I Want My Coffee, And I Want It Now
Why we desperately need a better way to order coffee
Since moving to the Pacific Northwest I have grown to love coffee. That is perhaps not too surprising, since this is generally considered to be the coffee capital of the world. In addition to Starbucks and some of the finest boutique coffee roasters in the country the area is also home to a deeply ingrained coffee culture.
There’s one thing though that has me perplexed. Why, in a world where my personal preferences and buying habits are instantly available in so many other situations, do I still have to spell out my exact drink every time I wander into a coffee shop?
The current status quo seems wrong on multiple levels:
- Time Wasted In Line: I don’t like standing in lines, and nowadays the biggest one I have to stand in each day is usually for my cup of coffee.
- Time Wasted Repeating Myself: When I get to the front of the line I have to spell out exactly what I want – even though it’s pretty much the same every single day. I’m a creature of habit. A medium Americano with a half inch of 2% (cold) milk on a morning. A half decaf non-fat latte in the afternoon.
- Errors: The error rate on my orders seems uncomfortably high. We’re definitely not talking Six Sigma here. Where do the errors come from? Not from the baristas, who generally seem skilled enough at their trade. They more likely arise from misunderstandings at the point of order. (My English accent can cause undue confusion). They also seem to creep in at the multiple touch points that the order has to pass through from the register to the cup.
- Do Overs: When I receive an incorrect order (I always check), then my first cup invariably gets tossed and the barista hustles through a new one. More wasted time. More waste in general.
I’d like to propose a way to circumvent this mess. What I want is an app where I can store my preferred drinks with infinite precision. It’s an app that lets me create different drinks and preferences for mornings and afternoons. It lets me specify the minutiae of my drinks just as I would with a barista – except that I only have to do so once, using a clear menu structure. And then, with my coffee profile in hand, I can use the app to place my order before I get anywhere near the coffee shop. Preferably with a scheduling function that works down to the minute. Think Uber meets Buffer meets caffeine.
No more waiting in line. No more screw-ups in the order process. No more wasted coffee and wasted time. I simply order, pay with my online account, and walk straight up to the pick-up counter. The barista knows exactly what to make every time. The line is shorter. And I’m much happier.
Is that really too much to ask for?
