Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/55324
Building better Training in both technical and interpersonal skills is vital for baristas and other coffeehouse employees. BY PAN DEMETRAKAKES intimidating sight for a newcomer. Getting a new hire to operate one reliably and consistently, under pressure, is one of the biggest personnel challenges a coff eehouse can face. When you add to that the requirements for any foodservice P employee—running the cash register, dealing graciously with customers, maintaining effi cient work habits in general—the need for training becomes clear. "One of the major failures of coff ee businesses is the lack of a solid and eff ective training program; one that starts the moment the employee is hired and ends when he/she leaves," coff eehouse owner and consultant Jack Groot writes on his blog. "Th e failure to implement such a training program and maintain it through continuous improvement causes many businesses to operate beneath their potential, hinders growth in business value and has caused many a new business to fail." One of the biggest goals of training is consistency. If there's one thing that the history of Starbucks—of foodservice franchising in general—has taught, it's that customers like knowing exactly what to expect. "I've seen over the years, so many times, shop owners that hire somebody from this store over here and somebody from over there, and they all make the drinks diff erently," says Bob Burgess, owner of Seattle Barista Academy. "You can talk to almost anybody who goes through the drive-thrus and they'll tell you, 'Well, when I see this barista I know it's going to be good, and I see this one I don't even bother to stop.'" But while drinks should be reliably consistent, coff eehouses aren't. Th ey vary enormously in service variables like types of customers, volume, peak hours, menu off erings, ambience 10 | February 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com ulling a shot is a lot harder than fl ipping a burger. A gleaming, hissing espresso machine can be an and more. Th is makes it important to train baristas and other employees in the procedures and nuances of an individual establishment—how to do it "our way." "What we like to tell people is, you might have experience elsewhere, but we need you to kind of erase that," says Wes Herman, owner of Th e Woods Coff ee, a 12-store chain based in Lyden, Wash. "Not that ours is necessarily the right way, but it is our way, and we ask them to do things the way we have them. Th at way, we keep the consistency from store to store." PROMOTING FROM WITHIN To ensure that kind of consistency, many shops have a policy of promoting baristas solely from within. When workers start out on the cash register or busing tables, it not only gives them a chance to get used to the shop, it gives management a chance to see them in action. Starting people on the register is a way to see how well they relate to customers and understand the drinks, says Emeran Langmaid, owner of A&E Custom Coff ee Roastery, Amherst, N.H. "Th e cashier is learning all of these skills, and if we feel they have the capability, aſt er observing them in the cashier position, to move on to barista, then we'll go down that road," Langmaid says. Once a good barista candidate has been identifi ed, the fi rst step is teaching the individual skills involved in espresso-based drinks: grinding, tamping, pulling shots, wanding, etc. Which of these come easily, and which don't, varies by individual. "I wouldn't say that there's one specifi c skill" that gives students trouble, says Tom Vincent, owner of Texas Coff ee School, Arlington, Texas. "I fi nd that sometimes people who pick up the espresso side of things, meaning the grinding, dosing, tamping and shot-pulling, sometimes don't pick up