Take a walk in your customers’ shoes to find out if your customer service needs improvement.

Be honest—when was the last time you met and chatted with one of your customers? If your answer is, “not lately,” you’re in the majority. But you’re also at risk of not knowing what customers experience when they frequent your café or restaurant—and not knowing what needs improvement will likely lead to a loss of business.

Every customer interaction is nuanced. If you can master those nuances with a little sales training for your staff, you’ll build connections and earn repeat customers. 

Like most coffee shops in the industry, you probably experience a rush of customers followed by lulls in business throughout the day. A little down time is good. It provides you with the opportunity to get things done around the shop. But if business becomes too leisurely you may have to ask yourself what you can do to increase your sales during these down times.

There is no easy answer, but you can experiment. And you have free resources at your disposal every day, if you choose to use them:

I’ve heard people who are considering opening a coffee shop say things like, “I think it would be fun to own a local hangout,” or “Everyone wants a coffee shop near them, so how can I go wrong?” Or even simply, “I love coffee, so why wouldn’t I love the business?”

It’s a weird word, cupping. Yet it's just ground coffee and hot water, with no fancy brewing process to affect its flavor. It’s what you’ve got to do to evaluate the characteristics of coffees, to understand their nuances — their basic tastes and defects — and how they compare to other coffees. And it’s something you can share with your customers with weekly or monthly cupping events — perhaps during a slower weekend hour.

As a business owner, workplace monitoring to keep an eye on employee activities is your prerogative when they are engaged in work for your café or restaurant. How you go about it will shape employee-management relationships, and could greatly influence productivity.

It's hard to know when to give raises to employees. Words of thanks go a long way, but monetary rewards and gifts go even further in retaining valued employees. While most restaurant and café owners can’t afford to give out annual raises (except perhaps irregularly, based on the merit of an exceptional employee), paying an above-market wage can actually save you money.