Coffee Shop Management – Page 2 – Coffee Shop Answers

Customer experience is a major part of any business’ success. You can have the best products on offer in the business, but if your customer experience is lacking, you will gain a reputation for being hard to work with or for not being interested in your customers’ happiness. This is a fate that every business should avoid at all costs. If you own a coffee shop, you know how busy your daily workflow can be. It can be hard to catch up with each customer that you have taken care of on any given day, but you should try to make sure that you are aware of customer satisfaction despite this. There are some really easy-to-implement strategies that will make sure that your customers love every visit and interaction that they have with your coffee shop. If you are ready to learn more about the ways that you can improve your coffee shop customer experience, read on! How to Improve Your Coffee Shop Customer Experience 1. Be Kind and Upbeat People come to get their coffee to get their day started out on the right foot, or they might be dropping by to get a little pick me up in the middle of a tough day. Being cheerful and inviting is important when engaging with customers. This is one of the key factors that make many successful coffee shops stand out from other businesses. You need to strike a good balance between too friendly and surly, and this can be a good place to focus some training efforts for your team. Being able to engage in a happy way with a customer who is in a bad mood can be a challenge, but being kind and upbeat can help break them out of their funk. These people will leave your coffee shop in a better mood almost every time! Some great examples of the right attitude to bring with you to your customer interactions can be found here! 2. Engage With Customers in Fun Ways Offering doggy biscuits to pups in cars or having fun trinkets for kids in the cars that come through the drive-through can cement your reputation as a fun coffee shop that cares about its customers. You will love the surprised and happy reactions that your customers give you when they find out that these items are on offer and both kids and dogs will be begging to come back for more treats and fun later! There are many ways to offer fun incentives to visit, but these are the most common ones. You can also have fun little gizmos and gadgets for adults who come through the line as well! 3. Make Customers Feel Like Family Everyone loves to frequent shops and stores that remember them and remember their order and preferences. While it might take a few visits to make this possible for repeat customers, your team can treat everyone like they are friends and family. This might take the form of remembering any order or just simply being conversational and friendly while serving someone. Being able to feel comfortable in a store is a very important part of the customer experience. No one ever forgets stores with a great atmosphere and you want to be sure that you have this in spades. 4. Fix Mistakes Right Away The customer is always right! Even if you are sure that you made the drink they ordered correctly, if they are not happy with it, you will need to make it again. Just smile and apologize and do it over. This is the best way to attend to an issue with a drink, even if it is not your fault. You can also coach your team in ways to ask questions to get at the heart of the complaint. Sometimes people think they are asking for a certain kind of drink and they really want something else. Not every coffee shop makes things the same way, so you may need to ask a few questions to find out what it really wanted. 5. Reward Frequent Visitors Having a loyalty program is essential to any successful coffee shop. You want to be sure that your frequent visitors have a reason to come back to see you, and a loyalty program is a great bonus when you add it to your wonderful customer service experience. People love to have rewards for drinking a set number of cups of coffee and you can make this program as complex or as simple as you wish. There is no need to overwhelm yourself with a huge loyalty program if you don’t want to. Keep it simple or make it extravagant. The choice is up to you! 6. Boost Your Customer’s Experience by Offering Recommendations Believe it or not, a lot of people are not sure what the many kinds of coffee drinks are. You might find that many people just order something safe that they know they will like because they are worried about asking for help choosing a new coffee favorite. You can help people branch out by mentioning that you have a new drink type on the menu or offering small samples of something that people may not have tried. Being able to help your customers to discover new favorites will make them feel like they can trust you and will help them to enjoy a variety of options that you have on your menu. 7. Be Willing to Stay Late People get very frustrated when they walk up to a shop that is closing and is told they cannot be serviced. You can avoid this issue by having a few options on hand as you close for the day so that people who arrive late in need of coffee can still get a drink that helps them get through their evening. You might not be able to provide this service if the person shows up just as the doors are being locked, but offering up caring service as you are sweeping and washing dishes. People will be appreciative of your efforts on their behalf and you will net some extra cash for the day as well. 8. Provide Table Service There is nothing that is more awkward than having to get up from our table to come to get a pastry or a new drink that you have ordered. People waiting in line for to-go orders always think you are cutting the line and you will have to dodge through people just to get your drink or food. Make this process less uncomfortable for everyone by providing table service to people sitting down in your shop. This makes everyone in line much happier and it makes those sitting at tables enjoy their time in your shop that much more as well. You will find that this works out to be easier for your staff as well, saving them from having to shout out orders to people sitting in the room. 9. Offer Drinks on the House to Customers for Top-Notch Service If someone is really not sure what to order and they seem uncomfortable with the choices on your menu for some reason, offer them a free drink on you. You can tell them that the drink is very popular and describe it to them so they know what they are getting. Offer the drink for free and tell them what the name of it is. You will find that many people will return over and over again for the drink that you encouraged them to try and they will feel much more comfortable with you and your team due to your efforts. You can offer free drinks for kids that are with parents who seem frazzled as well. These kinds of acknowledgments of people’s need for a little extra caring attention can make for loyal customers. 