I don’t know about you, but I love meeting friends and business acquaintances for a cup of coffee, and often wonder what we did before we had the plethora of coffee shops that now exist in the U.K.
My favourite always used to be Caffe Nero. When I analysed that, it was because the service was consistently excellent in my local branch (I have blogged about them before), the coffee and snacks of a high quality, and I generally like the music they play in there. (A lot of jazz, in case you’re interested!)
I would always give Starbucks a wide berth – don’t ask me why – they just didn’t connect with me for some reason, and Costa was a good second choice if I couldn’t find a Caffe Nero. Apart from that, I liked the Whitbread brand (Costa’s parent company) because they also own Premier Inn, my favourite budget hotel chain in the U.K. Complicated individual, aren’t I? (Perhaps everyone’s like me – who knows?)
A few months ago I noticed that we had a new coffee shop in our local shopping mall. It was called Muffin Break, and I decided to give it a try. The service is friendly and efficient, the young people who work there are genuinely welcoming and the coffee and refreshments are great. I have now been back there six or seven times, and it has become my ‘default’ place for a coffee when I am in that part of the city centre. If I’m honest it’s because of the personalities of the people who work there.
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in a Costa Coffee for the first time in several months. I won’t be going back any time soon. It seems to me at the moment that Costa’s primary focus is on opening new branches – everywhere you look there is a new Costa coffee shop opening – and they have taken the focus off training their people to deliver great service. Whatever is happening, it doesn’t bode well for the future of the company, in my opinion, to be expanding at such a tremendous rate and taking their eye off the ball in other areas, such as quality of customer service.
Last week I was in London, meeting a business acquaintance for coffee. He suggested we meet in a Starbucks, so I agreed, somewhat reluctantly, but was very pleasantly surprised by the experience, and resolved that I would give Starbucks another try. Another friend had recently been waxing lyrical about Starbucks on Peterborough station, so I was beginning to warm to them again, when I heard the news story about their tax arrangements. So, now I have gone back to my default setting on Starbucks!
Strange phenomenon, branding, isn’t it?