Good Coffee and Your Bottom Line
(and my great, yet surprisingly
simple - coffee recipe)
© Wanda Loskot
First - my coffee philosophy.
I'm sure you'll agree that it's hard to judge the quality of some services
until we experience them. Most of the time before deciding whose service
to use, the only basis for our choices are our conversations with service
providers, their printed materials, perhaps testimonials, and -- if we're
are lucky --someone we know and trust, who is willing to provide advise
(sometimes even more than willing). Even in the best circumstances, we
wish we could have more reasons to be confident when entering a new business
relationship...
It is important to remember about all of this when we are selling our
own services. No matter how great our marketing materials, people don't
know how good we are until they experience what we do for them. And until
they experience it, they are entitled to be skeptical, reserved and still
thinking about the idea of hiring someone else instead us.
We need to understand, that in the meantime they make their judgments
based not on the quality of our work - which they simply cannot comprehend
- but on the quality of our brochures and business cards, the way we look,
talk, and yes - even the way we dress. That's why offering only a good
quality of free sample of our product or service is so important!
I'm sure you are aware that the more positive points we score in that
process, the more likely we will establish a good rapport and trust, the
more likely that will lead to a long term relationship.
Now, what does all of this have to do with my coffee recipe? - you might
ask. Everything!
I believe that by serving my prospective clients (and everyone else
for that matter) a good cup of coffee not only can I score additional positive
points, but also create in their mind a lasting impression that I am creative,
resourceful, detail oriented, and that I care more about quality than about
my own convenience. By serving a superb cup of coffee in a pretty demitasse
instead of that styrofoam cup, with a cute little teaspoon instead of plastic
stirrer - I plant in the subconscious mind of my prospect a thought that
if I pay so much attention to serving a cup of coffee, chances are great
that indeed I will pay as much attention to my work, as I promise. Which,
of course, is true.
Note: Not everyone likes coffee - so all of the above
applies to serving tea, juice, water or whatever drink you serve (except
I must admit, I have no awesome tea recipes).
OK, now let's get that coffee recipe
Almost everyone who has tried my coffee, has asked for that recipe
- be prepared that they will ask for yours, too. But before you are able
to make and serve my great coffee you need a few things:
A good coffee maker with fluted, melita style filters - in the average
all-American coffee maker water drips far too fast!. You can get a superb
coffee maker for FREE from Gevalia Coffee
- all you need to do is sign up for a $10 trial shipment of their great
coffee beans....
.... which is the second thing you need: good quality freshly ground
(or almost freshly ground) coffee beans - ground specifically for those
cone-shaped melita filters. Fine ground, almost as fine as for espresso
but not quite.
Now, add the flavor.
Get a specially flavored coffee. From your gourmet store, or from on-line
catalog like
this one (no, I am not involved with them - maybe I should :-).
I suggest a simple chocolate flavor - and mix half and half with some regular
coffee. You will end up with just a little taste of something divine instead
of killing a true coffee flavor. (I also mix a regular coffee with decaf,
because I don't want to get hyper after a few cups).
Use 1-2 heaped teaspoon of coffee per cup of water.
Be generous!
And here comes my secret!
After you pour water to your coffee maker, pour almost the same amount
of milk to your glass carafe - the one that coffee will drip into and turn
on your machine. While the coffee drips, the content of the carafe is being
warmed by the hot plate on the bottom - so, you don't have to dilute coffee
with cold milk, add fattening cream or mix in that horrible powdered coffee
creamer. But remember to be generous and put enough coffee in the filter!
And that's it. It is that simple.
Just make sure to serve it in demitasse cups - not in mugs or in a
paper cups!
Serving an extraordinary cup of coffee is far easier (and less expensive)
than printing a stack of glossy, colorful brochures - yet it creates more
lasting impressions. Try it! You will be amazed how this little thing (of
course coupled with your other customer service efforts) can lead establishing
more rapport, more trust, more clients - and more success in your business.
