Take care,

The NewBarista Team

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1903143/L3historyshortflash/L3historyshort.htm

1.  My wife, children and grandchildren are all healthy and doing well.
2.  I’m healthy and doing well.
3.  My daily relationships are enriching.
4.  Our new business is thriving.
5.  We have the best, most committed customers of any company on earth.

I wish you the very best this Christmas and in the new year!  I really do.

Take care!

These are exciting times!

Education, communications, publishing and marketing (to name a few) are morphing, combining and accelerating us into a future that we can only guess.

Consumers say:
- I’m too busy.
- Give it to me quickly, cheaply and easily.
- Don’t waste my time.
- Don’t try to “sell” me.
- I won’t buy it if I don’t understand it.
- I want to believe in the companies I do business with.
- Add value to MY life.

The old-style company responds:
- We have a great product.  Buy it now.

The old-style company’s response falls pathetically short in meeting the needs of both its customers and potential customers.

Today any 8 year old can use a phone, pad or computer to learn as much as she wants about anything in a matter of hours. 

Today people are quickly becoming accustomed to quickly getting the information(education) they need at that moment.  Period.

Today more people are looking for high integrity companies that educate them and relate to them both intellectually and emotionally.

Beware:
- Companies who “have the secret”.  For just $2,995 you can have the secret too.
- Companies who say, “We have the one and only right way.”
- Companies who say, “Pay now and you’ll understand why later.”
- Companies who just seem to be oblivious to your needs.

Since this is just a blog and even good rants can only last so long I’ll cut to the chase.

Though no one on this planet can accurately predict the future I’ll take my best shot.

In the future:
- Marketing will become more and more educational in nature.
- Authentic relationship between customers and companies will become critical.
- Knowledge will be ubiquitous.  If you are good everyone will know it.  If you are bad the same applies.
- Companies who don’t actively educate, communicate and consistently adapt to that dialogue will fail.

Below is a link to one of my former blogs which, I think, compliments this one.  A “twofer” so to speak.

http://bit.ly/w10iZH

Take care!

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
— Steve Jobs

Being first to market has its ups and downs.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to do something that everyone already “gets” like starting another barista training school or class. No thanks.

I’m proud of our customers and our people at NewBarista and I’m really excited about our current and future offerings for the coffee community.

But it’s even better when ASTD, the largest, most prestigious training organization in the country, acknowledges the high quality of NewBarista.  Below is a link to their article about NewBarista.

http://tinyurl.com/newbarista-astd

Take care!

In 1981 I worked for a fast growth, multi-location company that was in search of a new Chief Financial Offer.  In anticipation of an impending IPO and a future of explosive growth they needed an experienced, savvy strategic person to manage the finances.

The president of the company was the ultimate decision maker for the hire and he had one question for each of the CFO candidate finalists, “What’s 2 + 2 equal?”

Only one of the candidates gave the “correct” answer and was hired immediately.  The new CFO answered the president’s question with his own question, “What do you want it to equal?”

If there is a moral here it might be that numbers are not as stone cold objective as some of us may think.  Balance sheets, surveys, physics equations, etc. can be and are regularly influenced by the human logic, biases and agendas of their creators.  They are not absolute.

Now this is a dubious introduction to my topic today which is the cost/value of barista training.  But, hey, let me throw some numbers out to you but feel free to replace my numbers with your own.

Every good budget begins with assumptions so let’s get those down first. BTW, most of these assumptions come from some of my former blogs if you are interested in my logic behind the assumptions.

Assumptions:

1. It takes 40 hours of training before a new barista reaches minimal competency.
2. A typical barista interacts with 40 customers per work shift.
3. The average gross income per customer is $4.00.
4. Your success is dependent upon return customers.  Return customers = relationship.
5. Great barista + great drinks + great service + good location + decent building = return customers.
6. Average baristas earn $10 per hour + tips
7. Average barista turnover = 75%
8. Consistency of training = consistency of operations (drink quality, customer service, cleanliness, etc.)
9. The most effective training occurs as closest to the actual workplace.

