[AUS] Square Champion AMA: Turn Customers into Community Featuring Kat from Quokka Coffee

[tranguyen]

Hello Seller Community!

As part of our focus on Seller Community's Small Business Month, we're excited to feature Quokka Coffee for our next Super Seller AMA-style conversation.

Super Seller AMAs are “Ask Me Anything” forum discussions where you can ask business owners and experts about their strategy and lived experiences. Each event showcases a different Square Super Seller and the business topics they've mastered.

This month we welcome Kat, founder of Quokka Coffee, to host a discussion about the tangible benefits of exceptional customer service at your business. We're fortunate to have her share her experience with hospitality and community strategies, online and in-store presence, and Google review management — have a look at their 5-star ratings!

Kat’s the proud owner and operator of Quokka Coffee in Perth, Australia (@QuokkaCoffee in the Seller Community). She and her team have been working since August of 2021 to revolutionise the hospitality industry one coffee at a time by being radically empathetic and ruthlessly kind — to their guests, their vendors, and most importantly to each other.

Ready to participate? Post your questions to this thread now. Kat will address your posts on Wednesday, May 31.

Not sure what to ask? Here are some example questions: 

• How do I ensure that my customers experience consistent standards of service even while I am not present in my business?

• What three things did you wish you knew before you created social media profiles for your business?

• What's the difference between customer service and hospitality — and why does it matter for my small business?
  
  

Please note that Kat Alarkon is not an employee or consultant of Square. The information she provides solely reflects her views and is not endorsed by Square. This Q&A is limited in scope and is only intended as a high-level overview of the topics discussed.

Click 'Reply' below to ask your question ahead of time, and we’ll answer every question on Wednesday, May 31. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

[TheTurtleTribe]

What's the best way to leverage your social media community into actual sales, not just likes and follows?

[QuokkaCoffee]

I’m the wrong person to answer this question. 😞 I’m really bad at social media, and begrudgingly use Instagram and Facebook for work just to keep guests connected to the ‘brand’.

What we have had a lot of traction with is maintaining our Google Business profile. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have walked in saying, ‘I found you on Google Maps–your reviews are really good’, and who have walked out feeling like the hype was warranted. 

Not once in my hospitality career has anyone said, ‘Your Insta’s fire–lemme get that lunch special.’

Anyway, the former folks make up a fair bit of our passing trade–they may not be in the area often, but are aware we exist because of the platform and will make a point to visit when they’re around.

I’m of the opinion–and it’s not the most novel of ideas–that the cheapest marketing strategy is to take care of one’s existing client base, while organically growing via word of mouth/referrals. This is definitely easier said than done, especially for a cashflow-sensitive small business. But because of our higher price point and product quality, our caliber of guests is also quite high, which eliminates a lot of headaches that come from customers who are price- rather than value-focused. 

But yeah, scaling sales is hard. I think everyone struggles with it in one way or another. Consistency is a major selling point for us, because we know a lot of other venues take it for granted, and it pays dividends in our industry.

[acaibabyallday]

How did you grow your customer base?

Why did you choose this sit location?

How much money did you invest for opening a brick and mortar?

[QuokkaCoffee]

We grew our customer base by being our area’s most approachable, consistent, and passionate coffee nerds. 🙂 We’re by no means the cheapest, by my gosh, will you be treated like our long-lost best friend.

It chose me! I had an annual rent and landlord outgoings budget I wanted to meet, but most importantly I wanted to be as close to home and as many suppliers as possible because I still run around doing errands for the shop. On the odd 12 to 16 hour day, the last thing you want to do is sleep your way through a commute.

I’m also of the opinion that our industry needs to stop glorifying the long hours we’re known for working; it should not be a source of pride. Balance is paramount–spending time with loved ones is important. You’re a less effective figurehead if your life’s out of whack.

How much money did I invest? Just the right amount to get what I thought the shop needed in the short- and long-term. What we have is a mix of owned and leased equipment and fixtures, and coffee gear that I’d collected over my career. I opened the shop with what I thought was a fairly good cashflow starting point, which of course dwindled pretty quickly.

