Coffee shops how to catch consumers

David Evert is the owner of a chain of seven coffee shops and employs more than 50 people. Before entering the boutique coffee industry, he was just a small business opportunity development consultant. After he retired from the company Espresso Midwest, he began to work on a national store opening training seminar.

We have heard time and again that the only most effective way for coffee shop owners to increase revenue is through marketing. Marketing must start from two different points: one is to constantly increase the exposure of the store, and the other is to pay attention to the customer base and its consumption concept from time to time, what kind of service they want to get when they enter a cafe, and what personal services you can provide for them.

There are many relatives, friends, customers and business partners around us who are happy to put forward their unique views on our small business, but if you only rely on this limited information to do consumer research, it may be a little too thin, it will seem a little lack of interaction. Because generally speaking, there are only a small number of customers who are willing to tell you their opinions loudly, although the opinions of these customers are also important to a certain extent, but we should understand the opinions of the majority of silent customers. Stimulating these silent customers to give you advice is a very important issue, fully taking care of the needs of most of these customers, so that they will not come and leave quietly. You don't know how to lose customers.

Doing business can make one learn more about modesty. In reality, most customers don't care about the shopkeeper's personal thoughts and preferences. Customers care about their own ideas and preferences. In order to achieve the best service quality, you have to come up with a way to directly ask your customers which services and products they are most satisfied with and which areas need to be improved. Through this simple survey, you can find a lot of useful business information, such as which products on Menu, the atmosphere in the store, poor service, reasonable price, etc., almost all the details of your store can be answered. When you do this, your relationship with the customer is not just the relationship between the guest and the boss, you get closer to the customer, they will help your business to prosper, remember: "ask" has this effect! Even those customers who are not very reasonable will be glad that you care about their needs.

Doing consumer research to customers is like finding a space for formulating a marketing strategy, as long as you are responsible for filling it. There are many successful cafes, and their success is due to the implementation of this principle. For example, with the change in modern people's attitude towards alcohol consumption, people have to find another place to socialize, and because people drink less, they have more money and time to reunite with their family and friends. So drinking coffee in a cafe has become the most common and affordable consumption behavior for these people. In addition, as the pace of human life is getting faster and faster, people have a greater desire to talk more intimately with other people, so cafes have become the most important meeting place in human society.

If cafes have these advantages, why are so many cafes closing down? There must be many reasons why a store closes, but it is usually a mistake step by step; the most common problem is that owners have no idea of customer lock-in and do not maintain customer loyalty.

Here are some easy tips to help you get to know your customers better and make them more loyal to your store:

1. Go out for a walk and shake the area around the store. The range is about four blocks from your door, look around and write down each potential customer, write down the location of each store owner, each church, school, apartment and residential building, and pay attention to the surrounding competitors. see what customers they attract, what services or products they offer that you don't offer in your store, what their price is, and how satisfied your customers are with them.

two。 Strengthen the "customer first" management to the employees. Employees are encouraged to have more conversations with customers, ask more questions, accept customers' opinions modestly, and observe how customers react. This is an easy step, whether you take out or use in, you can find out which items in Menu are the most popular, you can also ask customers if they like the latte sale like yesterday, or ask them what they think of your new seating area.

3. Join the chamber of commerce organizations in the community, you can get a lot of favorable market information from these organizations, they can provide statistics on your consumption behavior, such as the average income level of the community, the main consumption age and gender, and so on. Coupled with the fact that you can develop partnerships with other stores in the area, it will help to lock in the consumption pattern of the customer base and introduce consumers into your store. You can also make strategic cooperation with businesses in other areas, such as with the cinema at the end of the street, to show receipts or invoices for consumption in your store, and you can get a discount on movie tickets.

4. I know a lot of people who want to open cafes or teahouses, who have generally done product line research, or have had in-depth discussions with raw material suppliers, banks, or counsellors, and some people really want to open a store. study the flow of people and cars in the area, but I've never seen anyone put together market research data from a particular area, even if it's easy and helpful for people who want to open a store. To do this kind of market survey, you only need to put 10 questions on a piece of paper. the main purpose is to know in advance which products and services people are interested in and what price they can accept. finally, it is to observe which projects people are generally disappointed with in other local stores.

5. If you have prepared a market research form and photocopied hundreds of copies, you can put them in the mailbox of each household, or if your store is open, you can send it to every customer who comes to the store to fill in, keeping in mind that sending several questionnaires does not mean that every one can be recycled. However, if you can cooperate with some publicity to stimulate recycling, such as "fill in and return the questionnaire in exchange for buy one get one free coupon". You can also occasionally run a discount coupon with a single question, such as "if you could change anywhere in this store, where would you want to change?" That kind of problem. A few years ago, a friend of mine proudly told me that he had benefited a lot from the strategy of the questionnaire. "did you know that at that time almost 50% of the people in our community did not know about our store, and we had been doing business here for more than four years." The point is: the change in the community is very fast, and new residents and new businesses come and go, so market research must be done every once in a while, so as to attract new residents to come to your store to spend money, some outdated decorations, sometimes with a little embellishment, can achieve a better publicity effect.

6. Put a suggestion box so that customers can deliver their opinions, whether positive or negative, no matter their tone is good or bad, can have a good impact on your future service direction. Put this suggestion box in a conspicuous place in the store, but don't be too fancy or take up too much space. Remember to put a friendly sign on the suggestion box to show how important customers' opinions are to you.

7. In addition, put a business card box for customers to throw their business cards in, so that you can get a general idea of the main customer base of your store, which is more female? Are there more creative workers? Is it possible that the company they work for will bring business opportunities for office coffee? You can launch an incentive campaign to encourage customers to leave their business cards and hold a lucky draw from time to time. You can send a pound of ripe beans or entertain a cup of espresso. Be sure to keep their personal data properly to facilitate future marketing campaigns.

8. If you already have local business partners, you can often exchange views with them and ask what other services are available. It is important to keep in mind that a customer who comes to spend every day may bring you and your allies an annual revenue of $500 to $1500.

It is not difficult to recognize your customers and understand their needs, but it is also the best panacea to ensure a thriving business in a cafe, but you must be prepared to accept negative criticism or positive suggestions and make appropriate improvements to them. Regard this as the drudgery of scavengers, groping for services that can make customers more satisfied and increase customer loyalty in a wilderness. It is this drudgery that can bring you the greatest excitement, and you will benefit in the end.