Amidst the thriving community of artists, hipsters, advertising jerks and junkies of Redfern street there is a silent battle raging.
The battle of the Cafes.
For the purposes of this article I’m going to focus on 2 cafes that share a close proximity. Lets call them Cafes ‘a’ & ‘b’
12 Months ago, there was only cafe ‘a’ & ‘d’. Cafe ‘a’ was the place to go, it was constantly full of hipsters, had a barrista who brewed consistently decent coffees, and was run by friendly, personable staff who would remember your name and coffee order. Then something happened. The cafe was sold by its existing owners and a new owner took hold. From here there was a sudden decline across the board, the staff started turning over and the service went from friendly, chatty banter to order your coffee, wait silently and get out. The quality of coffee made started varying as different barristas of varying skill level worked behind the machine and there was a lack of energy about the people who worked there.
Then something happened. A new cafe, cafe ‘b’ opened across the road, this cafe was a small, no fuss event. It has a rotating roster of about 3 barristas who all brew a decent cup and 4 service people all of whom were friendly, happy to be where they were and energised. They were selling a great coffee blend, were always keen to have a chat about life and really tapped into the hipster vibe of the area with a mishmash of furniture and milk crates out front.
Suddenly cafe ‘a’ was near empty and lines snaked their way up Redfern street as people waited on their morning pick-me-up from cafe ‘b’, all the while smiling and chatting patiently in the knowledge that they would be getting great service and a terrific product.
So what’s the lesson for businesses in this?
The lesson is to never get stagnent, never take your eye off the prize. We must seek excellence in all that we do, because if your service or your product decline in quality all it takes is for someone else to step up, be relevant and do it well, and everything can fall apart.
