Inevitably my conversations with people turn to coffee at some point. Usually its my fault when people ask me what I’m interested in, or I ask them what coffee shops they like. But regardless, this exercise always produces interesting market research for me about the general coffee consumer. The thing that always surprises me, is how many people consider themselves a coffee aficionado. Usually, I’ll say that I’m a coffee guy, and they will respond with the fact that they are too. Then I start talking about some geeky coffee thing, and they’ll say, “Oh, you’re REALLY a coffee guy.”

They are surprised that there are people out there that obsess over the fine points of extraction, or pressure profiling or processes at origin. The important point is that before I started boring them with obscure coffee debates, they considered themselves an expert.

So imagine this “expert” who has been drinking Starbucks for the last ten years and maybe graduated to Peets or the Coffee Bean in the last couple years walks into a third wave shop. What they see is different, names of farms and promises of blueberry and bergamot. This moment creates discomfort in many people. This is the golden moment for a customer service focused barista to build a bridge from discomfort to a positive different coffee experience.

Notice I said different and not better. When the barista asks the expert what he wants, he may just say I want a regular cup of coffee because he is uncomfortable making choice among currant, winey or kumquat. A great response would be to ask the customer what he is used to drinking and then explain how this may be a different experience. Again, different not better. Offer the coffee on the menu that still has some of the chocolate and caramel notes that can serve as a gateway and a relationship is formed.

Far too often standing in line at a third wave shop I have witnessed a smirk instead of a smile during this type of interaction. A smirk to an “expert” is a slap in the face, and who really are we to tell someone who has been drinking coffee for 20 years that they are wrong when a cup of coffee is such a subjective experience? All we can do is offer something new, and make it remarkable enough that the expert feels empowered instead of embarrassed. They might even come back to check out the bergamot.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 14th, 2012 at 7:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.