What coffee culture means and how to create it

A culture that keeps your barista happy

Dave Makin from Axil Coffee Roasters says that the moment the customer connects with the barista is actually the pointy end of a process that venues should cultivate to keep staff happy. 

“Team culture is so important, and there are certain fundamentals you can’t ignore: make sure everyone’s paid correctly, paid on time, super is in their account when it’s meant to be. These are basics but they lead to a better vibe.”

Additionally, having a consistent team culture combined with a consistent coffee culture helps shape the brand that you want to create. 

“We pride ourselves on trying to be consistent every day. If a coffee one day is a nine out of ten, but the next day it’s a four out of ten, then people aren’t going to go to that cafe. So what we do at Axil venues is serve a consistent eight out of ten every single day. And when that’s combined with a great barista experience, you can’t disappoint anyone.”

Cultivate a deep relationship with your coffee supplier

Dave also believes that the coffee culture at your venue is directly influenced by the venue’s relationship with their coffee supplier. 

“You shouldn’t just be getting coffee in a bag from your coffee supplier. That’s a bad relationship. You should be getting more than coffee.”

To that end, Axil offers free barista training courses - but finds that venues don’t answer the call. 

“We offer huge amounts of support to all of our wholesale customers. And part of that is barista training courses. There's six different courses completely free of charge, and we even offer help with social media marketing…but we struggle to get people to book.” 

Your coffee supplier can help you (more than you know!)

The disconnect between venues and their coffee suppliers is because time and resource poor venue owners are generally time poor, and some are simply not cognizant of how much help they can actually get from their coffee supplier. 

“A lot of cafe owners either don’t know they need help, or just don’t ask for it, so then they just get their coffee in a bag,’ says Dave. “The other problem is that often when things are free, people don’t see the inherent value in it.” 

Despite this hurdle, Dave still believes that because of the nature of the coffee roaster/venue relationship, “it’s actually up to us to see when someone's struggling and offer help before people have to ask for it.” 

He’s seen the nature of this close relationship play out in different scenarios, which have made it clear that the relationship isn’t just transactional. “Coffee suppliers have such a different relationship to their customers. For example, your coffee machine has a problem. Even if it’s Sunday, you won’t have an issue calling your coffee supplier. But you wouldn’t necessarily call a chicken supplier or a chip supplier out of hours.”

Essentially, the advice from our experts boils down to one simple fact: hospitality runs on relationships, whether it’s the relationship to your customers, or the relationship to your suppliers…especially when it comes to coffee. If you use the knowledge of your suppliers and pass that on to your baristas, and you ensure that you’re doing everything you can to create a nurturing environment for your staff…then you’ll be well on your way to a happy and healthy coffee culture.