34 Get your customer flow right
The customer flow, in all aspects of your business, is vital to your
success, particularly if you operate a traditional counter service
operation and not table service.
Time after time we find the easiest way to increase profits within
coffee businesses is to pick apart the flow and ensure that the
customer has a greater, more logical selection of food and drinks
beside them the entire length of the queue.
For example at lunch you must ensure that if a customer is buying hot
or cold food, you have provided easy access to a large selection of
drinks. Providing trays within easy reach enables more food to be
carried easily. You mustmake the process of buying easy. Too often it is
made frustratingly difficult for the customer. Making trays hard to find
and not restacking them, keeping drinks behind the counter, forcing the
customer to ask the server, placing savoury food after sweet food and
confusing the customer - these are all cardinal sins. If you frustrate or
confuse the customer then he or she will buy less – it’s as simple as that.
The science of customer flowis something that you must pay
attention to and there are great lessons to be learnt from all the
large chains. They play with flow and product placement and
measure the results. Even if your format is different, you need to be
out there observing other similar businesses and timing how long it
takes their queues to flow in comparison to yours. There is a lot to
be learnt from the supermarkets too in this respect.
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