeling walking into a favorite haunt, having the employees acknowledge you, and you order "the Usual".

My Sunday mornings are extremely routine. Sunday New York Times and a local greasy spoon for scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, coffee, and wheat toast. Call me picky, but I prefer strawberry jelly or jam with my wheat toast. Strawberry must be the most popular jelly since I have noticed many restaurants try to pass off the "mixed fruit" or grape jellies since they probably have pallets of them in the back. So after asking for strawberry jelly for 4-6 Sundays in a row, they noticed, and now they bring me strawberry without asking. For that, I come back, I tip well, and I am very low maintenance (I never complain, I don't take a coffee refill, and I leave my paper for other customers).

But since I am neurotic, there is one thing that would make breakfast a little bit better. Since I always eat the bacon, eggs, & hash browns first, the toast is always cold by the time I get to it. I am torn as to whether I should ask them to bring the toast later. If I do, I would do it every week until they just knew I'd prefer my toast brought later. So...does that ruin all the goodwill I've created by being an easy, regular customer? Or is that precisely the kind of service that causes a customer to become a Regular?

More importantly, am I becoming Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets?