How to make your coffee shop bulletproof and thrive during the pandemic

In 2020, a lot has changed when it comes to coffee shop operation best practices. So much had to be changed, adapted, and improved to make sure 

If you are starting a new business, you might also be interested in our previous post on “How to start a new cafe with no money“.  

Most of our clients were fully focused on dine-in over takeaway, looking successful and busy from outside, but making very slim margins due to extra service required to achieve high volume sales. A takeaway venue would have reached the same volume with much less investment.

Here are some very simple but powerful steps you can take to make your business ready for the coming years.

Adapt your coffee shop so it is takeaway friendly

Make sure your cafe business has accessibility for people to easily order take-away. Go outside,  put yourself in your customer’s shoes, walk around the cafe, and ask yourself the following questions:

• Are there are tables on the way to the counter?
• How quickly can you deliver the coffee and the food?
• Is your workflow adapted for takeaway?
• Where would you be waiting for your takeaway to be delivered?
• Is it easy and accessible when more people are waiting or it is hard and you have to move around obstacles?

All these details can be the difference between a successful takeaway operation and a total failure. 

Implementing Third-Party Delivery Apps

The use of apps allows customers to order their meals and receive them at their door without having to leave their homes or workplace. The main apps in the Australian market are DoorDash, Deliveroo, UberEats, MenuLog. Here are some of the advantages of using a third party App as a point of sale in your cafe business are:

• Use of technology – studies say that more and more young adults in the US are using technology for doing their shopping, which also includes purchasing meals, electronics, and clothing. This is exactly what we are seeing across our clients that have been using Apps as a point of sale, in fact, some of our clients claim that 45% of their revenue is now coming from their customer ordering through Apps.
• Exposure of your business to further audience, consumers that cannot see your business but on their Apps;
• Exposure to young adults that are adept to technology and reach for food apps not only as a convenience but mostly as the day-to-day behaviour;
• Convenience to clients that don’t want to leave their homes or their workplaces;
• Most of the apps now offer integration to some of the most used POS systems such as Lightspeed and Kuonta, hence making it very easy to reconcile and track its ROI;

Create More Sales with a Retail Outlet Cafe Business

During COVID-19 we have helped several of our clients to set up their cafes as a retail outlet. It is a great way to create new revenue streams and maximize revenue. Some examples of the retail section include but are not limited to displaying the following products:

• Coffee Beans Retail packs;
• Tea Retail Packs;
• Coffee appliances such as small coffee makers;
• Coffee Capsules;
• Vegan milks not available in supermarkets, milk options such as MilkLab, BonSoy, some specific Oats Milks;
• Reusable Coffee Cups;
• Chocolate and Chai Powders

We have witnessed some of our clients even selling other types of exotic products such as high-end olive oil, fresh bread, locally made honey, and jams. Make sure you display quality products that are not available in regular supermarkets, it will be likely to sell.

Make sure you have a covid safety plan in place

It is important for your customers and the whole community to know that you are making sure your business is a safe environment for them to consume from,

By accessing this link, you can access the NSW guidelines for a General Covid-19 safety plan.  

There, you will find guidelines on how to put in place actions in these main areas:

• the wellbeing of staff and customers
• physical distancing
• hygiene and cleaning
• record-keeping.

Also, if you would like to hire professional cleaners to help with the hygiene of your business, here are some reputable companies:

https://www.clean-group.com.au/covid-19-sanitising-cleaning-sydney/

https://forensiccleaning.com.au/coronavirus-decontamination-cleaning-sydney-nsw-covid-19/

COVID19 Coronavirus & Commercial Cleaning