Research on UK coffee chains, customers seem quite satisfied

[Odello]

Hi everybody,

at the end of the last week I received the following press release about a research on UK coffee chains. It seems customers are quite satisfied about the quality and the service. Your comments are welcome, as usual.

Take care,

Carlo

---- PRESS RELEASE BEGINS ----

Costa Coffee is Voted “Best Coffee Chain By Customers”

him! is delighted to announce that Costa Coffee has been voted Best Coffee Chain as voted for by customers.

Each year him! speaks to thousands of customers using the following coffee chains; Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Caffe Nero and Coffee Republic as part of him!’s Coffee Chain Customer Tracking Programme.

him! speaks to customers on entry to the outlet to understand why they are there, who they are with, what they are buying and how they rate the branch.

We then speak to customers on exit so that we can understand the customers’ experience of the chain and failed or impulse purchases.

him! asks customers to rate the coffee chains based on their experience here today on following criteria and we are delighted to announce that Costa Coffee scored the highest out of all the coffee chains.

How would you rate (out of 10) this chain on the following based on your experience here today?

Coffee Chains | Average | Costa Coffee
Quality of hot drinks 8.2 8.8
Choice of cold drinks 8.0 8.5
Choice of food items 7.7 7.9
Time to queue here today 8.1 8.7
Speed of service here today 8.2 8.8
Friendliness of staff here today 8.5 9.0
Ambience / Atmosphere 8.2 8.8
Cleanliness of counter 8.4 9.0
Cleanliness of tables 8.3 9.0
Overall value for money 7.7 8.1

---- PRESS RELEASE ENDS ----

[CakeBoy]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not intending to 'chain bash' here, though I wonder how these customers would rate the 'big boys' if they had ever been into a good indie ....... not in the eights and nines I'm sure. The fact that the poll was of an 'exit' type at coffee chain stores rather makes it more representative of what is likely to be largely a satisfied repeat customer base for that level of product than an objective overview of coffee drinkers generally.

Mini rant over .......

Edit: Oh, btw, for what it's worth, Costa is also my favourite of all the UK chains .....

[Jasonscheltus]

Forgive me if I misunderstand this study...

But it shows that people return to cafes they are satisfied with?? I mean, if they were anything less than satisfied with the service (or quality of coffee), then surely they wouldn't be there for the survey. Have I understood this correctly?

I like the 9/10 for friendly staff... that's nice.

[bruceb]

Being satisfied with coffee is apparently very personal. I had dinner in a nice restaurant in SF a few years ago, ordered an espresso and was served a full demitasse of some strange brown liquid that tasted like overdosed instant. I noticed another guest drinking his espresso and as we were leaving I asked him how he liked the coffee. "I'm an espresso drinker," he said, "I only go to restaurants that serve espresso." (actually, I think he said "expresso.") So I asked him again, "How did you like this espresso." He shrugged and said, "Espresso is espresso! Black and bitter. That's the way I like it." In fact, however, it was brown and not black and it wasn't even really bitter, but rather had a chemical aftertaste.

I don't really know what to make of this research. It seems to show that people have little valuation for good coffee, that friendly service and other things make up for poor quality and/or that people just wouldn't know a good cup if they got one or just don't care.

[Hugo]

A similar poll conducted outside Burger King, MacDonalds et al would turn up a winner and score similarly meaningless results... It's a tragic fact of life in the UK, we as a country lap up thoroughly mediocre chain store offerings and rate them far higher than they deserve.

Anyone with an understanding of food & drink wouldn't even go through the front door.

And who the hell are 'him!'? Yet another me too glossy, no doubt aimed at the sort of people who thinks Costas makes a decent cup of coffee...

Shite... I can hardly believe I've bothered to comment.

[tap]

that is. someone with some authority in respectable food&drink magazine etc (other than Him! who??) shoud go aroung writing seriously about this. like they do with fine dining and stuff since paper was invented.

someone with some public authority(read charm) might get something to the great public that might change something about this issue..

is there anyone writing/talking about coffee to great public?? with some expertice

[Odello]

that is. someone with some authority in respectable food&drink magazine etc (other than Him! who??) shoud go aroung writing seriously about this. like they do with fine dining and stuff since paper was invented.

someone with some public authority(read charm) might get something to the great public that might change something about this issue..

is there anyone writing/talking about coffee to great public?? with some expertice

In 2008 in Italy Altroconsumo, the most important Italian indepedent consumers association, carried out a research in 2008 on the quality of historical coffee shops in Rome and Milan. The International Institute of Coffee Tasters gave its technical support. The evaluated items were more or less the same as in the Him! research. The most important 10 historical coffee shops in Milan were put in comparison with the most 10 in Rome. Rome won the challenge, although the average evaluation was not that exciting. In the same year the Internation Institute of Coffee Tasters carried out a research on more than 900 coffee shops all around Italy, evaluating the quality of the service and of the coffee. In that case most of the coffees were evaluated as just ordinary.

