Hello coffee snob, a research backed approach to win your customers

Coffee is a happiness business. It’s a legalised drug that stimulate good mood (at least for me).

Things get a little complicated in the era of third wave coffee, when we coffee people are obsessed with single origin, COE micro lot, and original flavour of coffee.

Coffee is supposed to be acidic! Fuity! With blueberry flavour! Chocolaty note! And bla bla bla…

We get frustrated when people don’t get the uniqueness that we taste and go for that vanilla frappe.

So, S&D Coffee and Tea did an awesome research to find out what young American look for when choosing a coffee venue.

It was clear that young consumers care about how we make them feel more than what coffee beans we serve.

Tracy Ging gave an excellent interpretation of the result:

- think beyond the bean and explore ways to meet customers at their entry point into coffee exploration, rather than expecting them to appreciate acidity of specialty coffee

- Customer won’t appreciate what we’re serving for them, or develop understanding of specialty coffee before they have a chance to explore

- At the beginning, it isn’t what customers taste that defines the experience, it is how we make them feel. Show them how fun it is to explore, and that is something that goes well beyond the bean.

Take away:

1. Its okay to be a coffee purist, but focus on delivering coffee experience before geeking out on the coffee beans you use.

2. When your customers come back because of you and your service, this is when you can ‘preach’ and ‘convert’ them into specialty coffee geek, or simply show them how fun it is to explore the specialty scene.