For years’ customers were happy to take a cup of instant coffee, and posh coffee came with a gold foil on the top. Then customers were starting to ask more, and gradually the kettle was replaced by fancy machines and grinders, and yet still the coffee isn’t quite getting the reactions all that investments deserve. Normally I like to try and pull together conversations from around the web, but today I want to talk about my experience as a customer. It was a family day out, I got up made a cup of coffee in my cheap little pour over filter, a bit of milk and some sugar and I had a lovely cup of coffee, an hour later at my parents’ house I had a coffee from one of those pod machines, and it was a nice cup of coffee. Nothing to shout about but enjoyable. A few hours later it was time for lunch, so we headed for a little café, this is in one of the busiest tourist areas in England, and sitting proudly on the counter I could see the gleaming silver of some very high quality machinery. Well I sat down expecting a beverage at least on a par with my two previous cups. Stale, acidic, and downright horrible, in fact it was vile. Everything about that cup of coffee was disgusting, and the price was equal to the chain store coffee shop right next door. We amused ourselves for a few minutes trying to decide if it was instant, but we decided it would have to be the worst brand going to be that bad. Lunch was adequate, had the drink been palatable it would have been nice, I would have gone back there and told my friends about it. But as it was this is the only mention I’m going to make about this café. What’s worse in an area so packed with tourists you could hardly walk, this little café was sadly only half full. 
So let’s look at this, coffee is a staple of our diet now. Anyone who thinks we will do without isn’t living in the modern world. When we’re out and about we like to stop and enjoy the taste of a great cup of coffee, and with more and more people now enjoying speciality coffee at home, cafes, restaurants and bars need to be going one better. In fact, if you’re taking short cuts with my drink, are you taking short cuts with my food? If you watch any of those programs were a famous chef goes in and helps turn around a restaurant, they seem to always be asking why people will pay the extra for frozen food they can cook at home. Well why should I pay the premium price tag for instant coffee that I wouldn’t drink at home either. If I can’t get a decent cup of coffee from you then I’ll go somewhere where I can, and I’ll buy my lunch there as well. This is a problem unless you’re the only place to eat for miles around. Beyond that coffee is often the final course of a big meal, the final taste before they pay the bill, leave the tip, or write a yelp or TripAdvisor review. Did I ask the waitress about the coffee, yes, did I get an apology? Not really, instead she leant over conspiratorially and whispered that they had no idea how to use the machines the owner had bought. Well I and everyone there whose faces twisted when they drank their coffee won’t be going back there. SO do you need to be serving great coffee, you bet your life you do. But to get there you don’t just need expensive machines. You need well trained staff, good quality ingredients, and that should lead to happy customers.
Original Post Here: Why Do You Need To Be Offering Great Coffee To Your Customers?
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