The single most important part of a customer’s experience with your coffee shop is consistency. Customers rate an inconsistent coffee shop worse than a consistently mediocre coffee shop every single time. So why would you leave your shop’s consistency up for any kind of interpretation? An Operations Manual lays out all the procedures and recipes you need to keep your shop running smoothly at all times.
Consistency is one of the most valuable things you can bring to your employees, customers, yourself. Preempt legal trouble, set clear expectations, and motivate customers to keep coming back. Your employee handbook and operations manual are the rocks you build a healthy and less stressful coffee shop experience on. This bundle includes:
Once an employee reviews your Employee Handbook and signs it, your immediate next step should be to trade the handbook for your Operations Manual. Your Operations Manual should contain everything that an employee needs to know to do their job including recipes, specific technique guidelines, customer service expectations, cleaning expectations, and anything else that employee will need to know day-to-day.
“I needed something like this for my small coffee shop. We only have a handful of employees but I knew it was important to be sure they were all held to the same standard, for my customers to be able to expect the same drink every time they came in.”
Paul Lacdao Ann Arbor, MIWe all like to think our training is great, but we’re only human. We can make mistakes in our explanations or simply not be clear enough. With an Operations Manual, employees always have a trainer to go back to who will explain everything exactly the same way every time. Zero guesswork, just consistency.
Everyone hates having to be constantly reminded. Managers get frustrated, and employees get annoyed. It builds unnecessary tension among teams. Having an Operations Manual that lays everything out immediately can completely cut out these frustrating conversations.
“I didn’t have to think about all of the things I needed to get done! Opening and closing lists, drink standards, AND training manual? Saved me so much time!”
Max Villanueva Rochester, NYBad reviews come from a mismatch of expectations and experience. By offering the exact same experience to customers every time, you ensure that expectations are consistently met. If a customer is ever unsatisfied, you know exactly what to change to correct the problem for the future.
As a coffee shop owner, you will have a lot going on. So much that it’s easy to forget things. But your shop can’t afford that. With an Operations Manual, you don’t have to remember everything. It’s all there, written down for anyone to review. All tasks become a team responsibility, and you can free up your mind to focus on what only you can do: run the business.
