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

[Tom]

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 revolutionize 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!

[crystalshopfe]

2 part question regarding employee acquisition and retention:

1.  How do you suggest/ go about hiring associates that ultimately fit into your company's dynamic? 

2. What kinds of things do you suggest/do for your employees to keep them "happily" employed?

[QuokkaCoffee]

Part I. I make it stupidly hard to get a job with us, and I don’t call them ‘associates’. Haha! If you have a look at the ‘Join Our Crew’ form on our website, it’ll take you to a 30+ short answer questionnaire that involves a personality test, divulging your horoscope (something I initially asked for the LOLs but has grown to be an oddly valuable data set), an anecdote about your favorite food growing up, and one’s thoughts on the local hospitality scene, to name a few. 

As of right now, we have three Tauruses, a Virgo, a Gemini, and… well, I’ll let you guess who the Capricorn is.

Any applicants invited for an in-person interview and trial are then assessed against existing staff members for fit and skill level.

You can tell a lot about a person’s upbringing based on how they handle a broom and mop; you may also be the right candidate on the surface, but if you don’t click with the rest of the crew, we pass.

I almost exclusively hire based on attitude and not experience: I can teach you how to make a killer coffee; I can’t teach you how to treat your fellow humans with kindness and empathy.

Even after all that, hiring is still a crapshoot. We’ve gotten it absolutely wrong more times than I can count, and I still think about the people I’ve had to let go because the dynamic just wasn’t working.

Less than a week ago, I had to let go of someone I’d promoted into a leadership position–who was otherwise an excellent worker and had built great rapport with all of our guests–but wasn’t performing, and wasn’t right for the vision we have for the business moving forward. 

Part II. I do the grunt work with my team. 🙂 We’re all all-rounders who can specialize in pulling shots/steaming milk/doing kitchen prep, etc., and I think it goes a long way, especially in an industry like hospitality, if owners can pull their weight in the trenches when needed.

I’ve heard one too many stories of absentee owners/micromanaging supervisors who drive good staff, good people, away from jobs they’d otherwise be committed to. This is literally the only reason I now find myself in the ridiculously fortunate position of having a manager who I’m now grooming to take over day to day ops, and with whom I’m happy to offer shares in the company tied to performance metrics we’ve mutually agreed on.

There’s also basic things like paying them the federally mandated minimum wage (or slightly above it!) on time, actually contributing to their superannuation (i.e. employer-subsidized retirement funds), adding extra hours to their paycheck if we’ve had a good week (because a ‘bonus’ is taxed differently to ‘ordinary hours’), and occasionally throwing in fuel or remedial massage vouchers. More than the annual Christmas party or the occasional brunch get-together, I know money more than anything else talks.

I also just straight up ask them, ‘Are you happy with where you’re at right now? How can we get you to where you want to go?’

The former is something I picked up from my parents, and it’s so thoroughly disarming that you really have to stop and think and be uncomfortable with it–and by ‘it’, I mean being honest, both to yourself and an authority figure.

I like leaning into vulnerability like that. 🙂