Okay, at this point, feel free to change any or all of the above assumptions to conform with your opinion because I’m moving on.

Summary of assumptions: The success of your business is dependent upon the quality of relationships between your baristas and your customers.  Since the average barista turnover rate is 75% you are in the barista training business, like it or not.

Common Solutions

1.  The “shadow method”. This method pairs a new barista with an experienced barista.  The new barista follows (shadows) the experienced around, observing, asking questions, and trying out new behaviors until they feel ready to solo.

Upsides:

• It’s way better than nothing.
• Probably gives the new barista a sense of the company culture and the importance of their job.

Downsides:

• Inconsistency
• Not scalable
• Not measurable
• Little or no documentation

2.  The “barista school” method. This method involves sending “key people” to a 3-5 day class of “intensive training”.  Some barista schools will come to you.

Upsides:

• Usually some very good materials in the form of books, manuals and DVDs.
• Usually some individual attention from the trainer.

Downsides:

• Mostly managers or trainers attend.
• Learning transference to the workplace is low and inconsistent.
• Too costly for most individual baristas.
• Not scalable
• Not measurable
• Too far from the actual workplace

3.  The “company training center” method. This method is mostly found in mid-sized,  growing companies.  It involves hiring a Director of Training, creating curriculum and providing a “training center”.

Upsides:

• New barista is immersed in the company culture and vision
• If management and training are cooperating, training is reinforced back at the store

Downsides:

• The Director of Training is almost always a “coffee expert”.  Hence, little or no experience in curriculum design, learning methods or facilitation and quality suffers.
• The repetitiveness of continually repeating the same information wears on the trainer.
• Scalable only until the company grows to a certain point geographically.  After that, training effectiveness and operational efficiencies begin to decline.

The NewBarista Solution. The NewBarista solution is a “blended” approach that is flexible and cost effective for any size of coffee business.  NewBarista utilizes:

• Online training to deliver the repetitive, cognitive information.
• Online testing and certification of cognitive information.
• Mobile job aids to bring the “hands-on” learning to the work station.
• Performance Checklists for trainers, managers and learners.
• A Learning Management System for each manager to track their baristas’ training progress.
• Live, classroom training when appropriate.

Upsides:

• Cost effective
• Scalable. Anywhere, any time.
• Measurable
• Flexible. All or part of the NewBarista solution can be incorporated into all of the above solutions.
• Customizable
• Created by professional training and coffee experts
• Meets the learning needs and styles of the 18-35 year old barista

Downsides:

• Requires an owner or company to rethink the training strategy.

Like I said, my numbers. My biases.  My beliefs.  Try out your own numbers and draw your own conclusions.

“Any solution is better than none at all.”  Anonymous.

Take care!

baristatrainer

I’ve lived with this quote for 15 years and I’ve shared it more than once in my blog.  Because I value it so much and personally continue to grow one-day-at-a-time I want to take a little closer look at it.

Growth
- Everyone will say that they want to grow.  If you aren’t growing you’re dying.  If you do not want to grow personally and in your business please stop reading now.  It’s not for you.
- The price of growth is nearly always minimized.  Especially by business and people who aren’t growing.

Change
- The alcoholic’s definition of insanity is, “Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”
- To grow is to change.
- The most difficult part of change is NOT bringing on new thoughts or behaviors.  The most difficult part of change is getting rid of old thoughts or behaviors.  Please reread this bullet point as many times as it takes for you to understand.

Loss
- Permanently discarding old thoughts and behaviors initially creates a sense of loss.  You don’t like it. It’s caused you anguish over and over but it is familiar.  You’ve learned how to “live with it”.
- Weird but true.  We don’t want to let go of old thoughts and behaviors even though we know that we know that they are unhealthy.  They are part of our “comfort zone”.  Really?
- In order to grow we’ve got to say a permanent “goodbye” to the old.

