Your cafe should be a unique space, offering genuine human connection, delicious flavours, and gracious, articulate service.
To drive growth in a hospitality business, it’s important to aspire to make people feel comfortable from the moment they enter your space. This should be effortless and is driven by a considered combination of spatial design and good, attentive service.
While each cafe is different, there are three key areas to focus on when determining the kind of experience you want to build for your customers.
Customer Touchpoints
Walk through and experience your space through the eyes of a new customer. From arrival and ordering to delivery and exit. Focus on the atmosphere and how the space makes you feel. The café flow should be clear as soon as you walk in the door. It’s the little things that make up a much bigger picture, building brand awareness that transcends coffee.
Bar, Workspace and Kitchen - Make sure areas like the front of the coffee machine, benches and areas by your grinder are clean and tidy. These are generally the first areas noticed by customers when they step up to the counter and they can make a huge first impression.
Seating/Waiting - If dining in, customers should always arrive at a clean table. For take away, having a dedicated waiting area for customers can help avoid service disruption - removed from service flow yet accessible for baristas to hand coffee.
Music - The soundscape of a space is one of the most important aspects of creating a sense of atmosphere. Music should be at an audible but comfortable level and match the vibe that you are trying to create. Your team should be aware of the music and feel able to change it if needed.
Signage and displays - Signage and displays help direct customers throughout the cafe and print collateral provides customers with the info they need for both cafe and retail ordering.
Retail - Creating a shop within a shop experience can benefit both your customers and your bottom line. Creating a retail space that customers can browse can help to reduce the perception of wait time and driving extra sales.
These things are called 1%-ers. All are important in creating a warm and welcoming space for customers to enjoy their experience in your cafe. Looking at our surroundings with fresh eyes on a regular basis ensures your space is looking sharp and systems are efficient.
Team Structure and Workflow
Having transparent team structure and clear responsibilities helps to build a clear, effective workflow and ensures accountability across café functions. Café roles can be broken down to ensure everyone has clearly defined goals and responsibilities.
Key roles
Managers - Manage the team and oversee all aspects of the café including orders and admin tasks. Managers are responsible for running the shift, ensuring commercial success and delivering objectives while having an eye for the room and ensuring the whole team is delivering exceptional customer experience.
Head Barista - Maintains coffee standards, sets recipes and makes coffee to a high level. This role may also include training staff and overseeing the overall quality of coffee during service.
All-rounders - Deliver exceptional customer service, make and run coffees, run food, clear tables, greet guests, take orders, and confidently speak about your cafe offering.
These roles are key, but we also need to define what day-to-day roles look like for a busy café. This ensures the team feel confident, and nothing gets missed throughout the day.
Daily Roles
Shift leaders - Deal with any issues, makes sure everyone knows their role and is confident in performing their tasks. Being present for the whole team and stepping in where needed, shift leaders will oversee H&S and act as point of contact for any issues and end of day handover notes.
Lead Barista - Sets the coffee recipe, supports the team with making coffee, and ensuring standards and quality throughout the day.
Till - Greeting guests, taking orders and payments at the till and assisting the baristas when needed. Staff should be knowledgeable about the cafe offering and ensure any retail areas are topped up and looking good.
Floor - Running food and drinks to customers, keeping space clean and tidy, clearing and cleaning tables and supporting any customer queries. Staff should be confident and knowledgeable about the cafe offering and keep an eye on anything out of order.
Professionalism and presentation
First impressions are important. You want your staff to be comfortable and express themselves, but it’s important to align this with brand expectations, and health and safety guidelines. Aim to provide customers with a consistent, hosted experience when they enter your business.
Dos
Acknowledge and greet - a simple hello, good morning etc. Make sure you engage with eye contact, a smile, and make customers feel welcome.
Observe & Engage - Keep an eye on customers and engage with them to deliver what they want. Ask if they’re dining in, keep an eye for finished drinks on tables and offer another.
Follow through - Remain aware of your customers’ experience from beginning to end. Where possible, always follow through on requests with professional attentiveness.
Deliver info based on customer knowledge - When talking about coffee or menu items, staff should be able to talk to newcomers, as well as seasoned pros. It’s up to us to gauge how much knowledge they have, and deliver as much (or as little) detail as needed.
Appearance: Wearing clothing that avoids contamination (i.e. no long, loose sleeves that may touch items) and sensible and undamaged footwear can go along way for H&S and presentability.
Don’ts
Ignore - Don’t turn your back on customers as they enter, lean on the counter or continue a conversations with other staff.
Over do it - Be welcoming, but It’s not necessary to pounce on incoming customers as soon as they step through the door.
Hard sell - When it comes to products, Give customers the information they need and let them decide.
Leave them hanging - Even if you’re busy, do your best to follow through on requests and say goodbye.
Regardless of location, you want your customers to feel as if they are returning to a warm, familiar and dependable place and not feel intimidated by clichéd café coolness, or disingenuous, overly familiar friendliness. As a business owner it is important to set clear guidelines in order to build and maintain a positive experience for each and every customer visit.
