We’re so good at making coffee right now.

Each and every year we’re seeing huge advancements in the quality and consistency of coffee. Improvements made in brewing techniques, the tools we use and even in roasting have caused this wave of unbelievable coffee – and let me tell you I’m in love – but there’s a problem. A missing ingredient if you will. Service

Too often I hear consumers unhappy or uncomfortable with a coffee shop that serves great coffee over customer service issues. I hate to say it but sometimes specialty coffee comes off as unapproachable… especially when paired with poor service. Now don’t get me wrong, these venues with an utter devotion to specialty coffee are great for the industry BUT – with so much energy placed on the cup it becomes easy to forget why we’re all here in the first place – the customer.  Service needs to be considered as intrinsic to a good coffee as our beans, technique or equipment.

Good coffee definitely keeps our customers happy but good coffee AND great relationships will keep them coming back. Now I’m sure you’re saying “This is all good and well but how can I make the change?”

Everyone will have their own ideas about how this might happen. Here are a few tips to get you started.  

Back to Basics: Make the basics a priority. Sounds obvious I know but maybe this is really the best way to get started. Every customer must be greeted as they enter. Ask them how they’re going today. How can I help you? I’ll be with you shortly (if you can’t serve them right away). We all know these basics but it’s amazing how many venues I walk into that don’t executed on these consistently. Surely, it is not for lack of knowledge of the basics.  If that is the case, then it must be for lack of seeing this as a priority. If you don’t make it important your staff won’t see it as important. These simple things when done well have a huge impact on how customers view their experience, even some of the biggest blunders (long wait times or a wrong order) can be overcome when good customer service is employed. This is powerful stuff people!

Different Customers Have Different Needs: Perfect Daily Grind wrote a great article about this concept last month. It’s easy to think that being bright and bubbly all the time is perfect customer service. Thinking this way is misunderstanding the meaning of service. Service is meeting someone’s needs. People buy coffee at all sorts of times in their life, not just when they’re happy. So sometimes our customers might not need us to be bright and bubbly. Viviana Cruz from Perfect Daily Grind puts it like this “Responding to our customers’ individual needs and quirks to the best of our abilities, while balancing the rest of our workload, is key to outstanding service – without good service, consumers won’t drink our coffee, they won’t enjoy our coffee and they won’t be open to learning more about coffee.”

Create a system that allows this to happen: It’s no good knowing all of the above if your cafe and your systems aren’t set up to take any of it on board. Make sure you include the basic elements of customer service into the training for new staff and put measures in place to make sure your current staff are doing it consistently. As well as this have a think about how your cafe layout plays a part in the customer service. Is it easy for baristas and customers to have a conversation while their coffee is being made? A little change to help customers and staff connect easier could be the difference maker.

Good service is requires hard work and it is relentless – no question – one slip can kill you with a particular customer.   It’s all about combining great products with awareness and attention to detail of your customers’ needs. Like some of the greatest bartenders of all time, baristas need to understand that the coffee experience starts long before the grinder is turned on. You need to believe in it all day everyday.

Above was a few of our tips and suggestions.  Tell us what you think.