Pain
- Pain is a product of realizing that:
– the new is better
– the old has got to go and then actually letting go
– adapting new behaviors and processes means you are out of your “comfort zone”.  At first that is new and scary.  It can feel awkward.
– you and/or your business are not all you should be and the only way to grow is to let go of the old and embrace the new.

Having spent my last 30 years working with fast growth, multi-location businesses I marvel at how glamorous it seems to appear to outsiders.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have no regrets.

But the high velocity of growth has forced myself and colleagues to work through more change, loss and pain than the “average bear”. 

In this world you will experience change, loss and pain.  Unavoidable.  My hope for you is that you choose to grow and, by making that choice, leverage the change, loss and pain to your advantage.  Your choice.

Take care.

In the beginning was a person.  And the person did the easy thing, he spoke.  But there were no other people.  No one to listen.  He was alone.

Time passed and then there was another person.  When the first person spoke she did the harder thing, she listened and responded.

At first the first person was surprised and then delighted.  He responded to her comment. The beginning of dialogue.

Over time more and more people came to be and dialogue increased.  The combined result of all of these conversations is what we call “history”.

Jump forward to 1988. No email.  Just faxes, Federal Express, telephone and voicemail.  Voicemail was new and exciting.  Now a person could be 2 places at once, a live meeting and a simulated dialogue.

In 1988 Westin Hotels and Resorts was legendary for its customer service.  Westin understood that its success was dependent upon its customer service.   There was “the 24 hour rule”.  (More like a law really.)  “The 24 hour rule” was that we would always, always get back to a customer inquiry within 24 hours. Period.  This was, even then, an old fashioned notion called “Integrity”.

Fast forward to today.  Busy!!  Overwhelmed with email, voicemails, tweets, and on and on, we:
- ignore
- postpone
- lie
- pretend
- avoid

Self defense.  Survival requires us to reduce and/or eliminate as much dialogue as possible.  This low integrity approach eats at us daily because, deep down, we know better.

Result:  We yearn for authentic dialogue with others but we are experiencing less and less.  We are becoming alone.  Again.

At NewBarista I promise you that we will always get back to you within 24 hours.  Guaranteed. We exist to serve you and the needs of your business.  Anything less is failure.

Options:
1. support@newbarista.com
2. Free Sign Up
3. Request for Free Consultation

Let me know how we’re doing.  paul@newbarista.com

Take care!

Facts:
- The success of your coffee company is dependent upon your ability to create and grow the number of return customers.
- 2 primary factors will determine your success: the daily customer experience and the quality of your product, in that order.
- Your barista is “the face” of your business.  They determine the quality of both primary factors.  Hence they determine the future of your business.
- Average turnover rate for baristas is between 60% and 90%.  Let’s settle on 70% for now.

Conclusion: Like it or not, your success is dependent upon your ability to continually and consistently train and develop your baristas.

Believe it or not there are many coffee shop owners who haven’t even realized these facts.  Painful.  Just ask them.

Common solutions (Whatever the Heck):
- The owner or senior barista train new employees.
- Hire a “barista champion” to conduct a one time class or to come aboard as the training director.
- Send the owner and/or senior barista to a 3-5 day one time class.
- Have the new barista “shadow” other baristas for a few days and then put them to work.
- Create a manual and require all new baristas to read it.

Conclusion: Based upon my 30 years of experience there are so many fallacies with doing whatever the heck that I could fill at least one book.  But not today.

Data from an old, 2007, study by the Babson Survey Research Group and The Sloan Consotium:
- Almost 3.5 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2006 term; a nearly 10 percent increase over the number reported the previous year.
- The 9.7 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.5 percent growth of the overall higher education student population.
- Nearly twenty percent of all U.S. higher education students were taking at least one online course in the fall of 2006.

