a) Employee concerns: hold weekly meetings to keep up with concerns and to address them in a timely manner. Have a suggestion box so that employees can address concerns anonymously. Have employees list the most important aspects of their jobs so that management understands each employees priorities. Have an "open door policy" so that employees feel comfortable coming to management with questions and concerns.
b) Loyalty: have frequent customers cards offering a free cup of coffee after paying for 10 cups. Keep an excel file of customer information including all the information that grandpa knows about each customer. Offer free coffee for customer birthdays. Post pictures on a bulletin board so that customers feel special.
c) Remaining competitive: should have a lot to do with customer loyalty since initially we won't have the money to invest in top of the line equipment or technology. Constantly visiting area coffee shops see what the competition is offering. Holding focus groups to get feedback from the community.
Starbucks Rumor
ReplyDeleteSome of this may be relevant to other parts of the business but I posted it here for now since it relates to employees.
- Address employee concerns
o Identify examples where other cafes have survived despite the opening of a nearby Starbucks
o Provide ongoing employee training to develop great people skills, teach employees about coffees and nutrition to make them experts.
o Offer a free meal to employees for every shift of at least four hours and encourage them to try different things so they better know the menu.
Give all employees taste of specials for familiarization/recommendation purposes.
o Hire employees who are interested in becoming knowledgeable about the coffee/restaurant business, healthy eating and the benefits of the super foods in the specials on the menu.
o Encourage employees to contribute menu ideas or information about great foods or buying opportunities to keep the specials diverse.
- Employee Focus
o Appearance standards
o Focus, diverse, educated and healthy workforce. Make the café a place where employees want to work.
o Good perks- Employee and their party discounts, profit sharing, recognition, Paid days off based on performance.
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- Some of the above can also be used to build customer loyalty and enable the café to compete in a changing and competitive environment.
I mostly had the same ideas as you all listed:
ReplyDeleteEmployee concerns:
-have open door policy
-periodically meet with your employees, talk to them about their jobs, their concerns, expectations, etc. (Dr. Jones job creation ideas)
-work on creating an environment of trust and appreciation among all employees, regardless of their position or title with the coffee shop
-encourage employees to be creative, speak their mind when they have new idea that can improve the performance of the shop
-educate employees by providing training and information on coffee brands and nutritional facts
-encourage diversity, our coffee shop is place where “everybody” is welcome
Loyalty:
-free coffee on birthdays
-coffee cards, free cup of coffee after 5 cups
-bulletin board with pictures of employees and customers together
I am picking one from our old Organizational Behavior class - Stories and morals ... reinforce how we survived thru ages by telling stories and how we all did them together. This has a great effect on employees. They tend to identify themselves with the working unit.
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