452: Championing the Customer Experience in Coffee w/ 3x SA Barista Champion, Winston Douglas Thomas of Cedar Coffee

Chris DeferioBarista Craft, Hospitality, Podcast

The world of professional specialty coffee can be both inspiring and intimidating with many customers and new baristas feeling lost in the mix of rules, methods, and information. How can we create a great experience for guests and staff who all really want to enjoy coffee and find their place in it? Today we get to learn from the story …

433: Winning Staff and Customer Loyalty

Chris DeferioBusiness, Hospitality, Leadership, Management, Podcast

How do I find loyal staff and win loyal customers? This question and many like it has been asked thousands of times as we deal with incredible amounts of turn over in our shops. We have tried tricks, incentives, benefits of all kinds but they never seem to quite do the trick. Same with customers, we offer deal, discounts, and …

382 : Hospitality, Innovation, and the Birth of a Brewer w/ Etkin Design Co-founders, Michael Butterworth and Özgür Jerdan.

Chris DeferioCoffee Tech, Hospitality, Podcast

Innovation in the coffee industry is no longer just about large companies tweaking their standard equipment, but it is becoming democratized through small companies bringing their ideas to market through networking, research, and good old fashioned hard work. Today we are going to be talking with 2 of the 3 founders of one such company who sought to create the …

344 : From Fine Dining, to Coffee w/ Nicolas Simon of El Condor Coffee Roasters

Chris DeferioBusiness, Hospitality, Podcast, Uncategorized

Our industry is one focused on creating memorable experiences for guests of our shops. Being detail oriented is part of our hospitality to people because we know that when all those little things come together, they deliver a real impact. This is what driven today’s guest throughout his illustrious career working for some of the worlds most prestigious hotels and …

340 : Encore Episode of “10 Reasons to Love the Customer”!

Chris DeferioHospitality, Podcast

It is the 5 year anniversary of episode #19 titled “10 Reasons to Love the Customer”! Coffee professionals tend to pit themselves against the customer as and us vs them battle. The original episode in 2017 was inspired by a magazine article about what baristas hate about customers. This mentality does not good for anyone and because we easily fall …

334 : How to Approach Deescalation w/ Melissa Tucker of Mind Over Matters and Pathways to Peace

Chris DeferioBusiness, Hospitality, Leadership, Podcast

Working in customer a customer facing environment like a coffee shop means that we get to serve and experience all different types of people in the course fo the day. While so many of our interaction are within the expected range of emotions, there are times where things get pretty tense and situations escalate past where we are comfortable. What …