The Break Down of a Great Barista

This month's Tea and Coffee Trade Journal arrived yesterday and -- like always -- I sat down to catch up on what was going on with coffee around the world. I found a great article, Ten Traits of Highly Successful Baristas, (not yet online or I would have a link to it) talking about the ten traits all great baristas have. This article was written by The Brand Coaches -- Lon LaFlamme and David J. Morris. They want to first make sure that everyone knows that you do not have to find a barista with past experience to make sure they cover the traits listed. It is about personality and they mention that it is sometimes easier to train the right person with no experience than to try and re-train someone with good and bad habits from some experience. Here is there list: 1. Customers Come First 2. Attitude/Personality 3. Appearance 4. Training 5. Teamwork 6. Ownership 7. Up-Selling 8. Memory 9. Quality 10. Multi-Tasking You can find great descriptions for each of these traits in the article. They also talk about what they call Customer Relationship Marketing. This idea of using customer relationship through your baristas is great. It not only gets the same people in day after day (several times a day for shops that I love), it also creates buzz when these people begin talking about your shop and their favorite barista. They touch on the fact that customers can tell when a business has employees that are not clicking. There is not a sense of ownership, no sense of real pride in their job, and no flow. This all leads back to culture of the business and ultimately the ability of the leader (or manager/owner) to lead the employees and train/teach them. It is important to equip your employees with the skills necessary for them to be successful. This will make your business successful. Find out what type of culture your business is going to have and lead by that example. Make sure your employees see you living it out so they have something to follow. In the coffee business, your barista is the face of your brand. Do not be nervous about hiring people with no coffee background but look for "brightness in personality and attitude, and the perfect fit for your highly defined company culture." ..be bold Tagged: Tea and Coffee Trade journal, Cafe Evoke Catering, coffee, espresso, bozeman, montana, company culture, barista, the brand coaches