Want To Open Your Own Cafe? Here’s How To Manage Customer Expectations

Opening a cafe is a great business idea in 2024. People love having new, fun, and affordable places to eat and you could be the person to serve that up for them! Plus, it’s a lot of fun to run a cafe of your own – you get to decide the menu, set up the decorations, and throw events for the whole community!

But of course, the hardest thing to manage will be customer expectations. People who work the counter in a cafe have a lot more pressure on them than the average worker. For the time being, that’s going to be you and you alone! 

Handling this pressure takes a bit of practice, but you’ll soon get to grips with keeping your customers happy using the tips down below. Check them out if you’re interested in becoming a cafe owner in the next 6 months. 

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Be Clear About Wait Times

Being honest with customers is a good way to address expectation issues from the get go. That means being honest about how long they’ll have to wait for their tea to be prepared, or how long their bear claw will take to bake. 

If it’s going to take 5 minutes, fine! If it’s going to take 20 minutes, say so!

Providing for Food Hygiene

The very basic customer expectation is food hygiene. You’ll want to meet this each and every time. Don’t worry – it’s a lot easier to keep premises clean than you might think, even when you’re expecting toddlers who throw their food and tips and spills everywhere! 

To start with, invest in some specialized tools, such as a coffee grinder brush, to keep both your counters and the coffee machine/grinder clean between each cup you make. You should also get an inspection carried out at least once a year to see if you’re going wrong anywhere, as well as to keep an updated hygiene rating on your website. B and above only please! 

Respond to Negative Reviews in Productive Ways

You’re going to get a negative review at some point – unfortunately, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. When you do, don’t panic, and don’t let it get you down. Instead, respond to it in a positive and productive way.

Let the person know you’ve read their review and you’re keen to know more about their experience. You can then ask them to reach out personally if they want to open up a dialogue, but most of the time a simple explanation (which can be followed by an apology if necessary) will be just fine. 

Don’t waste too much time on this, but do be sure to respond. 

Hire People You Feel Confident About

Have you thought about potential hiring issues yet? Above all, you need to make sure you walk into the hiring process with your head in the right space. You shouldn’t feel pressured into hiring, but you shouldn’t think you can go it alone for as long as possible either. You’re going to need help when things get busy! 

Hire the people you feel confident about when you meet them, even if they don’t have many relevant skills or experience. They can learn on the job, and you can even train them if things work out beyond their probationary period. 

If Something Goes Wrong, Rectify it Quickly

If a customer drops their coffee, or they bring back a panini because it’s not hot enough, rectify the situation as quickly as you can. Most of the time this will mean putting the item back under the heater or remaking it if it’s simple enough. However, sometimes you will need to go through conflict resolution to ensure the issue is smoothed over. 

This sounds scary now, but if you take a relevant course you’ll be primed with all the skills you need to keep unhappy customers from getting too loud and overbearing. From here you’ll learn how to take a complaint and remind the customer in question you’re here to help. And remember, once you’ve sorted one issue, you’ve sorted them all!

Fancy opening your own cafe? Now’s the time to go ahead and try it out! 2024 is going to be a great year for the small hospitality sector, and you can get in on the ground floor of some very exciting food and drink ventures. So do your research, secure the best premises, and then focus on meeting the customer expectations that will matter so much in the long run.