Coffee Shops Wage All-Out War on Laptop Squatters

How are coffee shops fighting the infestation of laptop squatters these days?Covering up outlets so customers have to leave when their batteries run out and/or changing the password to the WiFi every couple hours and only giving it to people who buy things. Some coffee shops even get rid of WiFi entirely. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Sony is even [...]

Scenes from the Coffee House

We’ve officially moved into our new house, but because the previous owners didn’t cancel their cable and internet in time for us to do a quick switch, we found ourselves living in the dark ages. No TV. No internet; and because most of our possessions are still in random boxes in random places – not [...]

QR Codes ~ Basics for Coffeeshop Marketing

What if you had a QR code artist design your brand logo into a QR code, printed it on tee shirts and gave the tee shirts away? There are unlimited uses for QR code. You could produce a QR code and tweet it out, driving a 10% discount coupon that all your Twitter followers could share with their friends to redeem at your store.

The Grocer (c 1900)

I think of the pride these small business owner’s had in the establishments and how they considered a clean and attractive storefront as essential to their customer satisfaction and retention.

Geolocation – Facebook Shelves Facebook Places – Are you using Foursquare?

In observing the social media adoption by the foodservice industry, Facebook Places was never a competitor to Foursquare. This begs the question – have you been using Foursquare or some other geo-location app to help drive customer loyalty and sales?

New Englanders — Passionate About Their Coffee

Despite living in Rhode Island for a decade, I was born and raised in New York, about an hour north of the city. My dad drank coffee regularly, and in high school when the seniors were able to walk off campus during their lunch hour, many would come back with cups branding the double letters [...]

Ritz Carlton Service for Cafes ~ Building Customer Loyalty

Do you train your staff on memorizing customer preferences? Do you reward employees that develop great skill in this? What is the value to your business if one customer like me brings in five new regular customers?

Facebook Ads for Cafes ~ Ten Block Rule

Solutions for Operators There’s an old adage in the restaurant industry about where your customers come from. It’s the Ten Block Rule. The Ten Block Rule states that 80% of your customer base comes from a ten square block area around your business. Does this hold true for your shop? Have you taken the time [...]

Basic Social Media for Cafes

Solutions for Operators Social media for foodservice and coffeeshops has exploded in the past two years. Is your business taking advantage of this effective communication tool to reach customers and build brand loyalty? For the cost of a few hours a week, a cafe can build new relationships, strengthen existing relationships and increase sales. There’s [...]

Item Costing Your Menu

Solutions for Operators A standard practice in the restaurant industry is to calculate the food cost of every item you sell. Knowing this cost allows you to a) purchase ingredients more wisely and b) maintain and train staff to standards. There is a time investment in making these calculations, but the reward is a “tighter [...]