“Wake up and smell the profit” was our first book. Originally self-published the book was published by How To books in 2008. It has now sold in excess of 20,000 copies and sells well throughout the world. We even have an Indian publisher for it now. Available in both Kindle and hard copy.
The second book – published November 2009 – was aimed at both existing owners and those of you who have yet to dip your toes into the murky world of coffee shop ownership (or management). It has also sold approximately 20,000 copies and consistently sits in the top ten of all business books on Amazon.
Book three – not just advice from us this time. It’s a collection of advice based on 700 interviews with coffee shops and specifically interviews with 22 of the very best in the world. In this book we test our own theories as to what makes a successful business and see how it applies to the great and the good.
If you’ve yet to open or are open and looking for inspiration you cannot fail to pick up some great nuggets of information from these interviews.
Hi John!
One of my clients in the past was Marriott. The story of the founder is interesting. He asked himself where, in such a big business, could he make a difference. He decided he would read the customer comments and reply to them where possible. So he the owner of the business was in a direct dialogue with the customer – particularly those who complained – and he was the one person who could make a difference. So he made the complainers into regular customers and encouraged the complainers to be his strongest advocates. This led to another idea of his I like, which was to give each guest a bunch of tickets, each worth $5, with the request, ‘ when you receive good service from a Marriott employee, give them a ticket’. Suddenly, his guests were empowered to reward good service and his staff were motivated to provide good service and Management could quickly see which employees were pleasing the guests the most and why and were able to encourage all staff towards specific behaviour that added value.
Best
Lyall Davidson
Hi Lyall
Thanks for both of those stories. Great stuff and you can be fairly certain I’ll be repeating them! I consistently emphasise the use of comments cards for all sorts of reasons but as you rightly say they need to be read and acted upon.
Cheers
John