“An iced americano with two shots of espresso and one shot of decaf espresso.”
My friend ordered his birthday coffee this morning.
He and I both worked in a coffee shop back in college. Some 20-odd years ago. His beverage sounded reasonable to me.
Then I ordered.
“Another one of those. And also, four shots of espresso.”
The owner of the cafe looked at us.
“You’re f***ing with me right?”
No…
She continued, “We pour double shots here. So you want… four drinks? Five?”
“No. Three drinks total. Two iced americanos with three shots each—one decaf, two regular. And a quadruple espresso.”
“So a double-double-espresso? Two americanos? And a shot of decaf?”
This went on for minutes and minutes. Then the owner asked “a real barista” (her words) to review the order and make sure it was right.
The barista was also confused so…
We went through the order again!
While the barista made our coffees the owner came to talk with us.
“I know how to program the back end computer system,” the owner said, “but I don’t know what I’m doing up here…
“We have the best coffee. We’re an exporter from Ethiopia”—I think she meant importer—”and we decided to open a café. We hired the best baristas we could find—even stole a few from [competitor]!”
“Oh that’s great. Yeah my drink isn’t complicated,” said my friend.
“We’ll get it right,” she said.
“One way to make it easier,” I said, “is to not call them ‘double shots.’ Just offer shots. Drinks come with two shots. Or whatever is ordered.”
“But they are double shots,” she said.
Then our order came up…
Two regular americanos. An iced espresso with four shots. And an iced decaf espresso with two shots.
Four drinks.
And EVERYTHING was wrong!
But the bill was paid and the tip was in.
She beamed at us. “Perfect.”
I keep thinking back to when she said, “but they are double shots.“
Why do I, the customer, care? It’s two shots, right? Two ounces of espresso? So call it two, even if the machine brews them in a single pass. Need an odd number? Figure it out, Chachi.
Asking for an iced americano with two shots of regular espresso and a shot of decaf espresso should not have been a challenge.
In marketing and customer service, it’s important to meet the customer where they are. Use the customer’s language, even if it’s not the technically-correct language of what you’re providing.
Make it easy to do business with you!
One way to do this?
Step away and have an outsider give your business an audit. Walk through the sales process, the website, the email funnel. Where do the customers trip up? Where do they fall off? What does your data say?
And then, get your ego out of the way… and fix the “problems”—even if you don’t see them as problems—so that your customers enjoy working with you.