Facts:
- Today, online training is becoming a requirement, not a frill.
- Online training is consistent and measurable.
- Online training is cost effective, much less expensive than classroom training.
- Online training cannot and will not ever completely replace some live, in-person coaching and feedback.
- Online training can be delivered anywhere, anytime on a computer, mobile phone or digital pad.

Conclusion:
- You’re not in the coffee business.  You are in the people business.
- Relationships are everything.
- The quality of relationship between you and your barista and your customer means success or failure.

NewBarista offers you an affordable, effective, measurable, consistent, high quality entry point to the future that is now at our doorstep.  Let us help you.

Take care!

*Here is the link if you want to read the whole Babson Report.  k20.internet2.edu/files/userfiles/108-online_nation.pdf

For the past week I’ve had, rolling around in my head, several dozen conversations I had at Coffee Fest in Seattle.  The conversations were with specialty tea purveyors, equipment distributors, various ‘grab-n-go’ food providers and, oh yeah, coffee shop owners and operators.

What I can’t seem to let go of is the similar pattern that each of these conversations followed.  Below is an example.

Vendor:  Hi! What questions do you have (about my product)?

Paul:  What is it?  or What does it do? or some such thing.

Vendor:  Our product is unique because…(the 5 minute exhibitor’s pitch. Often quite passionate.).

Paul:  So, who is your customer?

Vendor:  Why, coffee shops.

Paul:  But who ultimately delivers your product to the coffee shop customer?

Vendor:  Well, the barista.

Paul:  Okay, how important is it to you that the barista represent your product well?

Vendor: It’s essential to our success.

Paul: So how are you communicating what you just told me (the 5 minute pitch) to every barista?

Vendor: Well….we’re not………We have this brochure……We have a website…….

Surely you can understand why these conversations have bugged me so much.  Without downrating the importance of the proformas, business plans, site selection, product evaluation, equipment, etc., ultimately it always has been and always will be about the barista.

Having spent decades creating and delivering barista training that equips the barista with the skills and knowledge for success while also, hopefully, inspiring passion for the product I still see such room for improvement.

NewBarista is in the business of bringing the highest quality training to you anytime, anywhere, online or live, instructor-led.

Okay, I think I feel a little better now.  Thanks for listening.

Take care!

The past 30 years of teaching, training, educating have made me less certain about most things and more certain about a handful of things.  I trust theories and philosophies less and lean most heavily on what I have personally experienced knowing that it is limited but dependable.

One of the few topics I’m still passionately certain of is the subject of trainers.  Who is a great trainer?  What type of person are they?  What makes them so effective?  How did they become a great trainer?  Are great trainers born or can they be developed?

Here are a few training truths I am confident of:
1.  Anyone can become a competent trainer.  A small percentage can become great trainers.
2.  Since the most impactful training occurs day to day, hour to hour we all should be developing our 
abilities to continually train ourselves and others.
3.  Great performers seldom make great trainers.
4.  There is no correlation between personality type (extraverted vs. introverted) and training ability.
5.  Great trainers care deeply about helping others.
6.  “Experts” seldom make great trainers.
7.  Trainers are addicts.  They are addicted to that “moment of realization” when a learner “gets it”.
8.  There is a strong correlation between great training and great leadership.
9.  Every company has talented trainers in its ranks.
10. Competent and even great trainers from within the “rank and file” can be identified and developed.

But let’s set trainers aside for a moment. 

What if you realized one day that your company needed great long distance runners?  What if you distributed shorts and shoes to all of your employees and asked them to run a 5K race?

My prediction is that you would discover that some of your employees, regardless of their daily job, are amazingly good runners.  If you repeated this process occasionally you will discover that you may even have a world-class runner in your ranks.

See the connection? 

You cannot afford not to train.  Your customers, employees, suppliers and bottom line depend on your ability to train.  You know I am not exaggerating.

A training-centered company culture is dependent on your understanding that your best trainers are already here, right in front of you.  If you can identify and develop them you can transform your business.

Your choice.

Take care!