Guest-First: The Death of Pretentious Craftsmanship
The trope of the snotty barista is dead. The same goes for the uppity bartender or chef. Even the famed soup-nazi from Seinfeld is out of business.
When we separate our craft from the people we hope to serve, we trick ourselves into believing our craft can stand alone. But even the most responsibly sourced, perfectly prepared coffee in the world can’t save us from not saying hello when people walk through the door, missing small order details, forgetting our regulars names, or having no sense of urgency. I've been fortunate enough to dine at several 3 Michelin Star restaurants, and even at those, where the ingredients and preparation techniques are world-class, the service and human interaction leave the biggest impression.
In our stores, we use a triage system of Guest, Coffee, Caffe to keep this idea front and center. First and foremost, we take care of our guests, coffee comes second, and cafe issues come third. (We can all relate to how annoying it is to be standing in line somewhere and see no one at the register while an employee is cleaning the windows.) To hit our mark, we need all three components working together—we can't say we're taking care of our guests if we're serving subpar coffee in a dirty cafe. But starting with the Guest is a constant reminder of what's most important.
We can all learn to roast delicious coffee or build the perfect Manhattan. Skills that used to be closely guarded trade secrets are now in the public domain, and as it turns out, all of them are easier than emotionally connecting with hundreds of guests a day.
The trend of pretentious craftsmanship is over. Our guests don't exist as a means for us to pursue our craft, rather, our craft provides a conduit for delighting our guests.