It’s not a secret that coffee shops are becoming more and more popular in the UK.
They are on the rise this year and the annual market revenue is expected to have a 6.3% growth until the year 2024.
Either you want to jump on the trend or just want to express your love for coffee – there are a lot of problems you’ll face while opening a new coffee shop. We’ll describe the most common ones and try to help you manage your business successfully.
High Competition
With the coffee shop market growth in the UK, you will find yourself competing against other independent coffee shops, chains, and non-specialized cafes. Yet, your chance to win a market share is high if you clearly define who your potential customers are.
Center your coffee shop on one theme. For example, create a coffee “bar” or make it 80’s music themed. By stylizing your place and menu, you’ll trigger the customer’s curiosity and target a more specific audience.
Let your team members take barista courses and experiment in their free time. You will find them suggesting new recipes and ideas for the unique drinks and snacks, which can help you stand out of the boring market.
Slow Service
There are a lot of people who take up working as a barista for the first time in their lives, that’s why you will be risking to get slow service when hiring them. Yet, user-friendly POS can resolve this issue, because the teaching process will be very quick and easy.
It’s best if you get a cloud coffee shop point of sale software and install it on a tablet. It’s important that your POS will work offline in case the connection breaks off.
If you pick a good POS, its interface will be easy to learn and won’t require any long term staff training. Quality technology minimizes the errors and issues, and makes the process a lot quicker; you can even attach the pictures to the drinks and snacks.
Demanding Customers
It’s possible that you’ll find a lack of customers because your service fails to meet customers’ expectations. That’s okay when you are a beginner and don’t have enough experience in the field.
Remember that you should hire positive, talkative and patient people to take the orders or brew the coffee. It’s easier to teach employees how to make delicious coffee than improve their social skills and be more entertaining and helpful when chatting with customers.
Negative Feedback
Being a customer of any food chain or a cafe, you could’ve noticed how much negative feedback is being published online nowadays. That’s true, negative reviews on social media and order platforms are a huge problem you will meet but need to learn to cope with.
Although it can be hard to listen to your customer complain, yet, it’s the best way to deal with negativity online. Learn to endure your emotions and teach your staff members to do the same.
Talk with customers while making eye contact and listen carefully until they stop, and always apologize for the problem caused. Try to resolve the issue by serving another drink, exchanging the snack or giving them a refund, if nothing else helps.
Money Shortage
Sometimes you can face a problem of becoming short on money. Many first-time entrepreneurs experience problems with cash flow management. The thing is, you can definitely overcome it.
The first thing you need to do is to reconsider and see what costs you can cut to get rid of the expenses that cause you to lose the biggest amount of money.
One of the best solutions will be to count what drinks or snacks are the least popular and stop investing in the products for them.
There are definitely a lot of problems you will face as a coffee shop owner, but it’s important not to lose your drive and keep going. Find exclusive solutions and reach the top of your business by improving.
