Dear Customer: Inside the World of Baristas, Upselling, and the Rules of Serving a Special Cup of Coffee

You cannot make everyone happy, and we all know that pissed-off people are more likely to say something. An upset person will tell 10 people, but a happy person will not tell anyone.

But the greeter is the most important spot not only because of the interaction before and after the sale, like upselling and bakery add-on, but also because the greeter also handles 99% of the coffee questions like the difference between light and dark and where coffees come from

There are romance novels about baristas, not the greeter

“Don’t be afraid to tell a customer a coffee is not for you. We don’t need to love everything we sell and it builds credibility.”

You cannot make everyone happy, and we all know that pissed-off people are more likely to say something. An upset person will tell 10 people, but a happy person will not tell anyone.

People love attention. I found that people tipped, and tipped way more, when I spent time with them offering different things. People appreciate the effort.

You can tell if someone knows they are fucking around when you catch them fucking around. If they quickly try to look busy, then they were consciously fucking around. If they don’t try to act busy or come up with an excuse than they are a lazy dumbass.

The bottom falling out means a manager doesn’t have enough people to cover the hours. Or enough people to adequately cover the store hours, or enough decent people. You are forced to cover the hours with people who don’t care about speed of service, upselling, not upsetting customers, or really anything except getting a paycheck. You may recognize these people when you walk into your local McDonalds or Subway. Lifeless, droll people going through the motions of selling and serving.

There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to be good at something and just not knowing how to be good at it.