Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

How do I find loyal staff and win loyal customers? This question and many like it has been asked thousands of times as we deal with incredible amounts of turn over in our shops. We have tried tricks, incentives, benefits of all kinds but they never seem to quite do the trick. Same with customers, we offer deal, discounts, and specials, and dance whatever dance we think will get them to come back and be engaged.

Today we are going to be exploring the idea of winning staff and customer loyalty and what it truly takes to achieve this in a responsible and effective way.

We cover:

• Why we assume people want to leave
• How to think about people
• Communicating value and proving value through action
• integrity in other's focused operations
• Start by caring about the people you want to care
• Earning vs winning

Related episodes:

• 244 : Top 10 Ways to Lose Employees
• 390 : 7 Ways to be Consciously Competitive
• Differentiation Takes Time!
• Customer Loyalty
• Getting Them In By Getting Out!
• You are not your Competition
• 181 : Organizational Self-Knowledge

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

Cafe standards are often a jumble of various people's ideas sourced from both far flung areas of the industry and the past habits of new staff. We are in a constant cycle of sending people away to outside places to learn what to do within our own walls. The problem with this is that we are constantly dependent on outside input but never truly using resources to build our own systems and standards that bring clarity and stability to the shop.

On today's shift break we will be talking about why you need to focus on and prioritize developing in house quality control and training standards vs perpetually outsourcing these things to your roaster, a consultant, or a certifying body.

Related episodes:

• 339 : What Good Barista Training Produces
• 301 : Hiring and Training for Excellence
• Blog post: Grocery Shopping and Training Success
• 235 : 4 Tips for Training your Staff
• 191 : Retraining your Staff on new Standards

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co.

It is a new era is specialty retail coffee. Great coffee can be found very easily in most major cities and people are making better coffee at home than they ever have. Add to this the ubiquity of RTD (Ready to Drink) coffee and a wide variety of convenience products. The retail coffee shop, with baristas making drinks and serving those drinks to customers, sits amongst this saturation with a problem, how do we create value? How do can you win in specialty retail coffee?

On this episode we are going diving into some extremely important ways that you can not only stand out in a crowded marketplace, but give the customer unmatched value that draws their repeat business, and you sustainable success.

Enter with an open mind and determine ahead of time, that if something resonates with you, that it will be the first step of your consistent pursuit to apply it and let it change you and your business.

We talk about:

• Hospitality as priority
• Why convenience products are actually an indictment of the cafe
• Values and your digital identity
• Keeping marketing promises
• True accessibility and death of ego
• Listening to your customers
• Leadership reformation in the shop

Keys to the Shop Coaching and Consulting!

• Click here to schedule a free consulting discovery call with KTTS
• Click here to book a formal one-on-one consulting call!

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

The world of hospitality is filled with people who are either a great fit for the field, or not. Problem is that, for the number of coffee shops in operation today demand for great people is way higher than the supply. So how do we make sure we are hiring the best fit for our business?

Today on shift break we will be exploring the number one most important thing you need to discover about a person before bringing them on to the team.

Related episodes:

• 329 : How to Teach Company Values to Your Staff
• 301 : Hiring and Training for Excellence
• 278 : Making great Hiring Decisions
• 018: Hiring, Culture, and the Future of your Shop
• 366: A Conversation w/ Chris Baca of Cat and Cloud Coffee
• 014 : A Barista's Guide to Advancing: How to take full advantage of where you are and set yourself up for success in coffee

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co.

As professionals, our communication about coffee is only as good as our ability to truly tune in to the message that emerges from the many different voices that give shape to the story of coffee. In the noisy world innovating ways to connect people with meaningful narratives is crucial.

Today we are going to talk with someone whose coffee subscription project invites people to interact with coffee in a new and unique way by blending quality coffee with interviews captured on vintage audio. I am so happy to welcome Alexander Roach of Boycott Coffee and the Alphabet Book of Coffee!

Since 2010, Alexander has worked behind coffee bars in both Memphis and Seattle. In that time, he has ventured into owning/operating a cafe and roastery, Boycott Coffee, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Alphabet Book of Coffee is a independent project with a goal to produce an audio/tasting series that gives people an out-of-the-box exercise in how they consume and share coffee narratives.