[tap]

[quote="]

In that case most of the coffees were evaluated as just ordinary.

seems to me that from the owners of most shops to general public trendy interior and groovy staff is the main concern and coffee mostly equals caffeine. people need to be educated!! atleast the case here. like with wines. wine consumption has greatly increased related to beer and vodka. doesn`t happen without effort.

do these ratings change anything??

[bruceb]

Trying to make a living running a café or restaurant is like walking on thin ice. A good location is most important and costs big money. Clientele can be unreliable and fickle and generally they are far more interested in groovy staff, trendy interior and almost everything but good coffee. As a consequence shop owners put an emphasis on interior and staff, etc. because they will break through the ice if customers stay away. You can hardly expect business people to educate the public. The public generally doesn't want to be educated. The public wants paper cups of hot liquid and/or fancy lighting and weird furniture. Try to explain to Joe Public that good coffee is something else and you get blank stares and empty chairs. Mark Twain said: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. You won't succeed and you'll only irritate the pig."

[tap]

You can hardly expect business people to educate the public. The public generally doesn't want to be educated. The public wants paper cups of hot liquid and/or fancy lighting and weird furniture.

and therefore mr.grower´s family is hungry all the time or growinc cocaine or khat instead.

completely agree the pig singing.. not expecting the business people educating the pig to sing either. needed more savvy ways. like media creating a trend/need/movement to speciality coffee.

[mattmills]

Bruceb is spot on.
If is easy to bang on about better coffees, but even within the coffee trade it is difficult to find an agreement on good coffees, and what is a specialty coffee. This is one of the succesful reasons behind the certified coffees... it isnt a matter of taste but simply a logo. That is an easy sell.

There always has been and there always will be a market for better quality / tasting coffees, but it doesnt mean that this will translate into the main stream.
We talk about wine education having increased over the years, but it this true or simply that to have a range of wines in your wine rack is more of a status symbol, with the majority of people not having much of a clue about the flavour profiles of each wine / region / grape.

It is also very important to point out that mr. grower is far less effected by specialty coffee than one might think. The price of coffee is unstable and always will be there are many times due to market forces that a bog standard commercial coffee will be sold at a higher price than a specialty coffee. The key to Mr. Grower is not about educating them about Specialty coffee but simple good practices, cost reduction and efficiant. But then again this is a very hard sell, especially after years of being told that the selling price is the most important aspect of growing coffee.

[tap]

dearst matt,bruceb: spots on. swimming upstream near pointless. wishing world to be fair equally more pointless..

[bruceb]

Well, not quite: I've been swimming upstream for well more than half a century, but it has been my experience that it isn't usually very useful to try to convince anyone else to swim upstream. And as long as I can buy, roast and drink great coffees the world is quite fair. It would really be unfair if people who didn't want to had to drink great coffees, or?

But at the same time, wishing that things were different than they are is quite normal. It would be most enjoyable if I could go to a restaurant, have a good meal and then be served a good espresso. It just doesn't happen here in Germany, or only very rarely. That is, in fact, why I am so enamoured with Italy. I may not get latte art, I may not get a higher-being shot, but I can get a good, drinkable espresso after a meal almost everywhere. I guess if I valued that enough I'd move there, but putting wheels under this 4-story house doesn't seem practical.

[mattmills]

Being an exporter / trader at origin, swimming uphill is part of the job, especially here in Colombia.
Spending 90% of the day putting stunning coffees in front of buyers and getting them to like or love the coffee is one thing, getting them to pay up for it is another thing completely different.
I have the same conversation with my producer groups who constantly ask me what is a specialty coffee and try and convince me that their coffee deserves that premium.
The only answer im afraid is that it all depends on the end consumer being willing to pay in the shop. At the end of the day my opinion, the opinion of the buyer, even the opinion of the shop owner of that coffee is neither here nor there. If the consumer is not going to pay for it, it counts for nothing.

Trying to educate the consumer on taste is a pretty much a non starter, because the majority of people either cant taste or simply have more important things to think about (job, family). The decor of a coffee shop or the packaging of a product generally has a far greater impact and is certainly easier, hence the comment regarding certification. The popularity of latte art is a prime example.

There are and always will be those who take a great enjoyment in these aspects of life (the people on this website for one), such as coffee, tea, whiskey, food, wine etc. But these will never be the majority and our values and enjoyment in life can not be pushed onto others.

[tap]

good reading. there being little point to things encourages on swimming upstream. never stop doing it(catching a breath occasionally maybe)

there is examples in kind of educating/creating a trend on certain high end goods to majority. happens in japan. this kind of action empties shelves of avocados and fills certain cafes for a periods of time. this kind of hype evens eventually near the normal point. or the provider reacts to meet created need and the balance appears?. standard in food/drink is relatively high in japan though. far ahead what it is here. (sorry messy text,thoughts scattered around) effort spend on good things appreciated. wish people would pay for what things are worth. that is off somewhere else though..for majority. think most people have one or two of those. be it coffee, whisky or old cars on top of the family etc...

need to roast.