The turnover rate is almost zero! The business method that the founder of Fika Fika has been brewing for 10 years.

Professional barista communication, please pay attention to coffee workshop (Weixin Official Accounts cafe_style )

If opening a coffee shop is your dream, how much effort does it take to succeed on this dream path?

For Fika Cafe founder Chen Zhihuang, it took 10 years to learn how to bake just to present a cup of "good" coffee to customers. "Roasting is hard to learn, and I don't think I'm entitled to take customers 'hard-earned money until I'm sure my coffee is professional enough."

Chen Zhihuang, who was a coffee player during college, began importing green coffee beans in 2000 in order to train his ability to roast coffee beans, and also set up his own website to sell to the same fans.

At the time, he thought,"At most, it will take two years to learn the skills of coffee roasting, and I should have the conditions to open a shop." I didn't expect this investment to take 10 years.

It was not until 2012 that I participated in the Nordic Roaster Competition, which is known as the Oscar Award in the coffee industry. After 220 professionals from all over the world voted, I won the fourth place. After verifying my hard work and gaining market recognition, I decided to start preparing for the opening of the store. In December of that year, Fika Fika was officially established. The following year, the competition again, successfully won the first prize, was recognized as the "most delicious coffee", which also provides Fika Fika with high-quality coffee, more international certification endorsement.

Every product developed must conform to the core concept of the store.

Open a shop, not love to drink coffee, can brew coffee is good, how to run a coffee shop, is another knowledge.

Chen Zhihuang reminds, Many want to open a shop novice will want to imitate other business colorful store,"But you learn the form, Learn not the spirit, A shop that even you can't move, How can success?"

As he pondered the coffee shop's positioning, he recalled a former coffee roaster who said,"All you have to do is find out what you like, roast it, and find people who like it as much as you do."

To create a "shop that you like", Chen Zhihuang only thought of selling "better coffee than others" at first, but as he became more and more aware of coffee, he realized that good coffee is only the basic threshold, and more importantly, he should be able to provide reasons for "why you want to come to your shop to drink good coffee" to attract consumers.

After thinking about it, he positioned Fika Fika as an "energy depot"."Fika" is Swedish for "coffee break", which means relaxing time with friends for coffee and dessert. "We hope that when everyone encounters setbacks in the workplace and feels tired, they can regain their strength to return to their posts because they have a good cup of coffee here and the kind greetings from the staff." Therefore, focusing on the quality of coffee, the comfort of space and the quality of service personnel have become Chen Zhihuang's business priorities.

Located next to Yitong Park in Taipei City, there are only 50 seats in a space of nearly 60 ping, plus a large transparent floor-to-ceiling window looking out of the green. From the design of the store, you can feel Chen Zhihuang's intention.

He also has a certain insistence on the food sold in the store. "To develop any new product, we should not think about how much money we can make, but whether it fits with our style." For example, some cafes will serve curry rice as a simple meal, but "curry rice and coffee will compete with each other, if you go in the wrong direction at this time, your store characteristics will become different."

Fika Fika's interior space is high-profile and offers customers different seating options.

Photography/He Daxin

Take care of your employees and they will take care of your guests.

Most coffee shops hire part-time staff to save personnel costs, but Chen Zhihuang believes,"The staff I hire must be able to fully understand our store philosophy, if the staff come and go, it is difficult to ensure that they can provide consistent service quality."

Therefore, in the first three years of opening the store, he recruited all full-time staff, only with the promotion of popularity, holiday will temporarily need manpower support preparation, washing cups and other auxiliary work, only last year recruited part-time staff, at present full-time still accounts for 90%.

The reason for the high turnover rate of employees in the catering industry is "too hard, too low salary and too little leave." To solve this problem, Chen Zhihuang and his wife Huang Yuyuan provide regular employees with a starting salary of 30,000 yuan, eight days off per month, two days more off than the labor base law, and full subsidies for overseas travel. This also makes their store turnover rate zero in the past eight months, leaving only one full-time employee in a year. In response, Chen Zhihuang said,"Take care of employees, employees will help us take care of guests." Only when employees smile from the heart can guests feel satisfied with their service.”

Fika Fika avoids the hustle and bustle of the main road, allowing customers to enjoy a moment of peace in the city and enjoy the greenery of Ito Park outside from large transparent floor-to-ceiling windows.

Photography/He Daxin

Chen Zhihuang

Founder of Fika Fika, graduated from the photography team of the Department of Graphic Communication Technology of Shixin University, and won the Nordic Coffee Roasting Competition in 2013.

Topaz Edge

Fika Fika co-founder, graduated from the photography department of the Department of Graphic Communication Technology of Shixin University, and is Chen Zhihuang's wife.