In our conversation we will discuss communication, how we learn, curating content, exploring deeper stories, and how we can lean on creativity to truly connect with people about and over coffee.

Links:

www.boycott.coffee

https://www.alphabetbookofcoffee.com/

Keys to the Shop Coaching and Consulting!

• Click here to schedule a free consulting discovery call with KTTS
• Click here to book a formal one-on-one consulting call!

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

Ever wonder what's behind the fridge? Most of us have had the unique "pleasure" of finding out. The build up of cup lids, loose change, grime, and other organic matter / creatures is a great illustration of how we tend to avoid things that are out of sight, yet left un attended will have a negative impact of everything.

On today's Shift Break we will be talking about how this applies also to the deeper integral parts of the cafe(leadership, communication, systems, culture etc) that we tend not to tend to but left un attended, they build up their own kind of grime that impacts everything.

It's all about building with structural integrity from the foundation to the facade.

Related Episodes:

• 181 : Organizational Self-Knowledge
• 293 : Thoughts on Defining Professionalism
• Excellence In The Things We Hate
• The Impact of Absence
• 2 Qualities of Quality Baristas

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co.

Coffee is all about human connection. That we get to create both the beverage and the experience people have when enjoying it is at once a great responsibility, a joy, and an opportunity to change lives through our hospitality in each interaction.

In our daily pursuit of providing this special moment we must start with a dedication to our craft and care for people that in many ways could be considered "Unreasonable".

I am thrilled to welcome to the show someone who has created these moments for guests at the highest levels of global hospitality and is on a mission to champion "Unreasonable Hospitality" as a framework and philosophy that will benefit to anything we set our hearts and hands to do.

Such a pleasure to welcome, Will Guidara!

Will Guidara is the founder of Thank You, a hospitality company that develops world-class destinations and helps leaders across industries transform their approach to customer service. He is also the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park. Under his leadership, the restaurant received numerous accolades, including four stars from the New York Times, three Michelin stars and in 2017 was named number one on the list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants.

He is also the cofounder of the Welcome Conference, an annual conference that brings together the best minds in the world of hospitality. A graduate Cornell University, he has coauthored four cookbooks, was named one of Crain's New York Business's 40 Under 40, and is a recipient of WSJ. Magazine's Innovator Award.

In his latest book, Unreasonable Hospitality, he shares many of the lessons about service and leadership he learned over the course of his career in restaurants, and makes the case that any business can choose to be in the hospitality industry by taking ordinary transactions and turning them into memorable experiences.

In the conversation we explore Will's own development and pursuit of hospitality through his career in restaurants, the birth of the idea of Unreasonable Hospitality, and the nuances of how it is applied in both life and the work of serving others.

We cover:

• Choosing to focus on hospitality
• What is "Unreasonable Hospitality"?
• Applying the practice to your daily work
• Managing your own emotions as you serve
• Being the "Best" for the right people
• How to gain buy-in from a younger work force
• Metrics to focus on for hospitality
• Can we kill hospitality through systems?
• Staying motivated without awards

Links:

www.thankyou.nyc

https://www.unreasonablehospitality.com/

https://www.thewelcomeconference.com/

Instagram: @wguidara

Related episodes:

• 421: Encore Episode: Simple, Powerful, Hospitality w/ Philip Paul Turner
• 424: Developing Menu and Hospitality Guides
• 058 : Holiday Hospitality
• 380 : Founder Friday! w/ Cary and Cindy Arsaga of Arsaga's Coffee Roasters
• 224 : Essentialism: Focusing on what truly Matters w/ Greg McKeown
• 314 : The 6 Essential Qualities of Coffee Shop Leaders

Keys to the Shop Coaching and Consulting!

• Click here to schedule a free consulting discovery call with KTTS
• Click here to book a formal one-on-one consulting call!

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

Effectively training up an apprentice roaster is key not only to your succession, the growth of your business, and the consistency of your quality, -but providing a great learning environment and approach to education and coaching will push the whole industry forward.

