7 Benefits of a KDS in a Coffee Shop

How can you increase coffee sales and streamline your barista’s experience? For the average coffee shop, order accuracy and speed is a crucial part of success. This blog will take a look at how you can increase sales, improve sustainability, and benefit from modern technology.

How To Increase Coffee Sales

The first step of growing your business includes reaching more people. This process requires building interest in your brand, increasing brand visibility, and building a strong reputation that drives word-of-mouth referrals. However, it’s also vital that you provide an excellent product and experience as you attract more customers or your efforts could backfire. 

Here is a three-pronged approach to help boost coffee sales for your shop.

1. Offer a Valued Product

• Quality Products: Ensure your coffee and related products are of the highest quality. Use fresh, ethically sourced beans and invest in skilled baristas to create exceptional beverages.
• Menu Innovation: Regularly update your menu with seasonal and trending drinks. Offer unique and customizable options to attract a broader customer base.
• Online Ordering: Offer customers the option to order online so they can streamline the process and spend less time in line.
• Loyalty Programs: Implement a loyalty program that rewards repeat customers with discounts, free items, or exclusive offers. This encourages customers to return and make more purchases.
• Ambiance and Environment: Create a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere in your coffee shop. Consider factors like decor, lighting, seating arrangements, and cleanliness to make your space inviting.

2. Make Your Brand Visible

• Online Presence: Create a professional website and maintain active profiles on social media platforms. Share engaging content, such as photos of your drinks or behind-the-scenes looks at your shop, to help grow a larger following.
• SEO and Local Listings: Optimize your website for search engines and ensure your business is listed on local directories like Google My Business. This helps customers find you easily online.
• Advertising: Invest in online and offline advertising. Use targeted ads on social media, Google, and local publications to reach potential customers in your area.
• Collaborations: Partner with local businesses, influencers, or community organizations. Cross-promotions and events can help you reach new audiences and build credibility.
• Events and Promotions: Host events such as coffee tastings, live music, or art displays to attract customers. Offer promotions during special occasions or slow periods to boost sales.

3. Build a Solid Reputation

• Accuracy: Focus on accurate order fulfillment and providing realistic pickup times for your customers. You want to build a reputation that your customers can trust your business.
• Consistency: Maintain consistent quality in your products and services. Ensure every customer has a positive experience, every time they visit.
• Engagement: Actively engage with your customers both in-person and online. Respond to reviews, comments, and messages promptly and professionally.
• Community Involvement: Get involved in your local community. Sponsor events, participate in local markets, or support local causes. This builds goodwill and establishes your brand as a community staple.

Customer Service: Train your staff to provide excellent customer service. Friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient service can significantly enhance the customer experience, leading to repeat business and positive reviews.

How To Make Your Coffee Shop More Sustainable

Once you’ve started building an audience, it’s important to set yourself apart and show how you support the community. Another important way to reduce costs and improve your reputation is to follow eco-friendly (or green) practices to eliminate unnecessary costs and resources. Here are four ways you can make your coffee shop more sustainable.

Use Sustainable Goods

Choose coffee beans and other ingredients that are ethically sourced and certified organic. Partner with suppliers who prioritize sustainability and fair trade practices.

Talk to local farmers and artisans so you can source regional goods directly from the source. This supports the local economy and provides fresh, high-quality ingredients for your menu.

Follow Green Practices

Switch to biodegradable or compostable packaging for to-go orders. Offer reusable mugs and plates for customers that plan to stay. Upgrade to energy-efficient appliances and lighting. 

If renovating or building a new location, use sustainable building materials and designs that maximize natural light and ventilation, reducing the need for artificial lighting and air conditioning. Install devices and coffee business equipment that will reduce energy and water use. 

Educate the Community

You can make a bigger impact when you share the knowledge! Start by making sure your staff understand the importance of conserving water and energy during daily operations. 

Host events or workshops on sustainability to educate your community while increasing brand visibility to draw new customers. Engage with local environmental groups to promote green initiatives and foster a culture of sustainability in your coffee shop.

Reduce Waste

Implement recycling and composting programs for coffee grounds, food scraps, and packaging materials. Encourage customers to bring their own reusable cups by offering a small discount.

Use a kitchen display system to reduce paper waste from printed tickets and improve your kitchen efficiency. This digital solution not only supports a more organized workflow but also aligns with eco-friendly practices by minimizing the need for paper.

What Are the Benefits of a KDS in a Coffee Shop?

A Kitchen Display System (KDS) can significantly enhance how a coffee shop manages orders.

Fresh KDS helped PJ’s Coffee get a better system in place, improving order accuracy and employee success. Read more about it in this case study.

Here are seven ways a KDS will help you increase coffee sales and improve operations.

1. Fewer Kitchen Errors

Misunderstanding something as simple as a milk substitute or pump flavor can lead to essentially pouring money right down the drain. How can you improve accuracy for your team? 

• Called out orders can be misheard or misunderstood
• Handwritten orders on cups can be hard to read on the fly
• Printed cup labels or paper tickets can get lost in the shuffle

A KDS clarifies the entire process, making it easy for your team to see drink modifications (like allergy alerts) and other important details (like the order type). Reducing mistakes in the kitchen with a better order display system will help eliminate the cost of remaking items and keep things flowing for your staff.

2. Improved Team Communication 

Orders are displayed digitally on screens in the preparation area. This ensures that every barista sees the same, clear information, including the order of items waiting to be prepared.

Not only will this reduce the number of miscommunications that occur with written or called-out orders, but standardizing the process also helps streamline employee training. Your baristas will feel more confident and less stressed when orders are clearly displayed in real-time on a screen.

3. Clear Order Prioritization and Updates

How should your team juggle online orders, to-go orders, and in-person orders when they don’t all take the same amount of time to create? A KDS can prioritize orders based on their preparation time and complexity, helping staff manage their workflow more efficiently during busy periods. Plus, a KDS offers real-time updates if something is changed on your point-of-sale system.

4. Multi-Station Management

Some coffee shops have several different stations to prepare things like hot coffee, smoothies, and bakery treats. Fresh KDS makes it possible to set up different stations on different screens so you can bump completed items from one station without disrupting the in-progress order on another station. This ensures items aren’t getting skipped and order progress isn’t halted when one machine or prep station is busy. 

Don’t need an assembly line setup? That’s fine too! With Fresh, you get to pick the screen communication style that best supports your operations.

5. Enable Timely Pick-Ups

You can increase coffee sales by letting customers order online ahead of time for pickup. This caters to people who want to skip the line when they are in a hurry or need a convenient way to make a larger group order. 

However, the temperature and freshness of drinks rely on timely pickups, so it’s crucial you have a setup in place that does more than provide an estimated time. Fresh KDS makes it possible to provide your customers with real-time order updates via text so they know exactly when they should arrive to grab their drinks. You can even set up a customer-facing screen to show which orders are ready and which ones are still being prepped by your team.

6. Clearer Business Insights

Optimizing your business requires data-driven insights about your operations. A KDS makes it possible to see into the granular details of order turnaround times. You may find that your average times seem long because they are skewed by pickup times for to-go orders. Or, you might find that during certain parts of the day, wait times are much higher because you are understaffed. We’ll help you look at the outliers and not just the overall picture to pinpoint where service can improve.

7. Happier Customers (Happier You)

At the end of the day, a KDS contributes to a better customer experience in a coffee shop setting. While your customers may not directly interact with your display screens, they’ll be able to benefit from a smoother order creation process and more confident employees. Your KDS should help you create the kind of atmosphere that makes people want to come back for more.