Interview with Emma Markland Webster from NZ Speciality Coffee Association
Before you take the plunge and open your own café, empower yourself and your team with training and knowledge. Work in a café! Get the feel of being on the other side of the counter, working alongside the people who make a café run and interacting with the people who will pay your wages.
Another place to explore is the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association (NZSCA), which provides a forum for communication, professional development and coffee excellence.
Emma Markland Webster, NZSCA Event Manager, NZ’s OG barista champion and coffee mentor, explains how investing in staff training and doing your own research will give your cafe the best possible start.
Research and building networks
Do your research. Have a plan and a style and stick to it – that will assist you make choices around everything from food, décor and signage to music, marketing and customer service. The process of writing a business plan will help you take a close-up look at the local area, define your customers and research the financials.
“Listen to all the feedback, but don’t take it all on board” says Emma. “You’ll get both positive and negative feedback at all times along the journey. Remember you can’t please everybody so use negative feedback as an opportunity to turn it into something positive.”
Reaching out to people in the industry with your coffee or business questions, will pay off. The NZSCA website has an A-Z of coffee experts and can help you find the best roasters, technicians or suppliers that fit with your business vision and style and help you create a strong business plan. Once you have your plan, your café and vision sorted, it’s time to look at employees and education.
“A café can have several areas that need to be assessed and trained in. First and foremost, I would focus on customer service, both external and internal.”
Barista training
Training is essential for anyone in the coffee industry – the more knowledge your barista has, the better that person can share experience, make tasty coffee and use the equipment correctly to achieve sales. Knowing how to clean and operate the coffee machine, as well as provide exemplary customer service is the key. A good programme will feature a component of service.
Training can boost your business in the following ways:
- Build confidence. When baristas have the professional training to make excellent coffee quickly and easily, it boosts their confidence. Emma recommends Barista Training Level One as the basic knowledge level for specialty coffee making - check out http://nzcra.org.nz/education/ for more information. “With training, you can inspire your staff to be successful, have fun, and enjoy their work.”
- Builds efficiency. When baristas are well-trained, they can easily cope with the busiest times of the day with minimum stress and minimum wastage.
- Improves employee satisfaction and retention. Your barista is one of the café’s most important assets. Many café owners invest heavily in their coffee products and machinery instead of the barista. As Emma says, “Investing in your staff not only empowers them, but it also positively impacts your business in the long term.” People who feel invested in, in turn feel invested in the success of your café and are more likely to stay longer.
- Improves customer service. A well-trained barista prepares excellent coffee skilfully and with a relaxed and friendly style that will keep customers coming back. Emma emphasises that the best hospitality businesses have exceptional customer service. “It is not just about serving great coffee, but also about the customer experience that goes along with the product. Your customer’s encounter is ultimately in the hands of your staff, they are your business.”
- The chance to enter barista competitions. Professional training for your barista will enable them to have the skills and confidence to enter barista competitions like the Meadow Fresh NZ Barista Championship or the Meadow Fresh NZ Latte Art Championship. Emma highly recommends encouraging your staff to take part, “I would always tell anyone to give it a go. You may want to volunteer first to find out more. What you will discover is a fantastic opportunity. Competition forces you to think outside the square, push yourself out of your comfort zone that is everyday work in a café.” The main win is that “competition exposes them to the latest coffee trends and innovations, helps them build networks within the industry, as well as showing them the importance of striving to do better.”
- Building community “When baristas take part in trainings or competitions, as a judge, competitor or volunteer, it’s a great way for a café to celebrate and shout about their coffee business, and for their customers to get right behind them,” says Emma. “They can also be a fantastic platform to build new networks for those wanting to grow their knowledge and careers.”
Ultimately, there’s a lot that goes into a cup. Getting the basics of research, education and networks nailed first will put you in good stead to create an establishment that employees will want to work in and customers spend money in.
