Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Quality vs. Speed

The question was asked:

When there is a surge of customers, do you hurry through the drinks, sacrificing quality for speed, or do you expect your customers to understand that it takes a couple of minutes to produce good lattes, and even more time when there's seven of them?

John Says...

Strive for perfection in every drink; it will show, and your customers will wait. On busy days, customers will stand in line for ten minutes just to have a shot of espresso. This need for waiting a long time is rare, but from time to time it happens. If you establish the quality of your product with every drink, including dumping bad shots during a mad rush, I really don't see it as an issue. What I do see is a golden opportunity to educate your customers on your commitment to serve each of them the best drink possible.