10. Have Themed Days Everyone loves an excuse to come into their favorite coffee shop, and a themed day can make it a lot of fun for people to come in and visit you. You can do BOGO days, pet days, kids drink for free, or even themed drink days. These kinds of fun days can encourage increased traffic to your drive-through as well as in-store traffic. You will love people’s excitement and it can be a great excuse for your team to dress up and have some fun while they are working as well. 11. Offer New Blends and Drinks at a Discount Every time that you create a new drink or bring in a new blend of coffee, you can offer these new blends at a discount so that people will fall in love with these new drinks and coffees with very little encouragement. This is a great way to make sure that your customers are loyal to you because you will offer them new flavors and new favorite drinks at a reasonable price. These kinds of improvements to your menu will help keep things fresh and make new people excited to try your new drinks as well. 12. Improve their Experience by Chatting With Customers About Coffee Processes Being willing to show customers how things work behind the counter can help to build loyalty and make people feel connected to buying from your shop. Showing people how coffee is made and how drinks are mixed, you can engage with them about the process of making and enjoying coffee in a more direct way. People love to know more about how things are made, so you will be locking in their interest with this effort on your part. This is a great way to engage with people who like to ask about the products they are consuming and it might make them interested in trying new things based on your advice. 13. Teach Brewing at Home If you want people to love your coffee grounds and enjoy them fully at home, you need to teach them to make the best brewing choices. You can show your customers how to create the perfect cup of coffee at home to improve upon your already excellent coffee grounds. Teaching people to make the most of their coffee at home will make them even more loyal to your shop and you will find that you will sell more coffee grounds if you make it easier for people to love the coffee that they make at home. 14. Hold Workshops to Your Coffee Shop Customers to Provide Great Service You can hold events that teach people to make coffee at home or to create their own favorite drink creations at home. You can also hold events where customers learn about coffee making and coffee flavors. Many people love to take these classes and the process of sharing information about coffee can be fun for everyone. You will love being able to attract new people into your coffee shop with these events and you can offer tastings and free treats and snacks at the same time as part of the event. 15. Let Customers Vote on Drinks You can host events or coffee days where you let your customers try new drinks and decide which ones they like best. Being able to vote on the new drinks that will be added to the menu can be a lot of fun for your customers and you can make a great one- or two-day event out of this process. This is a great way to taste test new ideas and also to create some excitement about your shop. You can add additional benefits to this tasting process for your loyalty members by offering them these drinks after they are added to the menu for a discount over a set period of time. 16. Include Treats With a Coffee You can offer yummy little snacks with each coffee as a thank you to customers. This might be a small bag of coffee beans or maybe a little cookie. You can offer these little treats for most of the year and then have seasonal offerings on the menu for Christmas and Thanksgiving. You can make as many special treat offerings as you would like throughout the year and people will love getting the added little snack as a bonus when they get their coffee each day. These are affordable ways to make people love your coffee more and remember you for their next coffee stop. 17. Provide Complimentary Water Alongside Coffee for Awesome Customer Service Coffee can make you thirsty, and some people who are coming by your shop will be on the go all day. Offer up small-size complimentary water that people can take with their order. Make sure that you show that this is an option clearly so that people can take advantage of these benefits! There is nothing nicer than being able to eat and drink in comfort, and you can offer up this little bonus to your customers by giving them some water to keep with them as they move through their busy mornings or afternoons. If you want to make this even more exciting, make the water sparkling water! 18. Offer Espresso in the Traditional Style People love espresso and there are not many coffee shops in the US that offer it in the way that Italy does. You can make this one of your unique customer service offerings that will bring people back over and over again for this little quick pick me up! Offer an espresso bar with pretty serving cups and make people their on-the-go espresso that they can sip quickly before they head out. This is a great option to put on a sandwich board outside or you can even move the bar outside in nice weather for a really fun way to pull in people off the street. 19. Make the Menu Better Having a colorful and exciting menu can seem like it will draw people in, but everyone needs to be able to read your menu easily on the fly and pick what they want to have. The more overwhelming your menu, the more likely people are to visit once and stop coming to see you. Make your menu easy to read and easy to understand and people will thank you for it. No one who is in need of their first cup of coffee for the day wants to struggle to read the menu! 20. Leverage Social Media Social media can be a great way to engage with new customers and to reward loyal customers with little giveaways, fun photo ops, and other great outreach. Social media pages can drive a lot of interest in your business and can make people feel connected to your shop as a place that they feel bonded to. Give people a snack when they come in after they have followed your site, or host local events and advertise them on your social media pages. People will love being able to stay in touch with you even when they are not in your shop and social media makes this effortless. Great Coffee Shop Customer Service is About Kindness and Attention to Detail At the end of the day, having a good public image for your coffee shop is mostly about making sure that you show that you care about your customers as people and making yourself user-friendly. You want to be sure that everyone enjoys time spent in your shop and that they feel like your shop reflects their values and their interests. Taking the time to engage with and actively care about your customers will make all the difference in your coffee shop’s customer experience.