I walked into a major fast food breakfast place yesterday and was struck by how much emphasis they put on speed. There was a big poster above the drive through that read “one customer is a rush”. There were clocks everywhere. Every transaction was timed, and any job that took more than 2 minutes started blinking red. It still took more than 5 minutes to get my food, and when I got it, I was extraordinarily disappointed with both my food and my experience.
Had my food been of higher quality, or the wait been more enjoyable, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so disappointed, and this is what makes the difference. At so-called “slow-coffee” shops, the promise is that the product, be it a cup of coffee or a bagel and cream cheese, tastes good. And the wait should be enjoyable. The barista will greet you, chat with you (should you desire conversation), there will be good, optionally ignorable, music playing, and sometimes the customers will talk to each other. Customers at a coffee shop like that are willing to wait.
When I worked for Gimme Coffee, the customers would wait for 20 minutes or more because they knew that when they got their drinks, it would be worth the wait. The customers were mostly regulars, and the baristas knew them by name. These customers are willing to arrange their day by waking up 20 minutes earlier to make sure they have enough time to get coffee. For them it’s not about convenience, it’s about experience and quality. At Gimme, it’s not just the promise of a great cup of coffee. It’s about the customer knowing that at the end of the line, there will be a smiling face saying hello, making eye contact, and possibly knowing exactly what they want. It’s about managing the line from the moment the customer walks in the door to the moment they get their drink, making sure that everyone is greeted, and keeping them involved from when they order to when they pick up their drink.
One company that handles the line very well is Shake Shack (they even have a line on their website). For those who haven’t been, Shake Shack is a hamburger joint in Madison Square Park in Manhattan that routinely has waits of an hour or more for food. They have signs that estimate the wait times, a web cam so you can see what it looks like at that moment, and call ahead ordering in certain instances. They took the problem of having a long wait and ran with it. By embracing the line, they turned the simple act of getting lunch into an experience that people are excited to wait for.
But the problem with expecting customers to wait is that it doesn’t work with new customers. New customers, especially customers new to specialty coffee, will see a long line and walk away. On the rare occasion that they decide to try it, it becomes a challenge. You as the barista are now responsible for making a new customer, and you had better deliver the best coffee they have ever had. Otherwise the wait wasn’t worth it, and they won’t come back.
The trick is getting the product out before the wait becomes more of an inconvenience than an experience. So it is important to work as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. This means setting up everything where it needs to be before any customers walk in the door: have full hoppers, a clean working area, enough milk in the fridge, and everything within arms reach. It also means being staffed properly. Knowing when the rush starts and staffing to meet those needs will greatly add to the efficiency of the workflow. Once the product starts to slip, customers will notice and will stop waiting. But with proper workflow and proper staffing, high quality drinks can be produced quickly and efficiently, and that, combined with a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, will make customers keep coming back.