Customers impression of your business is going to be filtered through the lens of their past experiences in coffee. Unfortunately that is too often a bad thing and the memory of bad experiences far outlasts the memory of a good one. Today we…
To be successful in retail coffee today you need to be able to give your time and attention to the things that will truly make a difference. The standards for what makes a truly great and sustainable shop is as high as it has ever been. Today we are going to be talking about five areas that are critical …
It is easy to be so focused on comparing yourself and your business to what you see in the industry that you end up ignoring your customers and the community your shop serves. Today we are chatting about this all to common mentality and what it looks…
This is absolutely critical! One of cornerstones of running a coffee bar is the ability to stay in tune with the performance of the people that work in it. Having a system for tracking behavior that is either praise worthy or in need of correction is a must. Many shops that just shoot from the hip when it comes to …
The Indian specialty coffee market is growing by leaps and bounds. Today’s guests Matt Chitharanjan and Namrata Asthana and their company, Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, are part of the reason why Indian people are switching from instant and drink more amazing Indian coffee at home and in cafes. From humble beginnings working shoulder-to-shoulder packaging their roasted coffee in a home’s 2 spare rooms – …
Which one best describes how staff react to your presence in the cafe? The problem is that, no matter what, management will always be seen in a different light than a barista. The authority managers carry creates a certain tension and that tension…
What you have on your shelf is of the utmost importance. Tracking it and evaluating its performance is key to being able to make good decisions that will increase the health of your business. Unfortunately we in coffee tend to rely on either our own personal knowledge of what we can see on our shelves or on very rudimentary …
Being self-aware is over-rated. Why? Because without action following it up, self-awareness becomes useless and quickly creates a situation where we seek scoring status points for being aware and then never do anything about it the thing we are aware…
The design of your shop communicates the level of care you have for your customer and the community. Crafting the details of your space to evoke a sense of connection to place and a feeling of hospitality that matches the quality is absolutely critical. Today we are going to learn about the specific physical and social dynamics that guests …
We communicate either care or apathy depending on how we conduct ourselves on the bar. The way we expertly handle all the work necessary to provide a great experience in the cafe is by nurturing a sense of urgency in all we do. This means the…
