Satisfying your customers and building their loyalty at the coffee shop is one of the most coveted goals. Let’s understand what should be done and how.
Building customer loyalty means creating a bond, that isn’t a one-way relationship but one based on give and take. You need to be able to rely on your customers and your customers should receive a privileged service, which enables them to get something more at the same price.
Satisfied customers who come back to your coffee shop cost less, in terms of advertising, than passers-by you need to attract, without considering the fact that their word-of-mouth recommendations are an exceptional form of promotion.
Three are the starting points:
- Good product
- Good service
- Good quality for money
First of all, to ensure your customers are satisfied and wish to come back to your coffee shop, the coffee you serve should be good, both in terms of ingredients and preparation. This means using the most suitable blend for each type of coffee – espresso, lungo, ristretto, macchiato or corretto – as well as the machines at your disposal in the best possible way.
Behind every cup there lies a long story, a family, and a number of choices. It’s about expertise, experience and attention to detail passed down and perfected by each generation.
Service staff should be polite, detail-oriented (perfectly clean cup and table) and with a smile. Coffee served by someone with a serious or, even worse, angry expression doesn’t seem as good!
There should be good quality for money, without diminishing or over-rating your offer. In times of crisis, customers easily go for less expensive cafés.
The three points described above are simply the foundation for any type of trade but they are not enough to ensure your customers will always choose your coffee shop. Here are some tips to achieve a good level of customer satisfaction.
- Identify your target market
- Customise your service
- Propose loyalty cards
The first tip isn’t so obvious. Study the types of customer who come to your coffee shop at different times of the day. Office workers who stop for breakfast at the café? Mothers who have a cup of coffee after taking their children to school? Young guys who pop in for a snack after training? And aim at what they consume most so as to offer an increasingly wider selection of products, in line with what they usually order. Coffee is a ritual and playing on its different shades and pairings is definitely a good move to build customer loyalty.
Customising the service means knowing your customers well, anticipating customer needs and, perhaps, offer them some new tasty product (the latest vegan filling, a special coffee blend, etc.). If customers feel special and not just one of the many, they will be happy to come to your coffee shop regularly!
Finally, considering the lean times, you could also propose loyalty cards to earn a free cup of coffee, a discount or a product to take home.