I’m sharing this experience with you for what it was worth to me personally !  The experience was pretty

 normal in many ways, but the process of blogging it was where the benefit arose.  You see by thinking about what to write and then drafting the story below, it has forced me to revisit our business to make sure that we are “making good coffee”.  Read on and hopefully it will all make sense………….

My three year old was due back to Daycare this week, so my wife and I promised him a brekky outing on the weekend as he had been “requesting” pancakes on an almost daily basis of late…………there are afterall priorities in a little boy’s life and pancakes just so happens to be one of them !  🙂

We set-off to a well-known Pancake House in town and my wife and I ordered a cup of coffee each.  Now whilst I have been criticised by friends for being a bit of a coffee snob (I refuse to drink instant), having spent years in hospitality I am partial to a good cuppa.  And so, I waited patiently for my coffee to appear and when it did I just knew it wasn’t going to be a good experience.  Firstly, I had ordered a mug only to be delivered a cup.   There was this tiny bit of tatty floating white stuff amongst what looked like very dirty dishwater and smelt like burnt coffee.  Lifting the cup to my lips, I could feel the heat of the beverage and was prepared for the fact that I was going to blister my tongue and unfortunately I was right, the milk had been burnt so the coffee was dangerously hot !

It’s funny because the rest of the meal was quite passable – nothing fantastic, but certainly nothing terrible either.  The service was satisfactory through the meal process and became good at the end when we were asked if everything was to our liking and I commented that the coffees were not at all good and explained very politely why.  The waiter apologised and whisked the full cups away asking if we would like another, which we declined.  He then came back to our table and informed us that he had removed the items from our bill, which I thanked him for and we went to pay the bill.

In the car on the way home my wife and I commented to each other that we would likely not rush back in main due to the coffee, which got me to thinking about the number of establishments that I visit where the coffee is poor and how I usually make a mental note not to go back unless something else about the visit is particularly special.  What it means is that everything/everyone else has to work that much harder to win my custom as they couldn’t get the little thing (making the coffee) right in the first place.

Am I being a bit harsh ?

Possibly !  But I don’t think that I would be alone in thinking this way.  I am not for a moment suggesting that I cannot be won over simply because of a bad cup of coffee.  There are certainly places that we frequent where the coffee is only just passable, but everything else is brilliant !  But it is JUST THAT point that I am making……..everything else has to be way above par, when in reality all they needed to do was get the small stuff right. 

We are spoilt for choice here in Australia and in general we are well informed about the way food & beverages should be served, not to mention how a venue should present; the cleanliness of toilets and food facilties and a myriad of other “small” things that add up in the “big scheme” of things !!!  So, metaphorically speaking it made me think about the “quality of OUR coffee” and made me retrace some of our practices with the view to considering if any of our services are working harder to make up for some of the others…………….

……….when was the last time you checked on your coffee ???