Caine Coffee Shop experience sharing, location is not a necessary factor for successful operation of coffee shops

Follow the caf é (Wechat official account vdailycom) and found that Beautiful Cafe opened a small shop of its own.

For coffee shop operators, the greatest success is the improvement of business data and the continuous improvement of income and profits. In a sense, from the operator's point of view, success does not mean providing customers with all the services they want.

I have personally participated in the operation of more than 30 cafes and restaurants, all of which have achieved some success. From my personal experience, there may be hundreds of reasons for the success of the coffee shop, but the real reference is the following 12:00:

1. Insist on providing customers with the highest quality espresso.

To be honest, no matter what industry it is, few people are stupid enough to provide customers with the same kind of products from beginning to end, even if the quality of the products is high and close to perfect. But espresso is different. Truly high-quality and constant espresso is the key to the success of all coffee shops. Many customers don't care about the location of the coffee shop and whether the sign at the door is conspicuous. The only thing they care about is the quality of espresso. Therefore, be sure to buy the best espresso machine with guaranteed quality, install a matching water filtration system, use a professional bevel gear grinder, and the highest quality, freshly roasted Arabica beans. In addition, you need to hire professionally trained and skilled baristas to provide customers with what they think of as the "cup of God" from beginning to end.

2. Ergonomics is very important.

Ensure that the design of the bar and work area is ergonomic, so that baristas and other employees do not have to waste time competing for space, and the work assembly line runs more smoothly. Sales volume is the basis of the operation. Only by ensuring that all equipment and utensils, such as garbage cans, coffee beans, milk, cups, bean grinders, etc., are placed within reach of baristas, you can improve their work efficiency as much as possible, thus increasing the overall sales volume of the coffee shop; the embedded water basin is easy to clean and does not take up space. The cashier should be as close to the barista's work area as possible to prevent the barista from wasting time, and to ensure that the barista can hear what the customer is saying during the rush hour and promote communication and interaction between the customer and the barista.

3. Establish a membership system

I always emphasize the importance of the membership system, which sounds corny, but it really works. The design of the membership card should be generous and beautiful, and the material should be durable. Believe me, no one will refuse the "buy five get one free" discount. Membership system is really the best marketing method with the lowest cost.

4. Enrich the variety of products

Coffee shop can never make money if it only sells coffee. Coffee shop is your core product, but it is by no means your only product. The principle is that the weekly sales of coffee should not exceed 40% of the total sales of the coffee shop, and to ensure that each customer buys at least 2 items, be sure to put cakes, biscuits, sandwiches and other meals in a conspicuous place, if conditions permit, you can also choose to provide customers with other cold drinks, cold meals or hot meals.

5. Don't be too complicated in taste

Many newcomers feel that the more coffee or food is tasted, the more customers like it. Remember, most customers come to your house to drink coffee just because they are thirsty or hungry, and overly complex taste choices can be tiresome, so plan your products and taste categories in principle. In principle, you can launch three flavors for each product, but too many will not help. Every time you add a new flavor, your operating costs will rise, and doing so will make little contribution to sales.

6. Reasonable pricing

The pricing of the product is not calculated with a calculator, but according to the average level of the market and customer expectations of the value of the product. For some ubiquitous products, the price should be less than (or equal to) the average market price; the reduction in profit margins for these products should be made up for by high value-added products, such as "our specialty" or "best-selling drinks".

7. Effective strategic implementation

In such a highly competitive environment, be sure to understand what customers want, develop your own marketing and business strategy, and keep it consistent. Don't deviate easily.

8. Choose the bar ordering service

Bar ordering is the lowest cost, the most effective service system, and very popular, high public acceptance (thanks to Uncle McDonald's), bar ordering is not only more free, but also save you unnecessary labor expenses. This service model is simple: customers line up to order, pay the bill and then pick up the meal, even if the traffic is large, this model can easily cope with, the only thing to pay attention to is the service attitude of the barista or cashier, be sure to smile.

9. Food doesn't have to be sold right away.

Many people believe that only by doing and selling now can we provide customers with the products they want, but this is not the case. Everyone thinks you are an expert, and customers expect you to recommend high-quality products to him, especially for coffee shops, where coffee must be made on site, but meals can be prepared in advance. Remember, you don't run a restaurant, the cost of doing it is high, and it will be difficult for you to maintain it without the support of a certain amount of sales.

10. Learn about your products

There are too many coffee shop operators who don't even know their own products, and some even provide customers with the wrong product information. Many people, especially regular customers, have high requirements for product quality and know a lot about coffee. You must know your products like the back of your hand, know how to make reasonable recommendations for customers, and provide them with the information they want. in order to ensure a steady flow of customers, build mutual trust with customers, and improve customer loyalty.

11. Do a good job in takeout service

Who doesn't like chatting with a couple of friends in a coffee shop, sitting on a comfortable sofa, enjoying free Wifi and drinking delicious coffee? But if everyone sits in a coffee shop chatting for hours and drinks only one cup of coffee, you can't even pay the rent. My successful experience is that the furniture and bar design of the coffee shop need not be too complicated, just need to be warm and beautiful. Instead of wasting energy on decoration, spend more time on takeout service. Whether it's takeout or takeout, the price of coffee is the same, but at the same time, your take-out coffee sales may be more than 10 times that of takeout!

