The 4 C's Of Coffee Shop Success
Posted on: 8 May 2015
Given the staggering popularity of coffee as a beverage all over the world, opening your very own coffee shop might seem like a reasonable business idea if you have both the capital and the know-how behind you. Yet, regardless of the amount of resources available, any self-starter can benefit from a few helpful tips. Listed here are the 4 C's that can help lead to coffee shop success.
1. Consistent Class
Splashing out on the finest coffee-making appliances makes every bit of difference for coffee shops, and you should never be afraid to invest in the best. Spend a good amount of time making your own appliances look clean and shiny before and after the working day.
However, remember that the best appliances aren't necessarily the latest appliances. New isn't always better, and it's important to shop around to see which appliances offer the very best product. Keep yourself updated on the tech in your industry, but don't base your entire business idea on something that's flavour of the month. Classic filter coffee always sells, so make sure you have a machine that can produce it to a high standard.
There's no absolute guarantee for business success, and every potential new coffee shop owner needs an element of luck when it comes to getting an establishment started, but purchasing high-class, good-quality appliances gives your coffee shop a fighting chance at the very least. Resources like Coffee Tech can help.
2. Culture
When it comes to running a coffee shop, it's important to establish a rich sense of culture from the off that will eventually come to represent your business' very own USP. Coffee shops differentiate to restaurants and fast-food chains in how they often become part of a person's typical morning, afternoon or evening routine.
Eating out at a restaurant is often a specifically arranged occasion, whereas visiting a coffee shop is something that people often do every single day. By creating a warm, friendly environment in your coffee shop, you'll come to receive regular customers who squeeze in a visit as part of their daily schedule.
Your store can come to act as a pleasant retreat for many working people. Coffee shops often involve a heavy amount of customer-staff interaction, and as a result it is often the employees in these types of stores that play a key in role in making customers return. Create a friendly culture in your coffee shop by hiring staff who are great with people and who will make a real effort with your regular customers, and introduce loyalty cards so that your frequent flyers receive a rewards for their continued service.
3. Convenience
For the greatest chance of success, your coffee shop needs to be designed so that everything is convenient for both staff and customers. A terrific amount of work goes on behind a coffee shop counter and it is vital to ensure that every staff member has all the necessary barista coffee equipment close to hand when working and that there is enough space to operate in.
Assign specific locations for particular equipment, and get staff to repeatedly practice putting working tools back in their rightful place after they've finished using them. Also, try to minimise the space between the coffee station and the serving counter as best you can. This does wonders for efficiency, and creating a convenient working environment for staff allows them to flourish without getting flustered.
It's also important to make sure everything is convenient for the customer too. This can come down to something as simple as where the queue begins. For example, any store that asks its customers to push up against décor or stretch around through the door is always going to drive people away. Take a good long look at where your customers can queue, both before they have placed their order, and afterwards when they are waiting for their order to be completed.
4. Carryout
It may be tempting to turn your coffee shop into a snug, internet-friendly hub that offers charging stations and access to to the WiFi but this might not be the best way to boost your income. Plus, customers who come in to use Wi-Fi services may occupy spaces in your shop for hours and buy no more than one cup of coffee during their entire visit.
Installing some seats is certainly encouraged, and the décor of your shop is undoubtedly important, but it is seriously worth considering sculpting your coffee shop image into that of a carryout store. This allows customers to come and go quickly, encouraging high turnover, stimulating larger profits, and promoting your company image as one which delivers fast, efficient, and professional customer service.
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