How to Set Your Coffee Shop Apart
We live in a time where there are coffee shops on almost every corner, so how do you set your coffee shop apart? While the number of coffee shops to choose from is wonderful from a consumer perspective, it poses a challenge for new coffee shop owners. How do you capture the public’s attention? How do you make your coffee shop more desirable to visit than the one down the street? Is it simply having better quality coffee?
Finding Your Niche
It is certainly important to have high quality coffee and excellent customer service in order to make your coffee shop a desirable place to visit. However, in order to stand out from other coffee shops, it is important to add an additional service or unique product that few other coffee shops have.
To put it another way, you have to find your “niche.” Some examples of unique additions to your coffee shop include:
- Providing breakfast or lunch options
- Creating a safe outdoor green space for kids to play in
- Offering venue rental options
- Playing live music
- Adding a co-working space
- Providing free books to read
- Offering barista training classes for customers
- Hosting weekly art classes
- Adding massage chairs
- Hosting outdoor movie nights.
There are many more unique options, and each of these additions sets your coffee shop apart from others.
Advertising
Once you find your “niche,” it is time to begin advertising. Social media is always a great place to start. Then it is helpful to reach out to people already connected to your chosen unique service. If you have a space for children to play in, reach out to schools, families, and co-ops letting parents know of this new opportunity. Do you want to have live music? Reach out to local bands and their fans will likely come to support their musician and learn about your coffee shop. Plan to offer coffee training? Talk to your existing customers who may have friends interested in learning about coffee. Each unique service gives your customers one more reason to visit your coffee shop.
Of course, it is important to select unique services and products that match your values and atmosphere. These should be a compliment to your coffee shop, not a distraction.
At our second coffee shop location in Sunnyvale, Texas, we currently have an outdoor green space with lawn games for families, rental and catering options, made-to-order breakfast tacos and sandwiches, and occasional outdoor live music. These additional options provide unique and enjoyable options for our customers. We want to create a cozy, family-oriented atmosphere at this coffee shop, and this is why we chose the options we did. Families play lawn games after school, and customers rent our coffee shop for baby showers and graduation parties. Students grab breakfast before school, and the town enjoys live music together a few times a year. These features not only increase our profit and customer base, but it also strengthens the community and provides a healthy work environment for staff.
If you are opening a coffee shop, or if you already have one, we highly recommend you find some unique services or products to set your coffee shop apart from others. To learn more about our services at our Sunnyvale location, visit hopecoffeesunnyvale.com or visit our Instagram and Facebook pages.