Our industry is not for the faint of heart, and I always tell people to mind their cashflow. Fancy gear and fitouts are great, but staying power is another game entirely.

I watched the owner of Narrative Coffee on YouTube recently, and his is a pretty accurate portrait of the style of shop we run. We’re not turning over nearly as much as they are, but the percentages are spot on.

And you really have to watch your numbers to make that 10% net.

Sidenote: what worked well for me, especially in the early days of fitout, were acknowledging my limitations in budget and skills. My local government has strict guidelines on how to open a bricks and mortar food business and because my landlord was leasing a literal blank slate, I knew hiring an architect and a builder (I think they’re called general contractors in North America?) meant I could outsource wrangling all the red tape I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with. 

Running a food business is a huge responsibility and requires ongoing effort, and when your pest control crew and health inspector look forward to visiting you because they’ll know it’ll be short and sweet… you’re sitting pretty.

[acaibabyallday]

*site 

[MikeKnight]

Kat,

What are the key points in managing the social media profile for your business?

[QuokkaCoffee]

I’m gonna refer you back to a similar question @TheTurtleTribe asked, but just to reiterate: I’m really bad at running our social media! I’m allergic to Instagram and Facebook, but we’re not in a position where we can afford to outsource this kind of promotion. It’s also an input-output thing. I’m just not convinced it’s where we should put our limited energy right now.

Whatever I post, whether it’s user generated content or our own, it’s often done haphazardly while I’m on shift because there are a million other priorities even for a business as small as ours.

What I do make time for is personally answering Google Reviews. In the early days of the business, I implemented some SEO and keyword strategies that took a little while to pay off but were pretty low-effort for the reward. Very un-sexy, non-flashy, I know, but these are the compromises you make when you lay the tracks as the train’s barrelling down.

We’re due for an audit and refresh pretty soon because we realized a lot of international arrivals were making us our first stop for coffee. It wasn’t something I anticipated when I opened since we’re a good 10-15 minutes away from the closest tarmac, but the team noticed a trend in visitors in-store and did a bit of probing, so now we’re developing a strategy to capture more of those sales.

And that’ll involve things like drafting Square blog posts with keywords like ‘airport coffee’ or ‘Perth International Airport’, and making sure when people boot up Google Maps and search ‘coffee near me’ that we’re in that radius somehow.

It’s a bit like throwing pasta at the wall in the hope it sticks. Fun, messy, and occasionally effective.

[lawnbrook]

Hi Kat,

What sorts of things are you doing to ensure repeat customers (tangible and intangible)

Bruce

[QuokkaCoffee]

Ooh, so many! I’ve alluded to a lot in the questions hopefully already posted, but something I believe I’ve forgotten to mention is really trusting my staff.

I’ve been a customer to so many businesses–brick and mortar, online, etc.–longer than I’ve been a small business owner, and I use my preferences to guide how we run the shop. Quokka Coffee’s just my excuse to show people it’s possible to be treated like more than just a number. 🙂

I know everyone’s strengths and limitations, and actively roster folks on to be compatible with each other, skills and rapport-wise. We’ve managed to get by with a two-person team per service for almost two years now. It’s tight enough to make people feel a little desperate, but not busy enough that one needs to find things to do to pass the time!

I also actively assess our capabilities on a weekly basis. For example, one week I had a choice between pushing our new rice bowls and taking an extra day off, or getting some hands on time training someone I’d felt I neglected the two weeks prior. I chose the latter, and I feel like the business is in a better shape in the long run.

I’m someone who used to keep everything in my head/in notes scattered across my desk/in the cloud, but before I even opened the shop I knew that way of working would be the biggest obstacle to scaling. I am very often my own bottleneck, and work every day to make sure this isn’t the case. 

Documentation of systems and procedures, despite how boring it sounds, and updating them as necessary really does make a difference. These allow my team to perform at the level I want them to, but leaves space for improvisation and autonomy.

Also being transparent with my team about the financials (a sensitive area for even the most seasoned of us), and what targets we need to maintain the shop's viability, and therefore their employment, has made them more confident in upselling or pushing certain specials.

YMMV though!