12. You must do it yourself

Unlike restaurants, coffee shops need shopkeepers to visit the storefront frequently, to interact with customers, and to pay attention to the quality of products and problems in operation, which will not only improve customer loyalty, but also enhance the enthusiasm of employees.

You may find that I did not mention the location of the coffee shop in this article, because in my experience, location is not a necessary factor for the success of the coffee shop. Location is important, but too much emphasis on location will not only increase store rents, but also increase your competitive pressure, making it difficult for you to stand out. I have made the same mistake. I naively thought that the greater the flow of people, the better, but where there is a high flow of people, there must be more banks, shops, restaurants and large coffee chains, and your chances of success will decrease. Exorbitant store rent will bring you too much business burden, at least from my personal experience, a reasonable store rent level will help the coffee shop to improve profitability and make you further from success.

Related readings:

Do you have such psychological qualities before opening a coffee shop?

1. Have a good mentality in the face of tricky passers-by

It is possible that the guests who come to cafes are basically of high quality, which is much better than small restaurants and small restaurants, but you must still have a good attitude in the face of tricky passers-by. Because as the saying goes, "when the forest is big, there are all kinds of birds." even if 99% of the guests are high-quality people, 1% of people may have various reasons to make things difficult for you. Of course, in addition to the guests, it is possible that the neighbors around your store may also embarrass you. But in any case, the old saying "harmony makes money" is true. Even if the other person hits you on the left face, you don't have to stretch out your right face to fight, but at least learn to smile and say sorry and look for the reason from yourself first. Even if you don't make any mistakes, you can't argue with the guests.

We have encountered guests who help us bring tea and water for other guests when they are extremely busy, but they meet by chance but do not hesitate to spend their own time and energy to keep their paintings, and see that the toilet clogs the guests who take the initiative to help us deal with them, and even other guests who take the initiative to help us clean up by pulling their stools onto the toilet seat. But at the same time, we have also met guests who drink and make trouble, those who talk loudly and affect others, and even those who rub their poop against the bathroom wall. In short, you may have all kinds of "adventures", but you must always have a good state of mind in order to cope with all kinds of oddities.

2. There is another kind of normal mind

Coffee has been on the rise for only 20 years. In the eyes of the Chinese people, a coffee shop can sit in a place where it is dark with a cup of coffee. Some people complain that domestic coffee is too expensive, which is what we always complain about before we open a shop.

For example, since entering the Chinese market in 1998, a cup of coffee has easily cost more than 30 yuan, while in other countries, the price of Xingji coffee is only half of that in China. For example, in Malaysia, the price of a cup of cappuccino is only 8 MYR, even if it is converted into RMB, it only costs more than ten yuan.

After years of operation, we understand that it is not only the house prices in China, but also the concept of coffee consumption in China that has led to the high price of coffee in China.

We met such guests when three big boss-looking people came in and ordered three cheapest cups of coffee to the bartender (our American price is 20 yuan, cappuccino is 22 yuan), said to sit for a while and leave, and then stay for 10 hours, if people who do not open a store think there is no problem reading here, then please hear me out. Later, their fourth friend arrived. before the fourth friend came in, the three guests changed the leftover coffee into a "new" cup of coffee, and then said to the later friend, "this cup is for you, you are too late. It's already cold." if you think it's weird enough, then please continue to hear me out. Within 10 hours, these four are talking about hundreds of millions of real estate deals. In this way, four "billionaire" bosses chatted with me for 10 hours and spent a total of 60 yuan.

Just imagine, if your shop has 100 square meters, in addition to the area of the operating room, the guest area can sit 40 guests, and these 40 guests spend 60 yuan in 10 hours like these big bosses, then you can only get more than 200 yuan in running water every day. You know, in Beijing, it is difficult to find a storefront of less than 3 yuan per day, while a store of 100 square meters costs at least 300 yuan a day, which is estimated to be the store price outside the sixth Ring Road, not including your water, electricity, labor, materials and other costs.

We have a friend's coffee shop also met this kind of guest: a cup of 10 yuan pudding to sit for a day, scraping the Internet power not to say, but also take out food. On another occasion, a girl ordered a single cup of coffee with her. the single order was 15 yuan and the double was 18 yuan. she drank the cup all morning and was ready to order another one when she asked the landlady, "can you keep up with the cup and add up to 18 yuan?" The area of her house is not large, but it is difficult to say what to say when meeting such a guest. This directly affects the turn-over rate and running water.

If you open a coffee shop in China, you may face such troubles every day. So you have to have another kind of normal mind.

Opening a coffee shop is a business in itself, and it is naturally not feasible to blindly pursue literary and artistic romance. To do business is to deal with people. How to have a good mentality is a compulsory course for every operator. The above two points about how to deal with tricky guests and customers with "rubbing" resources in a good state of mind is the part that you need to prepare psychologically before opening a coffee shop.