The key is to not only deliver processes, rules, and systems, but also opportunity for contribution, conversation, and room for your trainee to grow in maturity.

These are just some of the powerful things discussed in this Rate of Rise episode featuring, Steve Lee!

Steve Lee began his coffee career in 1996 as a barista at Peet's Coffee in the San Francisco Bay Area. After spending a number of years in the Training & Education Department of Peet's, he moved on to help open the Roasting and QC Department at Intelligentsia Coffee's Los Angeles Roasting Works, where he developed his love for the craft of roasting. Since then he has worked on a number of consultancy projects, worked as the Director of Coffee for Groundwork and the SPC Group in Korea, worked as a green importer for Odyssey Coffees, and has served as a judge for international coffee competitions. Throughout his coffee career, the main focus has been on craftsmanship, education, and fostering relationships across the supply chain for the betterment of the coffee industry as a whole. Steve spent two terms on the Roasters Guild Executive Council where he had served as the Vice Chair to the Education Committee and Vice Chair to the Events Committee, focusing on creating content for the RG Origin Trips. Steve is currently the C.O.O. of Linea Caffe, a micro-roastery based in San Francisco, CA.

In this conversation we discuss Steve's own now 25 year journey in being trained, becoming an educator, and the way he would love to see learning take place in roasteries that can deliver the most value for both the one being trained and the roasting company itself.

Links:

https://www.pocketknifecoffee.com/

https://lineacaffe.com/

Related episodes:

RoR Live! w/ Anne Cooper

Subscribe to Roast Magazine!

https://www.roastmagazine.com/subscribe

Now that you are the boss, manager, trainer, or leader, there is a lot of pressure to perform and prove yourself to those your lead AND to yourself. It is easy to question your legitimacy and fall prey to imposter syndrome. "I need to have the answers" is a thought that haunts us as anything less means we are not the right one for the job.

On today's Shift Break we will be talking about how we can overcome these thoughts and help others do so as well, by shifting our mindsets about what it is that makes us the right person for the role in the coffee shop and embracing discover as one of our main acts of service.

Related Episodes:

• 373 : The Owner's Role: 5 Behaviors for Effectiveness
• 420: Design Meaningful Roles in the Cafe
• The Affirmation Vacuum : How to make positive reinforcement a corner stone of your leadership and communication

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co.

Welcome to Part 2 of the Coffee Fest live on the show floor interviews from Anaheim, CA 2023!

This time we are starting off with an interview with Steve Chang, Founder of Copa Vida Cafe!

Currently the owner of Copa Vida Café (10 locations) as well as it's sister roasting company, True Beans Coffee Roasters and it's parent, HNF & Associates, Steve Chang has been in the Food Service business for over 17 years. He loves the Specialty Coffee world and feels a calling to create community through coffee, tea, and great food.

In our conversation we talk about what it takes to open a successful coffee shop that also integrates food as well as the values and lessons that have been keys to Steve's success.

Links:

https://copa-vida.com/

Next we get to talk with Jon Ferguson of Coffee Tech Central!

Jon Ferguson has been professionally involved within the coffee industry for over 15 years. Following his first specialty coffee cupping in 2005, he established and sold a small roasting company and continued his passion as a coffee buyer and broker for several national coffee programs. During his time as a barista, roaster, business owner, green buyer, and broker, he found a passion for the tools, equipment, and technology that allows our industry to thrive. In 2020, Ferguson established Coffee Tech Central where he focuses on espresso equipment sales, service, and support. Ferguson doesn't just sell equipment, he strongly advocates for his customers long term success through sharing industry experience, coffee knowledge and professional networking

Jon and I discuss the ins and outs of buying used equipment. This is a conversation you don't want to miss!

Links:

https://www.coffeetechcentral.com/

Related episodes:

• 238 : Leading, Hiring, and working with your Coffee Tech w/ Hylan Joseph
• 375 : Founder Friday! w/ Roland Horne of WatchHouse
• 414: Secret Ingredients for a Successful Coffee Shop

Sponsor:

www.coffeefest.com