The grumpy coffee maker - respecting your customer and their loyalty

I was getting a coffee the other day from my local café. I have been coming to this café on and off for around 29 years. One of many cafes I’ve frequented over the years. The coffee experience is really important to me. I even have a coffee name too for those special moments when I want to be anonymous and asked….name please? I’m not the first one to do this, by the way! Not only does the coffee need to last for a good five minutes, it can’t be luke or too milky. It’s got to have a great texture and have a good hit! 

And how do you consistently make a great coffee? You’ve got to have great skills, but more importantly, a good coffee making personality. One that says, I care about coffee, I’m serious about coffee, coffee runs through my veins and I’m happy to see my customers and set them up for their day, with a smile. A barista with personality and a smile has always won me over. And you don’t have a long conversation, just an acknowledgement or a quick “have a great day” is just fine! Forming a relationship with your barista is part of the coffee experience that you pay for.

Well on this day I came in, and my super awesome barista was gone! I got a newbie. I was greeted with a grumpy barista and a bitter tasting coffee that lasted my train ride into the city. Like Linguine from Pixar’s Ratatouille, this person should have never been behind a coffee machine. I felt like I should have taken a number and ordered chocolate baklava. I went back for a second day, and then a third, and the grumpiness was still there. I thought, that’s it. Am I the only one seeing this? I felt like a stranger in my own café?

So, the following day, I went somewhere else. I walked past my old place, with my take-away coffee in hand and the place was still full. I thought to myself…. Am I being judgemental? …Am I being snobbish? …Are people ready to accept mediocrity, like the coffee drinkers at BP? I didn’t bother complaining. I didn’t feel it was going to get me anywhere. As hard as it was to accept disappointment, I quickly moved on to discover new coffee places, There's a world of a thousand cafes in Melbourne, where the next super awesome barista will be there for me again. Perhaps the key message here is respect the customer and respect their loyalty!

And then I thought about all my work in Diversity & Inclusion over the years and the times where it felt like a perfect coffee hit, and consistently over time. I recall those moments where I got really excited when working with passionate and energized people who really understood the work, believed in the work and backed the work. and it didn't feel like a job. Quality, consistency, creativity, fresh ideas and thinking, feeling supported, included and valued. Good stuff just happened. And this wasn’t a fluke, as the people who ran the place, just like a great coffee shop, knew the effort required to produce the goods and deliver an exemplar coffee experience.

All it takes is for one bad experience, like a snag that was always hidden that appears from the surface of the river, to derail and deflate a person. And then if it happens a second or third time, you’ve probably lost the person. Not paying attention to what is impacting your people in D&I work can make you easily lose them, impacting your brand and reputation. They probably won’t tell you anything, secretly lose interest, disengage and go out and discover new worlds.