*Tungsten Steel Burrs from Malkonig = most consistent & reliable burrs out there.
Let's apply this to coffee; without the majority of these components being consistent and reliable, our business will fail and/or our coffee quality will suffer. (in no particular order):
- Roasted Coffee
- Customer Service
- Preparation of coffee
- Water - and all its variables
- Baristas
- Equipment
- Vendors
- Customers
How many times as cafe managers or trainers have we impressed the importance of consistency on our baristas? We sound like broken records! Tamp straight, don't over dose, weigh every shot, steam milk to the exact same temp every time, place the stamp on the bag in the right place, BE ON TIME, make sure that roasting curve is the same every time, the list can truly go on forever. Think about working bar and getting a new coffee, dialing it in and then focusing only on making it the absolute best espresso every time. What a sense of completion and accomplishment to be a consistently great barista! It's invigorating to feel like the Queen of the espresso bar, smiling at customers, and killing it in every way. That's why we do this right?
Let's now apply this to relationships/romantic/friendship/business or otherwise, we want the following to be reliable and consistent, otherwise our relationships will fail and/or the quality of our relationships will suffer.
- Friends
- Love
- Family
- Spouses/Partners
- Respect
- Clergy
- Neighbors
- Classmates
- Honesty
- Colleagues
- Customers
- Vendors
- Employers
- Business Partners
- Staff
Why can't we be the broken record in our relationships the way we do when working with coffee? I mean this in the best way possible. Allow me to explain; imagine if we were constantly pushing each other to be better. What if we applied the same type of commitment, care, persistency, love and energy into our relationships? What if we stood up and said more things like, "be nice to people, great job on holding the door open, thanks for the food, your service was excellent thank you for doing your job so well, thank you for sharing your experience with me, I've learned a lot" or "hey, I like you as a person, we should be friends, I've really enjoyed your time, you're really great at ________ and thank you for sharing that experience with me," or simply, "You can do it! I believe in you".
Imagine a world, not just in coffee, but in this short span of life we have on this planet, where we truly meant and used these words everyday: "I miss you, Thank you, How are you?, I love you. I hope you are well" or simply, "Thank you for being my friend."
Please know, I feel blessed by every one of my relationships daily, no matter how strong or distant, however; as I've aged, the struggle to love, if not simply respect, every human being has been the most challenging goal of my life. That being said, I am (to a fault sometimes) an extremely open and sensitive person, the rewards far out weigh the pain. But when it's painful, for me it's heartbreaking, I just have too much pride to show it sometimes, it's those friends that ask, don't judge or allow pride to scare them away.
*Devorah and I became friends by risking to trust someone I knew nothing about, but that she was a superb barista and consistently was sweet to everyone. She's been one of my most reliable friends to date. #consistentlybeingfriendly
Allow me to now tie this back into coffee, service and hospitality. Remember working bar again, and you walk over to the customer that has ordered a cappuccino for the first time in your cafe. You are nervous if they'll like it, if they'll complain, etc., but you go over and ask them how they liked it anyway... right? You're curious if you did a good job, if they love the coffee as much as you and mostly that they'll return... right? There's no pride in not following up with that customer, the pride is in following up, learning and growing from that experience right?
I challenge everyone out there to follow up with all of your relationships that you cherish this week. Follow up with them the way you would with that novice cappuccino drinker. Why? Simply because that's how I fell in love with cappuccinos and wanted to be a barista. That barista that followed up with me changed my whole life, for one small reason. . . she was truly reliable, consistent and had my best interest at heart. She took pride and ownership in those two qualities; consistency and reliability.
I challenge us all to bury our pride, before it buries us, just like that barista that changed my life.
Just imagine what we could do. How cool is it to change someones life? Simply by doing what we do best = consistently taking risks and giving reliably excellent customer service.
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